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Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

economist.com

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Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#11

Post by whymauri »

tshaddox wrote: post #6
yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #3

> last week Alphabet, Google’s parent, had to deal with another internal petition circulating among employees, this one calling on the firm’s leadership to make a statement “recognising the violence in Palestine and Israel”. It's a special kind of hubris to believe that despite over a thousand years of conflict in the region, the right people to comprehensively understand and solve the problem are some people who mak…

It doesn’t sound like the internal petition was calling for the firm to solve the conflict. That would be unrealistic, but it’s not at all the case here.

Yeah, GP is kinda strawmanning.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#12

Post by flyinglizard »

tshaddox wrote: post #6
yakshaving_jgt wrote: post #3

> last week Alphabet, Google’s parent, had to deal with another internal petition circulating among employees, this one calling on the firm’s leadership to make a statement “recognising the violence in Palestine and Israel”. It's a special kind of hubris to believe that despite over a thousand years of conflict in the region, the right people to comprehensively understand and solve the problem are some people who mak…

It doesn’t sound like the internal petition was calling for the firm to solve the conflict. That would be unrealistic, but it’s not at all the case here.

It was calling for a "safe space for anti-Zionism", which is just another term for the abolishment of Israel. Fun times.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#13

Post by genericone »

oogabooga123 wrote: post #4

These problems fix themselves given enough time. Less productive firms go out of business and take their cultures with them. Social norms are evolved , not designed.

Sometimes businesses/organizations are propped up for their missions by wealthy sponsors and not markets. There are no market pressures that make them go out of business unless the sponsors themselves feel financial loss and stop sponsorship.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#14

Post by moomin »

eric4smith wrote: post #7

People are human. But work is work. The canonical point of a workplace is to come together to fulfill the aims of the entrepreneurs. The personal aims of the workers are fulfilled best outside of work. Just stop to think about it logically for a minute... is the workplace the best place to circulate a petition condemning something that has nothing to do with work? The workplace necessarily is going to bring together…

It’s well worth reading up on the details of the Basecamp disaster. At every point in the process, it was about work. How people behaved at work, how clients were treated, how people reacted to feedback, how information was communicated. It may have been “politics” but it was in no way separable from Basecamp‘s core business.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#15

Post by tshaddox »

lliamander wrote: post #9
tshaddox wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn’t sound like the internal petition was calling for the firm to solve the conflict. That would be unrealistic, but it’s not at all the case here.

What then is the purpose of demanding others make a public stand on an issue over which they have no practical control?

There are plenty of purposes. Why are you and I talking about the issue right now despite presumably having little influence over the outcome?

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#16

Post by seibelj »

Why can’t we just let the market sort it out? Let the people who want to talk politics all day start, lead, and work at firms that encourage it. And those that don’t will do the same.

It’s my same issue with socialists who want democratic control of companies. If it’s so obviously better, why not start one yourself? Or use government money to do so (socialists, after all). I just wish everyone would voluntarily associate and live their best lives rather than forcing a “one size fits all” approach to every problem. We live in the greatest time ever for expressing yourself in any myriad of ways. Just live and let live.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#17

Post by pitspotter »

eric4smith wrote: post #7

People are human. But work is work. The canonical point of a workplace is to come together to fulfill the aims of the entrepreneurs. The personal aims of the workers are fulfilled best outside of work. Just stop to think about it logically for a minute... is the workplace the best place to circulate a petition condemning something that has nothing to do with work? The workplace necessarily is going to bring together…

Are we, in fact, waking up to woke?

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#18

Post by flyinglizard »

The only reason this is an issue in the first place is the outsized, insane amount of influence these firms have over our society and culture. It wouldn't be as interesting (or consequential) if these guys were in Ford or GM (in fact it's not rare for unions to have stated political positions).

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#19

Post by moomin »

oogabooga123 wrote: post #4

These problems fix themselves given enough time. Less productive firms go out of business and take their cultures with them. Social norms are evolved , not designed.

Yes, which is why it’s neither a good look nor good business for tech firms to be holding back the tide on social norms’ evolution.

Re: Woke at Work: Why tech firms are trying to run away from politics and failing

#20

Post by CPLNTN »

andrew_ wrote: post #5

tip: Disable javascript to get around the paywall I'm a huge fan of what Coinbase and Basecamp have done. Coinbase is thriving and Basecamp appears to be no worse for wear. I hope we see a continuance of this trend; whereby we continue to encourage DE&I whilst keeping the worst and most toxic topics out of day to day business.

In his most recent blog post DHH said that the small group of people leaving Hey was offset by a lot of new customers for Basecamp
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