Demographics about TW users would be helpful for interpreting & answering questions. Possible to share?

Question

The Workplace is different from Stack Overflow or other technical sites in the SE network in that workplace norms, and thus our answers, vary between geographies, industries, and roles.

The moderators and 25k+ reputation members of The Workplace have access to the analytics data on the site (presumably including the demographic information included).

Is it possible to share some highlights about who is reading and using the site so that we can have a sense of who we should we creating answers for?

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As an example, many answers advise the OP to quit or find a new job if they are unhappy with their current environment/compensation/colleagues/etc.

This is bad advice for the majority of working individuals. The median employee lacks a savings, will take 5 to 14 weeks to find a new job, and will lack access to social backstops since their termination was elected.

This is reasonable advice for software engineers in the US. The median software engineer is readily employable and has been earning well above the livable wage (and thus likely has a savings).

Understanding who is represented on the site will improve answers by giving authors a sense of the breadth of perspectives of readers.

Answer 1

The whole point of The Workplace is for anyone to ask a question about their job-related issue, and we as members of the community try to answer it. There is a wide diversity in the locations, ages, and kinds of questions that are asked.

To try to tailor your answers along the lines of the demographics of existing question askers does not help if someone new comes along who sits outside that demographic. The site then becomes impenetrable and ineffective for them, and they leave both dissatisfied and with a bad feeling that we aren't interested in assisting them. This, in turn, reinforces the stereotypical consumer for this site and minimises its effectiveness for a wider audience.

The correct approach when answering is to take each question on a case-by-case basis. If there isn't enough information available in the question, you ask. That is the intent behind comments. That information can then be fed back into the question, the answer, or both.

So while it may be possible to extract the demographic information, practically, it isn't a useful exercise. Answers should be constructed in such a way that it is useful to the asker and to anyone who comes along later who may be in a similar situation. Future viewers will be able to see from the context of the question if it applies to them.

[Edited to address the addendum to the question]

The giving advice of "quit" has been discussed on meta.workplace a few times, and for the most part, it's really not a valid answer. You can always say, "Just quit", irrespective of the issue, so you can take it as assumed knowledge that the OP already knows this.

We try to look beyond the obvious "quit" option, which has its own huge array of potential issues for the OP, for other ways to deal with a workplace problem. Yes, there will be cases when the best option is to leave, but it is not the first place we should go when answering a question.

Answer 2

My response is entirely too long to be a comment, so I'm writing it as an answer instead.

The inclusion of demographic information would be useful if it didn't explode the number of questions all having a reasonably similar set of facts.

"I just learned I'm the least paid employee in the entire company, and I will never get a new monitor, desk, or chair. Should I quit?"

That's a fake question, but it is intended to capture a broad enough sentiment as to be generic -- the asker is being treated very poorly. Should they quit?

The answer really does depend on the situation of the asker. But also, not the "demographics of the answerer" because I know how to adjust an answer for someone who needs "experience, any experience, Oh. Dear. G-d. Can I just get some experience?"

This gets back to something about this site -- we really do need to be telling people WHY we're giving an answer and what our basis for that answer is.

So, TL;DR -- We don't need demographics, we need the people answering the questions to explain their thinking.