Posted on 05/02/2021 7:31:17 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
Company excised wokeness from workplace after employees reportedly demanded "internal reckoning" over list of funny names that they, themselves, had helped create. Their invocation of "genocide," one exec said, made rational discussion impossible.
About one-third of employees at software company Basecamp quit days after bosses told them to keep ideology out of the workplace and focus on the company’s actual business.
“We make project management, team communication, and email software,” CEO Jason Fried wrote April 26. We don’t have to solve deep social problems, chime in publicly whenever the world requests our opinion on the major issues of the day, or get behind one movement or another with time or treasure. These are all important topics, but they’re not our topics at work.”
Tech journalist Casey Newton said about one-third of the company’s roughly 60 employees took buyouts shortly after, with one fuming: “Basically the company has said, ‘well, your opinions don’t really matter — unless it’s directly related to business…’ A lot of people are gonna have a tough time living with that.”
Newton reported at Platformer that woke tensions boiled over after, in December, a new hire “volunteered to help the company work on diversity issues.”
This included criticizing the fact that for years, many employees had contributed to a list called “Best Names Ever” in which they placed funny customer names — of “the sorts of names Bart Simpson used to use when prank calling Moe the Bartender: Amanda Hugginkiss, Seymour Butz, Mike Rotch.”
A third of the company joined a diversity initiative behind the volunteer, and two employees who had contributed to the list of funny names asked why there had never been an “internal reckoning” over it. They apologized for their involvement and included a link to something called the “pyramid of hate” from the Anti-Defamation League.
The pyramid lists “non-inclusive language, microaggressions” at the bottom and “genocide” at the top, saying, “If people or institutions treat behaviors on the lower levels as being acceptable or ‘normal,’ it results in the behaviors at the next level becoming more accepted.”
Basecamp chief technology officer and co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson, the father of the popular web development framework Ruby on Rails, condemned the list of funny names, but found the invocation of genocide to be an example of “catastrophizing” that had the effect of shutting down rational conversation.
When one employee continued to push this line of logic, Hansson pointed out that that employee, himself, had participated in discussions making fun of customers’ names. “You are the person you are complaining about,” he thought, Newton reported.
Soon after, Fried, who along with Hansson, has long been recognized as an expert on cultivating productive workplace culture, said the company was making changes to make sure there was “no forgetting what we do here.”
There would be “no more societal and political discussions” on official company channels, he said, calling it “a major distraction. It saps our energy, and redirects our dialog towards dark places.”
On Twitter, John Breen, whose bio describes him as “He/Him. ADHD. Software developer. Queer. High Maintenance,” tallied the exodus in a thread that began, “Let’s keep track of the folks who are leaving @Basecamp and do what we can to find them a new home where they’re allowed to exist without being told they’re divisive:”
“Ex-basecampers: we need people like you at Mozilla!” one Mozilla employee responded.
Mozilla has experienced the dark places and distractions Fried warned about. In 2014, Mozilla’s co-founder and CEO was forced to step down when activists made an issue of political speech outside of work six years prior. In 2008, Brendan Eich donated $1,000 to a ballot initiative that banned gay marriage, an initiative that passed, meaning his position was not only mainstream, but the majority position at the time.
The right to opinions inside or outside of work, it seems, only extends to the right opinions.
Work not Woke , Bye
If you feel so strongly that your opinions matter, why are you not advocating for them on your time, instead of time already paid for by someone else?
In this market, the people who quit will have an easier time finding new jobs than Basecamp will have finding new employees.
Nah, that is the opposite of what will happen.
Good. Now they can hire actual productive people.
Wish the major defense contractors had the guts to do this.
its a start anyway ...
No
Indian job stealers will be hired at both locations .
The woke will be working at starbucks .
With remote hiring today that may not be necessarily true.
They are up against Joseph Stolen's enhanced unemployment incentives and cultural indoctrination that may be harder to overcome than sane people may like to admit.
Hmmmm. Perhaps the writers should have used a the more positive results declaring that 2/3 of Basecamp employees agree that the wokenossity of todays ridiculture is not worthy of their time. As far as names, Jack Mehoff might have worked as well..................... Or Heywood Juhblome. Terry Wrist? Han Stroker?
I always thought “tech” employees were scientists, computer science majors, etc... ie) more ‘educated’ (in rationality), science and math, compared to pathetic “social sciences.”
I read the whole letter. Good on him. Quick way to cull the herd and determine who is productive and who is just taking up space.
No doubt a Participation Trophy person who doesn't realize that they are employed by the employer to produce their product. Go dance and spread sunshine on your own time. Oh...and stay away from me while you do that.
A very dear (younger) friend of mine works for a major automobile manufacturer (corporate — not a dealership). He takes many, MANY days off work for personal and family reasons. He was just promoted and given a HEFTY raise.
I am happy for him, but a bit confused. Back when I was punching the clock in the transportation business, anybody who was even one minute late for work three times in a three month period was fired.
The difference might be due to the different industries, or to the different corporate cultures. But I also wonder, has the work ethic changed from one generation to the next?
Is it entirely coincidence that Boeing has had major issues with the 737MAX in the same time frame that they’ve put forth huge diversity initiatives?
“Basically the company has said, ‘well, your opinions don’t really matter — unless it’s directly related to business…’
This dude catches on fast. LOL
The company is lucky. If those former employees feel that strongly about needing to bring outside issues into the workplace, they were going to cause problems. In fact, for all they know, they had been causing problems and "drag" internally. The workplace will be just that much better off without them.
These are all important topics, but they’re not our topics at work.
Well said. Sounds like leadership is focused on the right things.
...employees took buyouts shortly after, with one fuming: “Basically the company has said, ‘well, your opinions don’t really matter — unless it’s directly related to business…’ A lot of people are gonna have a tough time living with that.”
Ding ding ding - exactly. Your opinions do not matter. This kind of attitude is exactly what you get from kids that have been told over and over they're special, they're unique, they're valuable, everyone gets a trophy just for showing up... No, you're not really. If you have a tough time with that, suck it up and get on about the business. If you can't, then go cry somewhere else, you won't be missed.
...in December, a new hire “volunteered to help the company work on diversity issues.”
Obviously a mistake to hire that person. This is why we are very careful, very particular on hiring. People have to be a good fit - not want to come in and immediately start telling everyone how eff'd in the head they are, how much help they need with "issues" real or imagined.
WRONG! The company is saying that our company is not a vehicle for promoting your opinions or the opinions of the CEO or anybody's opinions.
Moreover it is the SPEAKER who is guilty of saying the opinions of those who work in the company that do not agree with the speaker but who just want to work in a place where they are not forced to agree with the speaker don't matter.
Confession through projection.
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