I have worked at companies where I was entirely in disagreement with the senior staff's political views. I never sent any letters or complained about it.
We had a great relationship. My job was to provide value to the company while their job was to pay me for my job.
If I felt it was too much for me to listen to their political views I always had the choice to leave.
SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
521–530 of 1001 posts
Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
#522I can't imagine trashing my CEO and expecting to keep my job. Maybe that's a Gen-X thing?
Maybe the current “thing” is to recognize what happens after getting fired and learn to exploit it: outrage PR, podcast and media spots, outreach by like minded people with other opportunities, etc
It’s a different time.
Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
#523No post body was provided.
Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
#524>The letter asked SpaceX management to publicly separate the company from Mr. Musk’s personal brand, and to take steps to address what it said was a gap between SpaceX’s stated values and its current systems and company culture. >“Blanketing thousands of people across the company with repeated unsolicited emails and asking them to sign letters and fill out unsponsored surveys during the work day is not acceptable,” S…
Lol @ "Using company email/internal message boards" == "Hijacking internal systems."
Definitely not biased at all.
Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
#525To those arguing that this letter is tantamount to insubordination and is therefore a fireable offense: “Insubordination (noun)- refusing to obey orders from someone in authority.” [1] Unless they had received direct orders not to criticize Musk at all, internally or externally, they are not guilty of refusing to obey orders. And if they had received such orders, that only adds to Musk’s burgeoning reputation for pet…
Even so, they're not protected against being fired -- circulating an internal letter criticizing leadership is, in a right to work state without existing workplace union agreements and outside of a whistleblower or other protected situation, enough to get you fired, though not fired for cause. Are the optics bad? Yes. Is it indicative that "free speech absolutist" Musk believes your right to speech ends where his fee…
Except for Montana, every state in the US is an at-will employment state. Meaning the employer (and the employee) may terminate employment at any time, with or without cause or prior notice. In circumstances like this, the idea of "X is enough to get you fired" loses its meaning, since "X" could mean anything or nothing at all.
Therefore, the relevant question is not "is the company within its rights to fire these employees", but rather "was it a good idea for the company to fire these employees".
Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
#526Quoted post unavailable.
No post body was provided.
Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
#527Based on what management said it wasn't necessarily what was in the letter, but the behavior surrounding the formation of the letter and soliciting people to sign it. Basically they were fired for using company resources for personal use and intimidation of their peers.
> Basically they were fired for using company resources for personal use
Concerted activity at work regarding working conditions is protected by US labor law.
> and intimidation of their peers.
Speculation.
Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
#528To those arguing that this letter is tantamount to insubordination and is therefore a fireable offense: “Insubordination (noun)- refusing to obey orders from someone in authority.” [1] Unless they had received direct orders not to criticize Musk at all, internally or externally, they are not guilty of refusing to obey orders. And if they had received such orders, that only adds to Musk’s burgeoning reputation for pet…
An open letter like this puts management in a difficult position. I'm going to discuss that without considering other perspectives, to keep the comment on point, please don't read that as endorsement of either the system or, well, anything else.
The most powerful response is to have a top level stakeholder meeting, identify changes from the letter which need to be made, then: fire everyone who wrote the letter, and make those changes.
This sends the message that management is responsive to worker complaints, and will also send you packing immediately if you defect on the company by making anything public which should be an internal matter.
If they do only one of these things, it's either demoralizing or mutiny. Neither of those outcomes is good, one is completely unacceptable. So this is what happens.
Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
#529Re: SpaceX said to fire employees involved in letter rebuking Elon Musk
#530Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be unexpected for a company run by a free speech absolutist.
I don't think anyone actually believes that a "free speech absolutist" would tolerate, say, an employee shouting racial slurs in the office through a megaphone. I guess this is supposed to be a "gotcha" about free speech absolutism, but if you're attacking a definition of the term that no one would actually endorse, then maybe it's not a good "gotcha"...
What? Criticizing your boss == "shouting racial slurs in the office through a megaphone"?