A defense lab operated by MIT is getting into the news in a way it never wanted, with a religious-discrimination lawsuit.
A technician at Lincoln Labs claims that his bigoted co-workers harassed him for his Christian faith over a 15-year period, and that supervisors and union reps not only failed to take action, but participated in the mistreatment.
Y'know, if a company gets a reputation for condoning abusive employee behavior and anti-Christian discrimination, it will pay at least some price. Many religious believers who work in the high-tech sector (and there are many) can simply decide never to work there.
This lab, moreover, has a special need to be concerned with its reputation: it depends almost totally on the good will of Congress and the Air Force for its funding. I can imagine that some Congressmen would be outraged at a case of abuse that was ignored by management for fifteen years.
If true, then those allegations are too outrageous to not provoke a response. I can understand putting up with it for a few months, but 15 years?
Unfortunately, it also speaks to the immaturity of many technical folks: they spent many years being shoved into lockers and getting smacked on the bottoms with wet towels, so many of them like to torment others when they get the chance. (Not all, I hasten to add, but some.) Another common manifestation is lording your techinical knowledge over other people, whether or not it actually makes a difference in how you do your job.
It doesn't sound like the people involved are engineers, but machinists; does the nerdy image of engineers fit them too?
If Scott Adams is to be trusted, then yes, I'd say it does....
Reminds me of a Catholic I worked with once. When I was hired he loudly declaimed to the cube farm "if it were up to me, _I_ would never hire a Bible-Beater"
Eventually he became manager and got his wish.
Of course, he was the kind of Catholic who tried to bed every young female he could most of the year, and 'disciplined' his underlings by claiming to sleep with their wives - and then would nearly starve himself during Lent.
I am thinking something was lacking in his spiritual formation.
He's lucky his co-workers didn't arrange an "accident" for him after work.