Nothing Personal Sheryl Sandberg

I got a really yucky feeling about Sheryl Sandberg and her Lean In movement when I saw an ad for an intern position for their New York office, in 2013. This is a movement that is meant to empower women, founded by one of the most powerful women in the world. Why would they actively seek out young people to work for free?

Lean In Hypocrisy: Sheryl Sandberg’s Organization Is Hiring an Unpaid Intern - SLATE

The ad stated very clearly that the intern would work for free - what an honor:

Wanted:?Lean In?editorial intern, to work with our editor (me) in New York. Part-time, unpaid, must be HIGHLY organized with editorial and social chops and able to commit to a regular schedule through end of year. Design and web skills a plus! HIT ME UP. Start date ASAP. (Posted by Jessica Bennett on her Facebook, Lean In’s editor at large at the time, who is now an editor at large at the New York Times).

When The Ego Has Free Reign

If you don't read anything else this week, do yourself a favor and read Caitlin Flanagan's epic piece in The Atlantic that went viral on LinkedIn: "Sheryl Sandberg?announced this month that she’s resigning from Facebook—now called Meta—to focus on her philanthropy. Her work there is done. During her 14 years at the company, she’s done so much damage to our society that we may never recover."

Sheryl Sandberg and the Cracking Hellfire of Corporate America - The Atlantic

The Truth Is Coming Out Everywhere

All this time I thought it was just me who noticed these things, but apparently, a lot of women have. And now it's all coming to light. Now that she is stepping down as Facebook's most public grownup, all the yucky stuff is floating to the top. And there's a ton of it. Apparently, we've all been walking around with a lot of bad feelings for Facebook's public figures for quite a while - but we kept it bottled up inside, where it's been festering for years. In an attempt to sidestep the growing discontent, they did a brand facelift and paid $60M for the META trademarks, but nobody cares.

Nothing Personal Sheryl

We've been agreeing to a lot of nonsense for way too long. Especially now that we know for a fact that social media platforms like Facebook are terrible for our wellbeing, and really bad for our kids. They are powerful enough to further the agenda that they believe is the right agenda. They control the algorithm, and a big chunk of our mindshare. Which gives them god-like influence. So it's easy to point a finger at someone in such a high position making so much money. But in reality, we know on some level that we're all to blame. We all helped build the Facebook empire, and we're all paying the price for it. Not with money like so many like to point out - with far more important things.

Here's another link to Caitlin Flanagan's epic piece - it actually may be the best writing I've seen in the last decade:

The Atlantic started showing the cracks in the Lean In movement long before this. Here is another enlightening post from 2018: How Sheryl Sandberg Lost Her Feminist Street Cred - The Atlantic