Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 297 posts

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#91

Post by woodruffw »

collegeburner wrote: post #74
woodruffw wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn’t “agitate” for anything political at work, unless you mean that in a humorous way (I sometimes do!) Instead, you should put your best self forward and treat your political positions as a humanizing element. It’s been my experience that extremely healthy workplace discussions can occur when people start from a place of human respect, not agreement (indeed, it seems like agreeing parties eventually find so…

I meant more in the political sense but yes, maybe not the best word choice. I agree with your position a lot more. I have had political discussions with my coworkers, just like I have had discussions on sports even though work is not a place for sports. And sometimes I have changed my mind based on what they said. The concerning part is more that some workplaces have people or cultures that push politics very hard.…

You’re right, it’s incredibly hard. It’s also easy for me, the outsider, to have a just-so story for a massive corporation :-)

In reality, who knows? But I’ll continue to be optimistic, at least until that’s banned at work too.

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#92

Post by BrainInAJar »

landemva wrote: post #87
endurance789xx wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree! I feel helpless and afraid of the Supreme court ruling. At the same time, I have seen firsthand how ridiculous such internal discussions have become at Twitter, and they silently take away so much of my work time and put me on the path of depression!

Quoted post unavailable.

Yeah, just abandon all your friends and family (and don't worry about them, they're on their own), whatever life you've got set up and just move! it's easy!

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#93

Post by drewcoo »

nso95 wrote: post #5
spacexsucks wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Policy affects daily life. A stable daily life leads to a productive worker. Wanting stable work but not doing anything to support the workers life is the biggest most capitalistic thing too. Heartless and inhumane

Arguing about it on Slack isn't going to fix any of it though

It depends on what "fix" means. It could get people more informed, involved, etc.

Banning political speech is a great step toward convincing employees to unionize, so I applaud Meta for this, though.

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#94

Post by thr0wawayf00 »

landemva wrote: post #87
endurance789xx wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree! I feel helpless and afraid of the Supreme court ruling. At the same time, I have seen firsthand how ridiculous such internal discussions have become at Twitter, and they silently take away so much of my work time and put me on the path of depression!

Quoted post unavailable.

It's worth pointing out that states like Texas passed a law that allows Texas residents to sue anyone that aids a Texas resident with receiving an abortion.[0]

So if I live in California and my friend from Texas comes out to stay with me while they undergo the procedure, I could be sued under Texas law even though I'm not a Texas resident. It's not as simple as just picking which state you want to live in. Also, picking a new state to live in isn't an option for millions of people.

0: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/us/abortion-law-regulatio...

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#95

Post by drewcoo »

snidane wrote: post #6
spacexsucks wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Policy affects daily life. A stable daily life leads to a productive worker. Wanting stable work but not doing anything to support the workers life is the biggest most capitalistic thing too. Heartless and inhumane

The company doesn't have the power to change politics like that, so there is no point in getting the company involved or pick sides. The only neutral solution is to ban political discussions in the workplace, same as it should be in schools. Any other way leads to a psychologically unsafe environment to work at, which definitely doesn't lead to a stable daily life and thus a productive worker.

> The company doesn't have the power to change politics like that,

Then tell them to stop lobbying. Period.

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#96

Post by escape_goat »

collegeburner wrote: post #56
woodruffw wrote: post #44

The learned oblivion in this discussion is very disheartening: every person saying to “leave politics at home” should understand that our basic boundaries around personal and working time came from long and protracted political battles over the powers of our employers. Those battles were fought because people complained, loudly at their workplaces, and won their colleagues over. Abortion is not the labor movement, bu…

You're right, I should be using my work environment to agitate for repealing all the ridiculous and unjust gun laws we have and the shitty bill congress just passed. It's more important that we win colleagues over to protecting our rights. Not that I will do this, but when I see people talk about things like this, they usually do not feel the same if I suggest what I might do. I think the abortion laws in my state ne…

The Supreme Court decision will affect people's work lives at Meta, and that is something that needs to be discussed. There are apparently states now where women lose rights just by visiting a doctor, where they can be criminally prosecuted for an abortion outside of the state if there is evidence that they had been pregnant at any point. Should Meta employees be required to continue living and working in those states?

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#97

Post by tomc1985 »

Mezzie wrote: post #23

Probably a wise decision, and not just because of conflicts between the different sides (I can't imagine there's a large pro-life contingent at Meta), but because of the dumpster fire that intra-political discussions have turned into. Some people feel like discussing this in anything other than emotional terms is inappropriate, some people feel like we need to discuss the legal theory and history behind what happened…

I attended a rally and march on Roe v Wade last night, and it was alarming to hear just how many other issues rally leaders tossed into the ring, to a large cheering crowd. Some of these were things have a legitimate intersection with reproductive rights -- minority access to equal healthcare, or the various kinds of service ghettos that spring up minority neighborhoods, or other issues SCOTUS has indicated it wants to weigh in on -- but several had nothing to do with reproductive rights: ACAB, or reparations, for example.

And then, to make it even worse, they went on to tell the crowd that you HAVE to care about these issues if you care about Roe v Wade. And if you don't, then "get the hell out of our way". So either you agree 100% with the hivemind and their dated BLM script, or fuck you. To say nothing of the fact that the person shouting this stuff seemed to cherish just how many different labels she could attach to herself to appear more credible.

I consider myself a staunch independent and this was downright insulting. The operatives instigating all of this do not want people making rational points with their minds, they want a mental hegemony to act as a bedrock for their political war machine.

Given that and how political discussions seem to be playing out everywhere, I don't think anyone should be supporting these kinds of discussions at work. Should companies willingly allow space for crowdsourced political brainwashing?

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#98

Post by landemva »

in_cahoots wrote: post #51
pacarvalho wrote: post #2

Tricky. Politics/societal/economic/etc issues such as this one are very important to be discussed. However, companies are a place for work. Talking to co-workers can be quite fulfilling and exciting when conversing about engineering, marketing, or other work related subjects you are passionate about. However, anytime politics, etc are brought up I (for one) leave the conversation feeling in a worse state of mind than…

Companies proudly proclaim that employees should bring their ‘whole selves’ to work. They sponsor resource groups for parents, women, minorities, gay/lesbian/trans, Christian/Muslim/Jewish, and vet employees. But when employees want to actually talk about the issues rather than watch ‘empowering’ motivational speakers, then bringing your whole self to work is suddenly a distraction. They can’t have it both ways.

>> Companies proudly proclaim that employees should bring their ‘whole selves’ to work.

I have never encountered that with an employer. Is that a California thing?

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#99

Post by amatwl »

landemva wrote: post #87
endurance789xx wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree! I feel helpless and afraid of the Supreme court ruling. At the same time, I have seen firsthand how ridiculous such internal discussions have become at Twitter, and they silently take away so much of my work time and put me on the path of depression!

Quoted post unavailable.

Except there are already some House Republicans publicly discussing a nationwide ban on abortion - guaranteed it's going to be on the agenda if Republicans take back Congress (which is highly likely). Also, it's not exactly easy to move to another state.

Re: Meta bans staff from open discussion of Roe vs. Wade

#100

Post by nsonha »

I have a strong opinion on this, but I don't want to talk about it at work. When I sign the contract I don't remember any part of it being, "fix the world with your debating skill", or "being accused of complicit if you don't engage in discussion of some social issue of the week".
Post reply on HN