Excellent policy, but they could stand to realize how political their offices have already become. Maybe the culture of the company blinds them to this, but GitLab's overtly involved in politics.
gitlab has offices?
No.
Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
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Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to confirm, "this one" in your comment refers to the original article's title being "really bad"? (As opposed to the editorialized title.)
I think "this one" refers to the original article's title being really bad: "Blood money is fine with us, says GitLab: Vetting non-evil customers is 'time consuming, potentially distracting'"
Wow, finally read the site guidelines. "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." I always wondered why even the world's most important news events barely register on HN!
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#213Without trying to be inflammatory in any manner, I will say that it takes a certain level of privilege to say one shouldn’t discuss politics at work. If you disagree I’m happy to discuss this viewpoint rather than being downvoted to oblivion. Lots of issues are deemed “political”, but imagine you fall into one of the marginalized groups: — lgbt: Don’t discuss the possibility about being fired for your sexuality becau…
As a wealthy white male, I couldn't agree more. For people like me, politics is a choice. But as my female friends of color often remind me, politics is not a choice for them.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#214Excellent policy, but they could stand to realize how political their offices have already become. Maybe the culture of the company blinds them to this, but GitLab's overtly involved in politics.
gitlab has offices?
The point stands, I'm aware that they're relatively decentralized, but I struggle to find that many ways to say "in the course of conducting their business" that are succinct while not inviting nitpicks like this.
Also, yes, GitLab has offices, to some minimal extent.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#215Without trying to be inflammatory in any manner, I will say that it takes a certain level of privilege to say one shouldn’t discuss politics at work. If you disagree I’m happy to discuss this viewpoint rather than being downvoted to oblivion. Lots of issues are deemed “political”, but imagine you fall into one of the marginalized groups: — lgbt: Don’t discuss the possibility about being fired for your sexuality becau…
Have you seen problems with people in any of these groups unable to talk about these issues? I had a project owner once who had a manager not get along with her at all.
"Is it because you're a woman," I asked her. She said, "No, I don't think that's it." .. and he did get along with another woman; one of our Functional Analysis.
Sometimes person x doesn't like person y because .. they don't like person y. They don't think person y is effective or useful or good at his or her job, not because y is an Asian, or woman, or trans or Mexican. ... or it could be and the person is a victim of bigotry and doesn't know it.
I know it's anecdotal, but I've worked in a lot of different places, in 3 different countries, and in my experience, I think it's the opposite. I think people are afraid to say anything remotely non-left or criticize any minority employee or say anything that could remotely be inferred as problematic.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#216The argument "if you don't engage in politics then you might be part of the problem", is itself a political argument, therefore it is irrelevant in the context of a no-politics rule.
Then the initial demand to not discuss politics must also be political and therefore self-contradictory, so it should be ignored.
"recently changed its company handbook to declare it won't ban potential customers on "moral/value grounds," and that employees should not discuss politics at work."
I'm assuming that "should not" means it's discouraged as a culture and not enforced somehow, because otherwise I would think something different. If so the article seems to try and persuade you against this because politics is somehow important, but the whole point of the new rule is to precisely ignore that.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#217Technical professions are generally held responsible for what they enable. Biology: researchers can't do anything they want on plants, animals or humans. Medicine: doctors are expected to follow strict guidelines with their patients. Even engineering: implementing a cheating system for diesel tests will (rightfully) get engineers into trouble. But software engineering seem to have a pass on how the things we build is…
Software development is not actually a profession, it's just an occupation. That's not necessarily a bad thing but let's not pretend that it's something that it isn't. In order to be a profession on the level of law, civil engineering, medicine, arms, accounting, etc it would need — among other things — a clear code of ethics. Years ago the IEEE made some tentative steps toward turning software development into a profession but they didn't get much traction.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#218They're Ukrainians. Slav people are pretty blunt about these issues. Simply put, they don't care. Work is work. Politics is not work.
That's racist
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#219FYI: If you say you don't care about politics and you ban political speech in your workspace - that on its own is a political statement that you're fine with the status quo.
Not necessarily. You may just think that the costs of the discourse outweigh the benefits in some specific context.
The costs outweigh the benefits to you, probably because the status quo is pretty favorable to you. This may not hold for other people, except now they're gagged from doing anything about it.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#220Human rights aren't politics, they're non-negotiable.
I was born under a dictatorship (that fortunately became again a democracy while I was still a child) and I can tell you human rights don't exist unless you have enough people willing and able to stand up for them. More broadly, laws aren't worth the paper they're written on if you don't have a police and armed forces willing and able to uphold them. I understand what your point is; I've talked to several people who…
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