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Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

theregister.co.uk

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Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

#751

Post by SolaceQuantum »

malvosenior wrote: post #320
SolaceQuantum wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nothing is worse than politics at work, where you may lose your paycheck if you don't align with the correct factions." I should bring up in this light that its still legal to fire people for being gay in much of the USA and there's a current supreme court case coming up to determine federally if discrimination on the basis of orientation or gender identity is covered under current antidiscrimination law. In that ca…

Right, people should advocate for whatever politics they want... just not at work. The issue you identify is a government one, not an individual workplace one. Even something like that is too much burden to put on your fellow co-workers to have to advocate for or pick a side.

"Even something like that is too much burden to put on your fellow co-workers to have to advocate for or pick a side."

The manager has to pick a side- they can choose to fire an LGBTQ person for being LGBTQ or not. A co-worker can choose to treat a co-worker differently if they happen to be LGBTQ. An employee who is married and gay may need to choose to leave off their wedding ring and to not allow their spouse to enter healthcare with them, because they cannot risk their jobs by being found out by HR as a homosexual.

These are all political workplace choices.

Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

#752

Post by eranimo »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #481
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #168

Without 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…

Take underrepresented minorities in tech (presuming yours is a tech workplace): You can work on that in a "nonpolitical" way. (It is, as you say, still politics, in a way, but it's not being done like it's politics.) You say, "You know that Android developer position that's been open for four months, that we can't find anyone for? I wonder if there might be some non-traditional candidates that would fit that role. Ho…

Serious question: why do you think work shouldn't be about discussing the issues that matter? Why dance around the issues?

Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

#753

Post by ananthraghavan »

overgard wrote: post #741
snowwrestler wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When people go and talk to women who started out in the tech pipeline but left, many say that the reasons they left are that they felt unwelcome in some way: they were harassed, under-valued, talked over, stalked, underpaid, etc. Too many women choose to leave not because they didn't like the work, but because they didn't like all the bullshit they were implicitly asked to put up with, in order to do the work. If ver…

I've heard this hypothesis a lot, but there's something that bothers me about it. If you've ever been passionate about something, something that's hard and takes a lot of effort and practice to become good at, would you really let microaggressions stop you from doing that thing? I mean, being a programmer is not exactly a high status thing for white males either. If I tell people I'm a programmer, I generally am comp…

>If I tell people I'm a programmer, I generally am competing with the perception that I am socially awkward. People assume I'm like some Big Bang Theory character until I prove otherwise. I don't like that stereotype, but it never stopped me from learning to code, or even was a thought that crossed my mind.

People thinking you're socially awkward is different from people sexually harassing you at work.

Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

#754

Post by eranimo »

skybrian wrote: post #558
ProfessorLayton wrote: post #168

Without 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…

The problem is getting hooked on politics that doesn't actually affect you personally, other people on your team, or how you do your job. Just like we do on Hacker News, you can have employees reading about stuff happening elsewhere in the world, commenting on it, and getting upset over it. At large companies, this can include things going on in different parts of the company. You don't know them or how they work, bu…

No, you're just privileged enough to not have to worry about a divisive political issue because it doesn't directly impact you. There's nothing wrong with that, if you're aware of it.

Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

#755

Post by skewart »

akersten wrote: post #694
Gunax wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Refusing to serve a customer when you disagree with that customer's goal is pretty far from being a "moral arbiter for society." Keep in mind that anyone is free to use other services (or roll their own) and gitlab can't do anything about that. Neither would it be overreaching for the workers building that product to request a say in how it's used. I think this is the crux of the issue. Anyone is of course free to…

Or, just break up the alleged monopoly under existing anti-trust regulation, instead of welcoming a terrifying new power of the government mandating that private business serve customers they disagree with?

How would you break up a giant social network? What lines would you cut it along?

Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

#758

Post by eranimo »

icelancer wrote: post #482
opportune wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely agree that politics is everywhere and picking and choosing which type of political discussion is allowed is itself political, (I’ve also never been convinced that URMs in tech isn’t primarily a pipeline problem but ofc wouldn’t want to shut off debate on that) I guess the difference in what is allowed is between “positive” vs “negative” politics. By that I don’t mean positive politics is absolutely the b…

>> “We want to empower marginalized groups” This also means nothing. What does "empower" mean in this context? Define it, and you are guaranteed to piss off plenty of people in the marginalized groups, to say nothing of the majority groups (whose rights today apparently are meaningless).

Don't act like this isn't defined. You empower marginalized groups by ensuring that they can't be fired just for being in that group, for starters.

Your rights aren't minimized by granting rights to minorities. I can't believe I have to explain this to you. This isn't a zero sum game.

Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

#759

Post by icelancer »

eranimo wrote: post #758
icelancer wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> “We want to empower marginalized groups” This also means nothing. What does "empower" mean in this context? Define it, and you are guaranteed to piss off plenty of people in the marginalized groups, to say nothing of the majority groups (whose rights today apparently are meaningless).

Don't act like this isn't defined. You empower marginalized groups by ensuring that they can't be fired just for being in that group, for starters. Your rights aren't minimized by granting rights to minorities. I can't believe I have to explain this to you. This isn't a zero sum game.

I am a minority. Not sure why you think otherwise.
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