A long time ago I wrote this little thing and
I just re-read it and
I still stand by it;
ham-fisted indifference is the saturation stain of arrogance and slimy irreverence in a culture; a signal to the dehumanised that they still mean nothing.
Please continue reading, it's good for you!
The global survey
On the 7th of October, 2020 - the team at Slack posted a thing on their blog, which discusses "New data from a global survey of more than 9,000 knowledge workers".
In the article, the term global is used to misrepresent the survey data. The survey was not global because only people in the following continents were surveyed:
- North America
- Europe
- Asia
- Australia
We see this also, when presenting the data on a World Map®; further indicating that the authors don't use global as it relates to 'whole of the set of knowledge workers which were surveyed', but rather as it relates to 'the whole world'. This is a misrepresentation of 'the geographical distribution of the whole set of knowledge workers which were surveyed'.
By using the term global as an aggregate for "America, Asia, Australia and Europe" is not only misleading, but - when considering the context of the article: remote work and working from home; it is stark reminder that cultural hegemony in the workplace pervades the very homes of the very people marginalised by it.
To add insult to injury, the presentation of the survey data on the World Map® exemplifies the ham-fisted indifference to Africa and South America by placing labels for European and North American statistics directly on top of Africa and South America.
Slack's idea of global doesn't include three of the continents on this planet
To me, this says "While South America & Africa do exist, on some level, not one thing that anyone has to say on either continent really matters".
At least they removed Antarctica
You may have noticed that Antarctica was not included in the survey and was removed altogether from the World Map®. As confusing as the decision to exclude Antarctica from the World Map®, at least it was given some thought. Maybe Slack should have just removed South America and Africa? Oh wait, but then where would the labels go?
I keep updating this shit
Over the years I've been updating to better express myself and the consequences of this terrible thingy that I'm writing about. I'll keep at it until I'm satisfied. At this stage, there are a lot of ways in which I can improve this doc and I will continue doing so :) It's so infuriating to write about and it's an extremely emotional topic for me, so I can only spend short amounts of time on it.
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