Sexism and harassment at the workplace

[Spider-Dan]

As I said, repeatedly deleting someone else's code without comment or explanation is a big deal in and of itself.  That alone should earn him a trip to HR, regardless of who he's doing it to.

Now, if it turns out that he's just been deleting her code and not others' as well?  Goodbye, enjoy your exciting new employment opportunities.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^ Only if you can prove motivation, as opposed to sheer ignorance.  He's going to plead the "i didn't know" card, or whatever.  He deserves a stern reprimand, perhaps probation.  A second infraction would likely lead to termination.

Repeatedly accidentally deleting someone else's code that you don't like, is sufficient evidence of motivation.  You don't have to take his word on it, you can judge from conduct ones motivation.  Once can be an accident, multiple times is strong evidence that is was deliberate.

Besides, even if you accept the accidental theory, repeatedly accidentally destroying a company asset thru sheer ignorance is gross incompetence and a valid reason for dismissal. (However, if the state believes the fired employee that it was incompetence instead of deliberate they would be eligible for unemployment insurance.)       

[Brian Fein]

REPEATEDLY doing it is a failure of management.  It should be corrected after instance #1.  If not, then I agree.  However, if it happens 37 times before anyone says anything to the guy, that's a failure of supervision.

You can't just fire him without prior reprimand, I feel.  Not legally, but in fairness.

[Spider-Dan]

If he's deleting the code without comment or explanation on an open-source project (<--- this part is important), he already knows he's doing something wrong.  Very, very wrong.  There are two possibilities:

1) He's an insufferable asshole who thinks he can just revert changes on his own without documentation, in which case HR should immediately proceed to corrective action
2) (if he's only reverting her changes) He is clearly and unambiguously using his position to settle personal grudges, in which case he should immediately be fired

You absolutely DO NOT modify code on an open-source project without documentation.  You just don't do it.  Open source programming cannot work if you do.

edit: To go into more detail, the company in question (GitHub) provides code management and review.  For someone that works at a code management/review company to revert code without documentation would be like someone at McAfee "accidentally" opening an unknown e-mail attachment and infecting someone else's PC with a virus; either it was intentionally malicious, or that person is so grossly incompetent that he should be fired anyway.

[Buddhagirl]

If he's deleting the code without comment or explanation on an open-source project (<--- this part is important), he already knows he's doing something wrong.  Very, very wrong.  There are two possibilities:

1) He's an insufferable asshole who thinks he can just revert changes on his own without documentation, in which case HR should immediately proceed to corrective action
2) (if he's only reverting her changes) He is clearly and unambiguously using his position to settle personal grudges, in which case he should immediately be fired

You absolutely DO NOT modify code on an open-source project without documentation.  You just don't do it.  Open source programming cannot work if you do.

edit: To go into more detail, the company in question (GitHub) provides code management and review.  For someone that works at a code management/review company to revert code without documentation would be like someone at McAfee "accidentally" opening an unknown e-mail attachment and infecting someone else's PC with a virus; either it was intentionally malicious, or that person is so grossly incompetent that he should be fired anyway.

Agreed on this. He knows exactly what he's doing.

Also, kind of off topic, but I just sat through an online Q&A with Anita Hill. She was awesome!