Good, right? This allows the consumer to make the decision without distracting GitLab from product building.
Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
821–830 of 1001 posts
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#822So this doesn't preclude discussion of HK Police beating protesters or the Uighur concentration camps operating in Xinjiang? Or is this also politics now?
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#823Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We can’t improve without discussion, and it’s unfortunate that these type of issues are so divisive. Except Cancel Culture is making it that these can't be discussed without complete agreement. Take for example, "Women in Tech", personally I don't see underrepresentation of women in tech as a problem that can be or should be 'solved'. For the better part of 15 years, there has been a massive movement to encourage w…
>personally I don't see underrepresentation of women in tech as a problem that can be or should be 'solved' I say the below not as an attempt to criticize you for this viewpoint, but as a way to try to explain why this viewpoint is often interpreted as sexist. The question is why do you believe this? The possible explanations for why women are underrepresented in tech basically comes down to either nature or nurture.…
That women have less interest in or capacity for STEM work is the most parsimonious explanation.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#824Earlier quoted context omitted.
>personally I don't see underrepresentation of women in tech as a problem that can be or should be 'solved' I say the below not as an attempt to criticize you for this viewpoint, but as a way to try to explain why this viewpoint is often interpreted as sexist. The question is why do you believe this? The possible explanations for why women are underrepresented in tech basically comes down to either nature or nurture.…
> Do you see how that could easily be interpreted as sexist? It doesn't take much of a leap for people to hear the non-sexist "woman don't do this" as the sexist "women can't do this". You need to be able to articulate why you belong in that first camp or else everyone will just write you off as being in the second. Here you've identified the actual problem, which is people hearing "don't do this" as "can't do this".…
Or they are just trying to get ahead of the argument and shut it down before it gets really uncomfortable.
I don’t know how many times I have seen the “don’t do this” argument being propped up by a due to “can’t do this” argument.
If you let these things run it’s course then it always ends up at the genetics/skull. And it’s always by people who clearly have no idea about what they are talking about and can’t actually point to any biological differences that would cause it, other than child birth... So it ends with “must be biological” because reasons, so “don’t do anything”.
Seeing the same argument play out over and over, always ending at the same spot with no evidence is infuriating.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#825Earlier quoted context omitted.
This still leaves the "talking about politics is banned"-point-of-criticism. Since you're the CEO: How did problems discussing politics manifest at GitLab that you feel this step is necessary? Or is this a "preemptive strike"?
For example I was deeply moved by Executive Order 13769 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13769 and posted so in our Slack. The first comment was 'F* Trump', written out. At the same time many people in our company probably voted for Trump.
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Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#826Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We can’t improve without discussion, and it’s unfortunate that these type of issues are so divisive. Except Cancel Culture is making it that these can't be discussed without complete agreement. Take for example, "Women in Tech", personally I don't see underrepresentation of women in tech as a problem that can be or should be 'solved'. For the better part of 15 years, there has been a massive movement to encourage w…
Women were barely allowed into workplaces in general within the last 50 years and are still fighting biases that have existed for millennia. Fixing the lack of women in tech is a multi-century process, not something that's just knocked out in as little as 15 years. We'd be lucky to start seeing the needle move in such a short amount of time.
I don't see how this argument can coexist with the reality that during the same time, women have achieved equal numbers and majority status in many other lucrative careers in medicine and law etc.
Highly talented women are not having to work as nannies and school teachers because they're kept out of tech. They choose other high paying careers and do very well in them.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#827Earlier quoted context omitted.
For example I was deeply moved by Executive Order 13769 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_13769 and posted so in our Slack. The first comment was 'F* Trump', written out. At the same time many people in our company probably voted for Trump.
I don’t think there is anything preventing them from defending him or EO13769 is there? I don’t quite see how they could effectively do that, but the possibility is there. (Yes, I realize it would be social suicide, but while I understand that this is theoretically a bad thing, I just cannot quite apply it to Trump supporters)
> I don’t think there is anything preventing them from defending him or EO13769 is there?
The new ban on politics would ban them from defending Trump or EO13769 in the workplace. Before the ban they could have defended Trump and EO13769, and the following discussion would have likely devolved even further than just "'F* Trump', written out".
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#828Earlier quoted context omitted.
The phone company analogy doesn't really work, because phone calls are by default private, between exactly two parties, usually just two people. If you look at the tech company equivalent of that, like FB messenger, or Hangouts, or other messaging systems, they behave more similarly to the phone company. It'd be difficult to get in trouble for something you said in a private message. If you want the analogy to make s…
Perhaps if it's presented this way: Group X that we don't like gets its phone service from AT&T. We know they're conducting their hateful business, fundraising, and coordination over AT&T's service. We need to put pressure on AT&T to cut off their service, or we'll assume that AT&T endorses their message.
Which is absurd. Putting that kind of censorship control in the power of ATT is dangerous. That’s why we have laws and elected officials.
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#829Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We can’t improve without discussion, and it’s unfortunate that these type of issues are so divisive. Except Cancel Culture is making it that these can't be discussed without complete agreement. Take for example, "Women in Tech", personally I don't see underrepresentation of women in tech as a problem that can be or should be 'solved'. For the better part of 15 years, there has been a massive movement to encourage w…
Just to chime in, I also unknowingly got myself labeled sexist when the topic came up during a random lunch with "friends" (company provided lunch so it had random people from HR and recruiting). Somehow or another the topic of whether going for 50/50 will "lower the bar". So I started thinking about the problem mathematically like any engineer would, with statistical distributions and estimates of the existing pipel…
I don't support or discourage your argument in this case. I'll just make a very important point that many young folks take (and my younger self took) a while to grasp…
There are a number of sensitive issues where stark logic and "inconvenient" facts are very much not appreciated. Best to avoid them in polite discussion.
Given that most social issues are not cut and dry, there is difficulty in finding the logical answer anyway. Rarely do we have all the facts available, even if a correct decision could be made with them. Rather we have mostly personal anecdotes which are not sufficient.
So the unpopular technical point of view is rarely worth giving, while also potentially a CLM (career limiting move).
Re: Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work
#830I think this is perfectly acceptable, especially since they've announced it ahead of time.