A 2017 Tech Leaders Study published by the Kapor Center for Social Impact in California sought to understand the reasons why people leave these dream jobs in the tech industry, leading to a costly turnover in staff.
"We wanted to know whether tech workplace culture contributes to tech's overall dismal diversity numbers by driving under-represented employees out of the door," the study said.
Tech's outward glamour, it's celebrity CEOs, lavish campuses and billion-dollar valuations can help mask that the hyper-competitive culture and a perceived "boy's club" has made it a difficult industry to work in for some.
Despite the fact that many software engineers earn on average $US123,000 ($NZ176,000) and can frequently earn up to $US200,000 a year, attitudes towards minorities and women were contributing to them to leaving such lucrative jobs, the study found.
"Workplace culture drives turnover, significantly affecting the retention of under-represented groups, and costing the industry more than $US16 billion each year," it said.
As the study acknowledges, there are most likely a multitude of factors in one person's decision to leave a job but more than anything else, survey respondents cited unfair treatment and mistreatment as the reason for leaving, albeit from a relatively small sample size of 2006 people who chose to leave their tech job.
Males of ethnic minorities reported this in higher numbers than white men, while women of all backgrounds purported to experience significantly more unfairness than men of all backgrounds did.
"The culture was toxic. The CEO clearly lacked respect for women. Inappropriate remarks were made about women interviewing for roles in the case that the founder found them attractive," a female Hispanic engineer was quoted as saying.
What the New York Times has called the "bro culture" problem was highlighted by a highly published blog post by a former Uber employee who described systemic instances of sexual harassment and cover-ups during the time she worked there.
While the study focused exclusively on the US, questions have been raised about the poor gender diversity in the tech sector in Australia in recent years.
Ally Watson is a computer science graduate and co-founder of Code Like A Girl, a grassroots initiative that aims to inspire more females to pursue careers in coding and get involved in the creation and development of tech.
"I worked in an office with 40 people and I was the only girl and it sucked," she told Fairfax last month, recounting a previous job in the industry. She said female developers were often given the job of cleaning up code men have written, referring to it as "housework".
Uber has had to scramble recently to overhaul its company culture and project a more inclusive image. Countless other tech firms have sought to address the perception that their industry or company has a diversity problem.
"Diversity in tech matters - for innovation, for product development, for profits, for meeting future workforce demands, and for closing economic and wealth gaps," the Kapor Center study said.
"But unfairness, in the form of everyday behaviour (stereotyping, harassment, bullying, etc.) is a real and destructive part of the tech work environment, particularly affecting under-represented groups and driving talent out the door."
