Single or Married?

Fascinating.

My post on the experience of my young relative who was asked whether she was married or single in a tech interview has triggered quite a conversation in LinkedIn and other social media outlets.

A majority agree that asking questions on marital status, plans for kids (?!!), race, sexual orientation, religion is not cool when interviewing for a job.

But there are some who seem to be on a different planet altogether. Particularly interesting were a couple of responses that “married women” cannot handle the pressure of a tech startup.

I cannot believe I have to spell this out, but here you go:

Ability to handle pressure has nothing to do with married or being unmarried. I can argue that folks who juggle home, careers, kids, life in general are better at stress management than those who do only one thing. Key is to learn how to hire better people WITHOUT these biases. Hire great people, treat them well, and they will stay with you through thick and thin.

And yes, I know Indian startups have horror stories of their own. I sympathize with that, but the solution is not to hire with biases. Its to fix your recruiting process so you can hire motivated, passionate folks who care about your company and who have the smarts. And give them the infrastructure to succeed.

It takes a village to raise a child. If we built systems that allows women and men to work while taking care of their kids, they would not have to drop off. Do things like mothers room, pregnant women parking, subsidize day care, allow people to bring kids to work (it sounds radical but it works), flexible work hours, and the money you spend in these systems will be more than paid off in retention, high productivity and ability to attract amazing talent.

I may sound idealistic. But idealism is always a good starting point to building greatness.