Posted on 06/22/2022 5:11:03 PM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
In an indication that corporate progressivism may be reaching its high-water mark, CEOs for the first time are pushing back against activist employees, in some cases going so far as to fire them rather than steer their companies into the mire of “woke” politics.
Last week, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell became the latest executive to say he has had enough. He invited employees who felt “triggered” by controversial ideas to accept a severance package and leave the company.
The cryptocurrency technology company’s new mission statement says that it “will never ask that our employees adopt any specific political ideology as a requirement for our workplace … We recognize that hurt feelings are inevitable in a global organization that is optimizing for team outcomes above individual sentiment. The ideal Krakenite is thick-skinned and well-intentioned.”
Powell told “Fox & Friends” that of the company’s 3,000 employees, about 30 have chosen to accept the four-month severance pay and leave, citing their need to express political or social beliefs in the workplace. Comments from the remaining 99 percent of Kraken employees regarding the policy to keep politics out of the workplace were “overwhelmingly positive,” he said.
“I think everyone is ready to get back to work and stop being distracted.”
“Suddenly, nobody has any interest in this anymore, and companies are responding accordingly and starting to drop ‘woke,’” said Scott Shepard, director at the National Center for Public Policy Research. “I don’t think this is the end of woke, I don’t even think it’s the beginning of the end, but to borrow from Mr. Churchill, I do think it might be the end of the beginning.”
SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration company, joined the chorus on June 16. After several employees publicized a letter denouncing Musk’s campaign to acquire Twitter and steer the social media platform away from censorship, SpaceX responded by firing them.
The employees publicly criticized Musk’s efforts as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment” for SpaceX. After firing those responsible, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell emailed employees that the efforts against Musk’s Twitter acquisition “made employees feel uncomfortable, intimidated and bullied, and/or angry because the letter pressured them to sign onto something that did not reflect their views. We have too much critical work to accomplish and no need for this kind of overreaching activism.”
The Athletic, a sports news website owned by The New York Times, told its staff this week to stick to sports and drop the political activism.
“We don’t want to stop people from having a voice and expressing themselves,” Paul Fichtenbaum, the publication’s chief content officer, said in a directive. “We just need to keep it from tipping over into the political space.”
Some employees disagreed. A staffer quickly responded in protest. “What about Black Lives Matter? Is that a social cause? Who will write about athlete protests? What about trans athletes in sports?”
Political activism can take a toll on companies, both internally and externally. Walt Disney Co. has proven to be a cautionary tale for corporate leaders. In March, CEO Bob Chapek bowed to activist employees and announced that the family entertainment company would fight to support sex education for children in elementary school, while company executives revealed the intention to add LGBT content to kids’ movies and shows.
That action sparked a backlash from conservative employees and led to parents canceling subscriptions and theme park visits.
"""Powell told “Fox & Friends” that of the company’s 3,000 employees, about 30 have chosen to accept the four-month severance pay and leave, citing their need to express political or social beliefs in the workplace."""
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Back in my working days we had a person who was more interested in pushing leftist agenda than working. It took several managers to do it, but he found that his job was now longer needed and that sorry, here is your termination check.
It is good to hear that some corporations are finally becoming woke about WOKE.
Sweet. Time to put an end to wokeism and then let’s start getting after the Marxists and the child molesters!
thanks goodness, some sanity.
My experience has been to be woke bullied by corporate management. Maybe they don’t like splashback?
I doubt it.
Well, I never thought I’d see executives telling their employees to go back to sleep....
In the eighties I worked for Fairchild Weston in Sarasota. There was a small charismatic Christian church and several members worked at Fairchild. The preacher had told them that the corporate environment was ideal for converting people and if necessary, trap them in their office and make them listen until you convert them. The company responded by outlawing any conversions on site and threatening to fire any employee who tried. Since there simply wasn’t any comparable employer in the area, the sect dropped their overt and hostile attempts.
Wokeism is the same thing. The problem I experienced in later life is that it’s the company that’s woke and us employees were involuntarily subjected to mind numbing sessions about diversity and inclusion and how to handle people telling jokes. Jokes were forbidden because, “you never knew who you might offend.” The HR people were hired straight from the communist side of campuses.
Good.
Nobody should be being bullied by woke progressives when it comes to work.
Work at work and keep the politics outside of it.
Got an email essay from administration huge Hosp corporation celebrate rainbow.
I don’t expect my corporation to do likewise.
I want to see this from Fortune 500 public companies before popping the cork.
in some of the companies I worked at, fellow employees who hit their absolute limit of whiny BS would not so gently inform express that to the whiner long before management found out.
After 3 decades of unrestrained leftist activism in the workplace its gonna be hard to stop it.
I wish, though, that articles like this can be found on websites other than Epoch Times. They won't let you browse or view articles unless you have a subscription with them, so linking them here does many of us no good at all.
All major media writes about that garbage. And most of us are sick and tired of it. Give it a rest, tiresome zillennial. Go straighten your man bun or something.
At the first startup that I went to work for right out of school the HR person said to me as she welcomed me aboard
If you don’t have a thick skin I suggest you develop one quickly
Bwahahahaha
I wish someone had told this to the idiots who run Academy Sports who thought it was a good idea to send me a “Happy Pride Month” email. Now I can’t spend thousands of dollars on guns and ammunition there like I have in the past.
This proves what we’ve long suspected, that the whiny troublemakers are 1% of our society.
I just read publix is not offering vaccines to the 6 month to 5 year olds. Hope it’s true.
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