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.
bkmk
It's so simple. There's the door - they are welcome to leave.
Long, long, long way to go.
And for some this could just be that they are going to be more covert about it to avoid further customer erosion. Corporations themselves have been woke in their entirety and not merely some employees harassing executives.
CEOs are the woketards that put these policies in place when employees couldn’t care less about their workplace being politicized.
Back in my working days with a *defense contractor*, we were told to keep politics out of the workplace. I was fine with that. Of course, the megacorp lost its balls when Obama was elected, when political talk (as long as it was pro-Obama) was allowed.
This is not a ‘Catholic’ in name only but a mother Christian denomination in name only. Or should I say used to be
Like they should have done since day one of this woke crap.
If I knew who they were, there wouldn’t be a single one of
these people working in my organization.
I’m not part of an organization any longer, but I think
most of our instincts would dictate to us what needed to
be done.
“Woke” is a fad? Really? Who Knew!
Of course it was transient. People, left to their own devices, will generally opt for sanity over the rabbir hole...
GEEZ; I was just a department head but in charge of hiring my new mechanics.
I used to tell every new hire I made that if they didn’t have the hide of a Rhino and the staying power of an elephant that they would soon find they were in the wrong job.
Over 32 years I had the pleasure of canning 47 employees that thought their crap didn’t stink.
One of my favorite pink slips was to one of the new wave idiots who thought bits of metal stuck all over his body was a form of art.
I told him he had to take all the metal out of his body before he started work in the morning, he complained that it was him expressing his lifestyle and freedom.
I told him “you work around moving machinery and live electrical systems, the body piercings go or you hit the road”.
He took it to the union and HR, I nailed them with Cal OSHA rules and regulations.
CANNED HIS ASS THE NEXT DAY!
Love it
About a year ago Red Bull beverages told their woke employees they’re working for the wrong company.
If enough companies push back the woke church is toast. It was bad grammar anyway.
Yes, the CEOs can start by not promoting “pride” observance and events in the workplace every June. Employees who want to celebrate being LGBT can do so on their own time.
Happy dance 💃..
This will be ending.
In the meantime, today my workplace sent out emails of mandatory Tranny Training. They called it something like Transgender sensitivity Training. Yep.
Cash in on consulting gigs with corporate America and show them how it’s done.
The H.R. critters in organizations I’ve been in are way more woke than the employees. And it was shoved down our throats.
I wish my organization would observe this.
1. The bottom line is what matters most, and more and more companies are seeing an end to the fun and games of the fiat-money economy.
2. Companies are now facing complaints from NON-woke employees about the hostile work environments … and they don’t want to face lawsuits from THEM.
Too late. They are a part of the blob at this point. You cannot escape once you have become a part of the blob. They may try to push back, but once the DIE lawsuits start draining their funds, these companies will submit once again. Soon the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity administrator will be deemed as the company president by the government administration officials. And you thought the HR director was bad!
They lost Jesse Powell. It’s over. Time to celebrate!
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