01:35 - Eli’s Superpower: Germinating Seeds & Gardening

03:03 - Accessibility in Tech

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)
Remote Work

09:16 - Having Conversations with Leadership/Management

Trust & Honesty
Communication
Shame & Guilt; Managing Expectations

18:26 - Team Culture and Support

Setting Good Examples
Reducing Stigma
Removing Onus

20:09 - Human Performance & Safety

People are the source of your success
Pretending Out of Fear and Rejection
Context-Switching

29:09 - Being Who You Are – Sexuality in the Workplace

Battling Thoughts of Deception
“I am allowed to change at any time.”
I Am Me by Virginia Satir
Discarding Things That No Longer Fit
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondō

37:33 - Sobriety & Drinking Culture

Reflections:

John: Your marginalizations are not problems to be managed. They’re just who you are.

Mandy: “I own me and therefore I can engineer me.” – Virginia Satir

Rein: “I own everything about me, My body including everything it does; My mind including all its thoughts and ideas; My eyes including the images of all they behold; My feelings whatever they may be… anger, joy, frustration, love, disappointment, excitement My Mouth and all the words that come out of it polite, sweet or rough, correct or incorrect; My Voice loud or soft. And all my actions, whether they be to others or to myself.” – Virginia Satir

Eli: How complicated and complex but beautiful it is to be a person. Make space.

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Transcript:

JOHN: Welcome to Greater Than Code, Episode 239. I’m John Sawers and I’m here with Rein Henrichs.

REIN: Thanks, John! And I’m here with my friend and a very special co-host, Mandy Moore.

MANDY: Thanks, Rein. Hi, everyone! Today, we’re here with Eli Holderness.

Eli has been in tech for 5 years since graduating in 2016 and has become disabled with CFS a few months into their career, which has really affected how they view the industry and what jobs they've been able to take. They're also genderqueer, bi, ADHD, and Jewish, and they're excited to talk about finally having a job where they can bring their whole self to work. They're quite an extrovert and have been blessed with a strong queer support network since university, and are keen to break down the barriers into tech that shut out other marginalized folk who aren't so lucky as Eli has been.

Welcome to the show, Eli.

ELI: Hi! Yeah, I'm super excited to be here and really honored to be here for Mandy’s first in on the panel.

I don't really have a thesis statement for what I want to talk about today, other than I guess, general topics around accessibility and tech, and an interesting aspect of that is things that have changed over the last year with the recent horribleness.

MANDY: That sounds great. But first, we have to ask you the question we always ask everyone and that is what is your superpower and how did you acquire it?

ELI: So my superpower is, if you give me a seed, like a plant seed, I can probably germinate it and it's a double-edged sword. Recently, I saw my parents. I was lucky enough to see my parents early in the year and my mom was making a tie out with Seville oranges and she said, “I've got all these Seville orange seeds. Do you want them?” And long story short, now I have a whole crop of orange seedlings on my windowsill because I just cannot stop myself.

I'm not really sure how I acquired it. I think I might have inherited it from my grandmother who grows tomatoes and is a really keen gardener, but my bedroom is sl