Bethanye Blount, Reddit Chief Engineer, Quits Soon After Pao’s Resignation, Feels Pao Was Placed on a “Glass Cliff”
She was with reddit for two months before quitting.
The storm seems to be growing stronger around reddit as its Chief Engineer, Bethanye Blount, leaves the company only two months after she moved there from Facebook. It’s especially worrying to see that reddit has lost another top female employee after Victoria Taylor was fired and Ellen Pao resigned.
According to re/code, Blount said her reasons for leaving were twofold. She said, “I feel like there are going be some big bumps on the road ahead for reddit. Along the way, there are some very aggressive implied promises being made to the community — in comments to mods, quotes from board members — and they’re going to have some pretty big challenges in meeting those implied promises.”
In the time between Taylor’s firing and now, a lot of the reddit higher-ups have been taking to comments and posts to let them know that they’re working on giving moderators the tools they need to properly manage their subreddits. They’ve also promised to work on curbing harassment. However, Blount doesn’t believe they can deliver on these promises.
Additionally, she said that she left because she believed Pao was placed on a “glass cliff,” which is a term that describes a woman who’s been set up to fail by being placed in leadership roles when there’s a crisis going on. Blount said, “Victoria wasn’t on a glass cliff. But it’s hard for me to see it any other way than Ellen was.” It’s important to note that she also said, “I wouldn’t say my decision to leave was directly related to my gender.”
What does this mean for reddit? Unsure. With the amount of dust that’s been kicked up recently, who knows where it’s going to be. What do you think, crew?
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