Applied is not a supportive environment to women (and POCs) - Anonymous employee Applied Intuition Employee Review

Hey – I’m one of the founders of the company. It's a little tough for me to reply with all my thoughts here because anything I write online will be interpreted to represent the company, and in this case you are anonymous but I am not. I get lunch at the picnic tables with the team most days, and I'm happy to be more open with my thoughts over lunch. First, quick items -- 1) our parental leave policy is 12 weeks at 100% pay (we changed that a while ago and there's already a number of folks who have used that or plan to use it shortly) including continuation of vesting stock on leave which is above market; 2) our 2022 holiday schedule was set before Juneteenth became a federal holiday -- it'll be on the holiday schedule next year. This was communicated internally before your post but you must just not have seen it. Second, we absolutely care about diversity. We can always do better but I’m personally very proud of how diverse our team is. 77% of senior managers and 68% of all managers are people of color, and the majority of employees worldwide are people of color. That is something that is objectively exceptional about Applied and doesn’t happen randomly. Aside from being a minority led business, in the US alone, 65% of Applied employees are people of color. Outside of the US, we have offices/entities in Japan, Korea, Canada, Germany, and Sweden with employees representing each of those regions and cultures. Regarding gender diversity, we understand that (like most software engineering companies) we have a lot of work to do. The recruiting teams have been working very hard on this and I’m sure every member would be happy to sit down with you to go over everything they are doing to recruit more female candidates (particularly on the tech side). The fact we’re not making public posts doesn’t mean we don’t care, which brings me to the third point. Third, as a part of having such a diverse team (diverse in nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, and political beliefs) we have a policy that we don't talk about current affairs at work. There's an important post that we link in every offer letter that explains this in detail: https://applied.co/focus . I'll copy/paste the last part from that post: "We understand that our relentless speed and focus isn’t for everyone but it does not mean that our team members do not care about social issues or that they do not engage in, and advocate for, social issues outside of work. What it does mean is that when we are working, we are 100% focused on our work." The reason we link this in every offer letter is to correctly set expectations on how we approach business before someone even decides they want to join the company. The topic of Roe v Wade is deeply personal for both of us founders and our families. Let me say that it is very likely that my views align with yours (on this, on gun violence, on broader healthcare policy, etc), but we as founders hold ourselves to the same standards that apply to everyone at Applied and we do not broadcast our political views or views on current affairs at work – for the US or in our offices abroad like Japan, Germany, Korea and Sweden. Your comment calling the current Women of Applied community "pathetic" saddens me. This undermines any efforts to maintain and increase female presence. I encourage you to reach out and become part of these efforts instead of putting them down. We can always do better. We’ll keep on-the-lookout for opportunities to broaden representation at Applied. As I mentioned before, you can find either of us almost any day to talk about this live. I personally want you to join our efforts to do better.