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How Basecamp Blew Up

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Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#11

Post by indemnity »

nate wrote: post #8
DiNovi wrote: post #6

so they: - Announced a new company policy publicly before telling the staff - Deleted internal threads that would go against their narrative of why they did so - Had a conservative senior employee go off about politics on the call discussing the new no politics policy. - refused to reprimand said employee on the call - had one founder take this extremely sensitive call from his bed with his camera off and on mute. -…

When they DHH+Jason laid the 7 of us off from Highrise (the Basecamp CRM spin-off) no one even showed up online to say anything to us on our last day. Just the Head of Devops to turn off our access to things. (That guy at least apologized for no-one else being there) :/

Shit, that sucks. What a classless way to go.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#12

Post by indemnity »

DiNovi wrote: post #6

so they: - Announced a new company policy publicly before telling the staff - Deleted internal threads that would go against their narrative of why they did so - Had a conservative senior employee go off about politics on the call discussing the new no politics policy. - refused to reprimand said employee on the call - had one founder take this extremely sensitive call from his bed with his camera off and on mute. -…

Even if your heart isn’t 100% in it, the least you could do is acknowledge and thank the people for their contributions while they were there.

Kind of gives the lie to the progressive, all-in-it-together environment they portray with their public image.

So, just like any other company really, except due to the excessive power of the top two execs, no recourse if you have a problem they don’t perceive as a problem.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#13

Post by Threeve303 »

This story is so strange. First of all, it has been considered unprofessional to talk about politics at work for as long as I can remember. It's odd how you would need a rule implemented about that. Is this just a generational thing?

On the other hand, when did racial equality become an inherently political topic? Especially racial equality inside the workplace.

This also doesn't mean that the Basecamp founders are responsible for systemic racism because they had a list of "funny" names and [gasp] employ at least one conservative.

What has happened to everyone? It's like we have taken the social media rage machine and applied it to real life interactions.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#14

Post by fallenfromgrace »

baggy_trough wrote: post #5
peterthehacker wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think these comments were the main reason: > “I strongly disagree we live in a white supremacist culture,” Singer said. “I don't believe in a lot of the framing around implicit bias. I think a lot of this is actually racist.”

I don’t follow. Why would you be suspended for that?

It has hints of "reverse racism" and tends to dismiss that racism is an issue...and if it is an issue, racism against white people is the actual and bigger issue. That's closer to the camp of "white supremacist" or at the very least, a common defense used by white supremacist. Generally, this would be someone who is, in his position, at the very best, wilfully ignorant.

I was not the one dismissed him, nor do I work at basecamp, nor am I Ryan Singer, so I can't be sure that's why he was suspended...can only guess with the same information available to you.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#15

Post by fooey »

Threeve303 wrote: post #13

This story is so strange. First of all, it has been considered unprofessional to talk about politics at work for as long as I can remember. It's odd how you would need a rule implemented about that. Is this just a generational thing? On the other hand, when did racial equality become an inherently political topic? Especially racial equality inside the workplace. This also doesn't mean that the Basecamp founders are r…

I mean, racial equality has always been political.

It became more so when a major segment of the USA decided they didn't care to hide being racist anymore after the 2008 elections.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#16

Post by fallenfromgrace »

DiNovi wrote: post #6

so they: - Announced a new company policy publicly before telling the staff - Deleted internal threads that would go against their narrative of why they did so - Had a conservative senior employee go off about politics on the call discussing the new no politics policy. - refused to reprimand said employee on the call - had one founder take this extremely sensitive call from his bed with his camera off and on mute. -…

for what it's worth, I find the picking on DHH for taking this call from bed unnecessary

If he was sick, whether physically sick because of their own actions or otherwise...sick is sick. Seemed like a no-win for him whether he could either refuse to show up because he is sick, or show up to at least listen to what's going on (assuming recording it wasn't an option).

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#17

Post by nate »

whitepoplar wrote: post #9
nate wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When they DHH+Jason laid the 7 of us off from Highrise (the Basecamp CRM spin-off) no one even showed up online to say anything to us on our last day. Just the Head of Devops to turn off our access to things. (That guy at least apologized for no-one else being there) :/

Could you speak a little more about your impression of the company while you were there? I know you didn't want to talk about it after you left, but so many of us are/were curious, especially as to how Basecamp's private image compares to its public image.

It's tough to get it all down here in a comment. Maybe now this is all out I'll share more in some channels soon. I will say that last comment in Casey's article: “They don't want to deal with people, which is something you have to do as a manager … Jason and David just threw us away.” That could easily have been written from someone at Highrise. (It wasn't. But it could have been) We killed ourselves to turn that thing around. And it hurt. Some of this coming out I can definitely empathize with and concur with what people experienced. Thanks for asking.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#18

Post by fallenfromgrace »

eloff wrote: post #2

There is a great supporting argument for keeping discussions of politics, race, religion, etc out of the workplace to begin with. It's not possible to call it from outside, but there was no actual racist behavior cited, apart from the list of funny customer names, which is not really racist (more culturalist - if that were a thing), but it is a terrible idea anyway. It sounds like a bunch of people got upset and quit…

I thought so too, until I read the second (third?) article. Quite a few racist statements were made in the meeting itself and many employees mentioned that it was the meeting that convinced them to resign.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#19

Post by baggy_trough »

fallenfromgrace wrote: post #14
baggy_trough wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t follow. Why would you be suspended for that?

It has hints of "reverse racism" and tends to dismiss that racism is an issue...and if it is an issue, racism against white people is the actual and bigger issue. That's closer to the camp of "white supremacist" or at the very least, a common defense used by white supremacist. Generally, this would be someone who is, in his position, at the very best, wilfully ignorant. I was not the one dismissed him, nor do I work…

Mind boggling.

Re: How Basecamp Blew Up

#20

Post by Trasmatta »

DiNovi wrote: post #6

so they: - Announced a new company policy publicly before telling the staff - Deleted internal threads that would go against their narrative of why they did so - Had a conservative senior employee go off about politics on the call discussing the new no politics policy. - refused to reprimand said employee on the call - had one founder take this extremely sensitive call from his bed with his camera off and on mute. -…

> Can't believe only 21 employees walked

The article said they extended the buyout offer indefinitely, so I wouldn't be surprised if more people leave over the next few weeks.

Even if you weren't thinking of leaving, 3-6 months severance would be really hard to turn down, especially if you know you can get another job quickly.

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