And Workplace Harmony Will Doubtless Ensue
You see, the tiresomeness of it all is for your own good. And besides, escape is forbidden.
Update, via the comments:
Readers may, I suspect, have reservations. But do bear in mind that ostracising people and engaging in petty workplace spite – calling them Nazis, for instance – is so much easier when you know who they voted for. And do take a moment to consider the oppressed in this equation, by which, of course, I mean the needy and neurotic, those whose status and self-worth hinge on mouthing – and being seen and heard to mouth – the most fashionable political opinions. Now, imagine these poor souls being denied the opportunity to bore others with them, at eye-watering length, during office hours.
That the owners of Basecamp, a web software company, should find themselves having to officially ask employees not to use the workplace, work networks, and working hours for “political advocacy” – and explaining that angry exchanges about politics, i.e., leftist identity politics, “can’t happen where the work happens anymore” – i.e., stop behaving like spoiled teenagers who are still on campus - is quite a thing. One has to marvel at how they’re essentially having to explain to their woke and quarrelsome employees the concept of a workplace, as a thing that’s not in fact interchangeable with a protest march or a student union bar.
Update 2: The drama escalates.
It’s not a coincidence these grand stands against divisive “politics” at work issue down from white male tech executives.
Writes Taylor Hatmaker at TechCrunch. In a not-at-all-loaded and totally non-divisive way.
Why, it’s almost as if fixating on people’s sex and skin colour – and assigning some kind of collective moral defectiveness to the pale and male – were a habit that other, saner people may not find entirely enhancing of their working environment. Just a thought.
Following a controversial ban on political discussions earlier this week, Basecamp employees are heading for the exits. The company employs around 60 people, and roughly a third of the company appears to have accepted buyouts to leave, many citing new company policies.
And presumably taking with them their intersectional prayer mats. Again, if you’ve been hiring people who appear to regard themselves as activists more than employees, and who prioritise their political opinionating – on work time, using work networks, and resulting in a distracting and fractious environment for everyone else, an environment described as “unhealthy” – than perhaps you should reflect on how wise that was.
Update 3: In the comments, CJ Nerd steers us to this:
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.”
Yes, the kind of vain, unworldly creatures who imagine that their employers and colleagues want, indeed need, to hear their views on “whiteness” and “microaggressions,” and who equate a list of funny customer names with a march towards “genocide.” The kind of overindulged, overgrown children for whom reciprocation would be anathema, a basis for indignation, and who complain that being asked to focus on the job they’re actually paid to do constitutes not being “allowed to exist.” In other words, the ideal end product of an expensive progressive education. And who, having seemingly learned nothing, will presumably go on to disrupt and demoralise some other fool’s business with their pretensions and farcical high-maintenance.
Update 4:
Two employees told me that they had found themselves crying and screaming at the screen.
After all, it just isn’t wokeness without weeping and howling.
Via Garbage Human, via Rafi.
Consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
…if you regard this somewhat odd activity as more important than actually doing the job you’re being paid to do…
Political posturing and bullying are far easier than doing any real job.
‘Related’…
https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays/status/1388482980851585024
In news that will doubtless shock, the people resigning and having hissy fits tend to have pronouns in their Twitter bios.
than->then. Nice to see someone with nearly impeccable language skill do that one. Spellcheck, no doubt.
But to the post…
Not celebrating this like most conservatives because I’m not confident on how this will ultimately play out. Much of the sw industry is now driven by the latest bright and shiny object. It somewhat has for decades now, but the change of pace of tech change is accelerating such that not much thought seems to go into arch/engineering changes. The younger people seem more and more to be on the autistic spectrum, so called…even to the point of pretending to be because it’s cool now. Thus there seems to be even more of a pack/lemming mentality. Pack mentalities have been shown quite often to override otherwise rational market forces.
Re prohibitions on political posturing in the workplace, some years ago when we were more into group outdoor activities (canoeing, hiking, backpacking etc.) every one of these had an unstated, but rocksolid, understanding that certain topics were never raised in group conversations: politics and religion, the “hot-button” issues of the day. What was rarely expressed. except at need, was the explanation. All these activities involve some level of risk, you see, and the person you twisted off on because it felt sooo good to be righteous could quite possibly turn out to be the one (0ften the only one) in a position to help you out of some trouble you’d fallen into — so, better not to antagonize the random stranger who might turn into anything from a potential assistant to potential savior.
The applications to the workplace are not quite so clear-cut, but they’re there, of course.
Pack mentalities have been shown quite often to override otherwise rational market forces.
Well, it’s worth noting how many tech journalists covering the Basecamp story seem to share precisely the same ideological assumptions as the Employees From Hell. To an extent that the objections mentioned above, which are hardly esoteric, don’t seem to register as things one might consider.
Needless to say, these are people who’ve been severely educated.
how many tech journalists covering the Basecamp story seem to share precisely the same ideological assumptions as the Employees From Hell.
Yes. But it’s not just them. The dust from their (journalists and employees) hysteria has yet to settle. The fear of being blacklisted is still there, along with the reality that most employees who may have wanted to quit have yet positioned themselves to do so. For all their faults, these are not mindless workers pounding out widgets on an assembly line. They are taking considerable product knowledge with them, whether to a competitor or simply by leaving the company. It takes quite some time to get a software developer up to speed on the product itself, not to mention the quirks and special features of how the technology under it is being used. I hope I’m wrong but even with the exodus of dead wood, there’s a big challenge ahead of the company.
It looks like about 1/3 of Basecamp staff are leaving:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-third-of-basecamp-employees-quit-after-founders-tell-them-no-politics-at-work
It looks like about 1/3 of Basecamp staff are leaving
Presumably, to disrupt and demoralise some other fool’s business with their pretensions and farcical high-maintenance.
Yes, the kind of vain, unworldly creatures who imagine that their employers and colleagues want, indeed need, to hear their views on “whiteness” and “microaggressions,” and who equate a list of funny customer names with a march towards “genocide.” The kind of overindulged, overgrown children who complain that being asked to focus on the job they’re actually paid to do constitutes not being “allowed to exist.”
In other words, the end product of an expensive progressive education.
Apparently, asking employees not to use work time and work systems to browbeat others with their woke politics is “a tantrum from supremely privileged founders who have lost the plot.” You see, employees should be entitled to disrupt the workplace and bang on about “their lived experience” as and when it suits them.
Says the leftist who can afford to quit a job without a replacement lined up.
“a tantrum from supremely privileged founders who have lost the plot.”
Lefties project.
Lefties project.
True. But one thing that is getting lost in all of this…It’s the employers who actually started all this s**t, granted under the guise of “diversity” training and even for a few critical defense and infrastructure corporations, national security (though that driven by US government). But it was political correctness all the way. The issue became if you called them out on it they blame YOU (well, actually me) for “bringing politics/religion into it”. Recently I related here, and elsewhere, that while looking for work last summer, when the cities were burning etc. in regard to St. George Floyd and many corporations were openly expressing their support for, and monetary contributions to BLM, in the process of negotiating being hired for a sure-fire remote work job for which I was technically over-qualified, while being somewhat concerned about future employment I asked if this consultant employer or its (unknown to me) end customer supported such. Part of my concern is that for many years, and having somewhat recently held several security clearances, I have been asked by employers “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist party or any organization that advocates the violent overthrow of the United States and its constitutional form of government” (can’t find exact wording right now but something similar is asked on immigration forms, apparently). By asking this question, I was disqualified. I mention this to a friend who owns a pet-sitting business (just her) in a hypothetical way and the conversation got all twisted into ME being the political one. It was IMNSHO, in context, a legitimate concern. If a potential employer is all wrapped up in politics, and there is considerable evidence, this thread a prime example, of that being a distinct possibility, do I not have the right to question it? I in no way want to press my politics on other people. What I object to is a work environment where so much of this political crap is so casually discussed. I do not like being in an environment where I am having politics shoved at me such that I am expected to just sit there and take it.
Note also it has been related that this Basecamp organization started this crap with its own wokeness. It’s only now coming back to bite them in the ass. Pity if they were to go out of business. I mean that seriously as this will become the example the left will use.