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Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting

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Re: Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting

#11
post #4

"Fried ... began the meeting by apologizing for announcing the policy changes by a public blog post rather than first telling all employees" The fact that no one internally was given a heads up about the post shows you how much respect the leadership team has for their employees.

Top-down decrees aren't normally proceeded by "heads up", that would be counter-productive

Re: Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting

#12

Were they entirely unprepared for this meeting? "I condemn white supremacy" should not have been difficult words to say. It does not require careful phrasing. Particularly right now, so shortly after famously Trump refused to say it in the debate, and then weeks later we had the attack on the capitol.

Wallace asked President Trump whether he was willing to denounce “white supremacists and militia groups,” and Trump answered, "Sure, I'm willing to do that,"

Not sure how any sane person can claim that isn't denouncing white supremacy but hey don't let facts get in the way of your narrative.

Re: Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting

#13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So if someone disagrees that we live in a white supremacist culture, they should just sit mute and not challenge that claim?

Yes. If you believe the earth is flat, it’s best to avoid the subject.

Alternatively, they could use one of their beloved bleach cures for whatever ails them.

Re: Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting

#14
post #4

"Fried ... began the meeting by apologizing for announcing the policy changes by a public blog post rather than first telling all employees" The fact that no one internally was given a heads up about the post shows you how much respect the leadership team has for their employees.

Top-down decrees aren't normally proceeded by "heads up", that would be counter-productive

They're often presented as part of an all hands meeting where you can take questions and address concerns though, not blasted to the public at the same time that internal employees have heard them.

I've been involved in relaying 'big news' more than a few times, and the most common way to address it is to inform people directly affected first (if applicable), then the company at large, then the public. You never do any of those steps simultaneously or out of order.

Re: Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting

#15

“I strongly disagree we live in a white supremacist culture,” [Ryan] Singer said. “I don’t believe in a lot of the framing around implicit bias. I think a lot of this is actually racist.” He continued: “Very often, if you express a dissenting view, you get called a Nazi. … I have not felt this is open territory for discussion. If we were to try to get into it as a group discussion it would be very painful and divisiv…

So if someone disagrees that we live in a white supremacist culture, they should just sit mute and not challenge that claim?

Is a yes/no question about speaking or not really the best possible question to ask here?

When we are lacking metacognition on the subject, we can be at the point where we don't even know how to ask the right questions. This is because we can't assess how our beliefs and expectations constrain the range of questions we even know to ask. If you've ever chuckled over the hoary old tale of someone asking tech support, "where is the 'any' key?", you know how lack of understanding can lead to wildly incorrect mental models of a subject.

There are decades - nay, centuries - of writing about race relations, racial bias, and systemic discrimination. Before we ask a question, perhaps we'd be well-served to have at least a survey course level of familiarity with the issues, so that we might ask good questions.

Re: Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting

#17

Were they entirely unprepared for this meeting? "I condemn white supremacy" should not have been difficult words to say. It does not require careful phrasing. Particularly right now, so shortly after famously Trump refused to say it in the debate, and then weeks later we had the attack on the capitol.

Wallace asked President Trump whether he was willing to denounce “white supremacists and militia groups,” and Trump answered, "Sure, I'm willing to do that," Not sure how any sane person can claim that isn't denouncing white supremacy but hey don't let facts get in the way of your narrative.

[deleted]

Re: Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quitting

#19
The problem with this and ALL arguments comes down to definitions.

“I don’t think there is white supremacy....of course there is white supremacy etc.”

What I would have done is get them to define what each means by white supremacy in detail...then debate on the detail.

The chilling statement at the end was: “white supremacy is silence”.

This kind of thing is straight out of the history books. You must say the right things and have said them at the right time or you are against us.

This human behavior is such a copy-paste from other authoritarian regimes in the past such as Mao’s China and the USSR gestapo.

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