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“About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

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Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#831

Post by EvilEy3 »

koheripbal wrote: post #146
grumblestumble wrote: post #89

A lot of the conversation from the "no politics at work" crowd here is centered around "these folks were wasting company time and losing productivity protesting this". That entirely misses the point. The loss of productivity around this issue is entirely on the leadership team. They let this fester - they were complicit in allowing this dumb-ass list to be circulated around the company for years, and when it became a…

Our experience when we issued our "No Politics / No Religion" policy at work was very positive. The few people who had an issue with it, subsequently quit or were terminated, and many of their co-workers actually thanked us afterwards for it. We didn't have to pay them to leave. One tried to use the company social media accounts to advance her politics, so we fired her, and the other person became frustrated that she…

A glimmer of hope. Thank you for writing this. Feels like most of the companies gone insane, where vocal minority controls everything.

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#832

Post by randomsearch »

predaking wrote: post #635

For me, here's a common thread going through everything that's happened to Basecamp in the last several days and in laser focus today. Today 1/3rd of the employees left Basecamp. Also today: DHH is back to tweeting and fighting with Apple like nothing of note happened and it's just another day. The original situation that sparked everything was brought about largely by dismissive and irresponsible leadership that dis…

I noticed this too, but I couldn't imagine what dhh could post about this that wouldn't add fuel to the fire and enrage some more people.

What would you post if you were dhh?

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#833

Post by yerwhat01010 »

HNfriend234 wrote: post #509
baron816 wrote: post #181

What I think is lost in the conversation here is that people don’t really have organizations they can go to to advocate their political positions. People have their families, their jobs, and maybe a couple of friends and that’s about it. They need an outlet to push the ideas and causes they care about. The workplace is one of the few places where they can feel like they’re having an impact, but that’s not really appr…

There are non-profit organizations or similar private organizations that are better suited for political activity. The workplace is not the correct place. I was also harassed by the "silence is complicit" attitude. Some other employees I work with would go up to me and ask me questions like "we want to know where you stand on xyz political issue".....and I'm like.....it is really none of your business. They then take…

> Some other employees I work with would go up to me and ask me questions like "we want to know where you stand on xyz political issue".....and I'm like.....it is really none of your business. They then take that response as you "being part of the problem" and then start going after you personally.

These people are totalitarians.

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#834

Post by randomsearch »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #91

I wonder how many would have walked on principle alone, rather than a combination of principles and a rather substantial buyout. Paying employees to leave over a disagreement changes the calculus on how much the policy itself was to blame.

It also balances PR and reduces the chance of legal disputes. They knew what they were doing.

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#835

Post by yerwhat01010 »

grumblestumble wrote: post #89

A lot of the conversation from the "no politics at work" crowd here is centered around "these folks were wasting company time and losing productivity protesting this". That entirely misses the point. The loss of productivity around this issue is entirely on the leadership team. They let this fester - they were complicit in allowing this dumb-ass list to be circulated around the company for years, and when it became a…

> they refused to take any action on it.

Did they? My understanding it that DHH acknowledged the list was a mistake, apologised, and made it clear that such behaviour was no longer acceptable.

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#836

Post by rusty-rust »

ipaddr wrote: post #152

Interestingly the employees who left have the best career prospects. Entire iOS team, head of marketing and head of product team. The 6 months free money is hard for anyone entering a strong job market to pass up. A lot of comments seem to think 1/3 left because of the no politics policy. 1 / 3 left because it would increase their wealth or give them the summer covid took away last year. How many people would leave y…

Many of the comments in this thread appear to be missing the context of what has happening at Basecamp.

From the Verge; > While Basecamp does not publish diversity statistics, it is still, like most tech companies, majority white and male, employees said. But the idea of worker-led efforts on diversity issues got a frosty reception from the founders last year, employees told me. They were allowed to work on the project, but did not feel as if the founders were particularly invested in the outcome.

> Nonetheless, the DE&I ( Diversity and inclusion) council attracted significant support. More than a third of the company — 20 out of roughly 58 employees — volunteered to help. They began examining Basecamp’s hiring processes, which vendors the company works with, how Basecamp employees socialize, and what speakers they might invite to one of the all-remote company’s twice-yearly in-person gatherings.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/27/22406673/basecamp-politic...

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#837

Post by yerwhat01010 »

Rapzid wrote: post #332
koheripbal wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our experience when we issued our "No Politics / No Religion" policy at work was very positive. The few people who had an issue with it, subsequently quit or were terminated, and many of their co-workers actually thanked us afterwards for it. We didn't have to pay them to leave. One tried to use the company social media accounts to advance her politics, so we fired her, and the other person became frustrated that she…

> We later discovered that one of them had been considering reporting us to the state financial authorities because she didn't agree with our policy of accruing interest on client debts Wow, and I thought the HR complaint against David was nuts. Sounds like basecamp was infiltrated by Ben Kuchera's or Randi Harpers. Can't recall the name of the person GitHub miss-hired.. Recall a few years back seemed like everyone w…

> Can't recall the name of the person GitHub miss-hired

Coraline Ada Ehmke?

https://where.coraline.codes/blog/my-year-at-github/

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#838

Post by joelbluminator »

whymauri wrote: post #9
brrrrrm wrote: post #3

Isn’t that only 20 people? Edit: as in, this is misleadingly phrased as if it’s a large collective action

*Three* org heads, two lead developers, and seven developers (apparently the entire iOS team) in that group, at least. That's a recruitment/headcount nightmare... I wouldn't be surprised if other employees leave based on crunch and headcount alone.

Well the ios team is 2 engineers I think, Basecamp is very lean on mobile...its mostly html.

Re: “About one-third of Basecamp employees accepted buyouts today”

#840

Post by JamesBarney »

hparadiz wrote: post #599
Cyberdog wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think people in charge of hiring, particularly outside of the SV bubble, are going to be eager to pick someone up who left their last job because they couldn't agree to stop bitching about politics on the company dime? I don't see how demonstrating the inability to follow basic company rules in the interest of productivity improves their career prospects. Even inside the SV bubble, things aren't that warped, a…

This is a weird take. The tech industry is all politics all the time. Even if all you're doing is discussing policy changes as it relates to the business. Even if literally everyone at the company agrees and is on the same political side you'll still occasionally discuss things like municipal broadband or the Affordable Care Act. By banning politics it creates a hush hush atmosphere where the mere mention of somethin…

There's a big difference between having a friendly argument about the ACA over beers and telling a coworker they're enabling genocide by keeping a funny names list on the company slack.
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