Software engineer & founder of @RailsBridge and @LivableCode. Currently stirring the pot at @SalesforceUX. She/her. 
Twitter at the speed of parenting
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Thinking about staff as “property that can be stolen” places the locus of control externally - e.g. “everything was fine until GoogBook STOLE them!”
You’re making it GoogBook’s fault that an employee left. Oh well, nothing you could do about that, right??
Instead of thinking about them as property, it may be helpful to think about them as individuals with free will - who will vote with their feet when it comes to the quality of your workplace.
Thinking about your staff as individuals with free will places the locus of control internally, e.g. “we couldn’t offer them what GoogBook did.” That is where you want the responsibility to lay if you’re serious about retention.
And if you’re a business who wants to maximize profits long term, you should be serious about retention. More and more, I suspect that being serious about retention - for everyone - is absolutely required to build diverse teams.
Among many other things, of course. But a culture of disposable employees often means the folks from underrepresented groups leave more quickly and more often.
A couple folks pointed out that Palantir engages in deeply unethical behavior, & so perhaps folks are better off being “stolen” - undoubtedly true. But a crucial point often missed is that lack of diversity is a big part of what _gives rise_ to unethical behavior.
See also: uber, facebook, google, etc. Groupthink & speed at all costs (the latter being the “advantage” of homogeneity) is what allows unethical behavior to take root in your company culture.
This is part of why it’s important to have diversity be a founding principle of your company. You might make money with a homogenous team - you might even ‘change the world,’ as it were - but you’ll be a net negative for society.
Stop trying to ‘change the world.’ Start trying to make it better.
Jim Lawson (strategist to Dr. King, Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike ++) heard sanitation workers call their workplace "The Plantation." Lawson borrowed their term to coin term "Plantation Capitalism"— USA system where working people aren't treated as human, because they work.
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) your “diverse staff” (