Basecamp, a company that offers a collaborative project management tool, found itself at the center of a social media storm this week. In a corporate blog post, CEO Jason Fried wrote that there will be “no more societal and political discussions” on the company Basecamp account. He said, “Today’s social and political waters are especially choppy. Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant.” He added about the impact it has on the company, stating, “It’s a major distraction. It saps our energy, and redirects our dialog toward dark places. It’s not healthy, it hasn’t served us well. And we’re done with it on our company Basecamp account where the work happens.”
Fried took a modest and realistic assessment of his business, “We make project management, team communication and email software. We are not a social impact company. Our impact is contained to what we do and how we do it.” Too often CEOs have grandiose opinions of themselves, their companies and the impact they have on the world. Fried wrote, “We don’t have to solve deep social problems, chime in publicly whenever the world requests our opinion on the major issues of the day or get behind one movement or another with time or treasure. These are all important topics, but they’re not our topics at work—they’re not what we collectively do here.”
Understanding that there are important political and social issues that his team deeply cares about, he showed understanding ,“Employees are free to take up whatever cause they want, support whatever movements they’d like and speak out on whatever horrible injustices are being perpetrated on this group or that (and, unfortunately, there are far too many to choose from). But that’s their business, not ours. We’re in the business of making software, and a few tangential things that touch that edge. We’re responsible for ourselves. That’s more than enough for us.”
Basecamp cofounder David Heinemeier Hansson told the workers that the company would give severance packages to employees who weren’t on board with the new policy changes. He offered everyone at Basecamp an option of a severance package worth up to six months salary for those who’ve been with the company over three years, and three months salary for those at the company less than that.
A number of employees elected to leave the company in a sign of protest and disagreement with the firm’s new policy.
This isn’t an isolated event. Gartner, a leading research and advisory company offering business insights, conducted a survey of 3,000 employees “regarding social issues in the workplace.”
The results showed that “three-quarters of employees expect their employer to take a stance on current societal or cultural issues, even if those issues have nothing to do with their employer.” Gartner reported, “Demands have only become more urgent during recent protests demanding social equity and justice.”
Gartner found that “68% of employees would consider quitting their current job and working with an organization with a stronger viewpoint on the social issues that matter most to them.” It turns out that “employees whose employer has taken a strong stance on current societal and cultural issues are twice as likely to report high job satisfaction.”
Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Silicon Valley-based cryptocurrency exchange and broker Coinbase, which recently went public minting new millionaires, told his employees that he won’t stand for politics and the championing of social issues at the office.
Armstrong bluntly said that he’d gladly offer severance packages to employees who aren’t comfortable with the new corporate policy of “political neutrality” in the workplace. The chief executive wrote in a letter to employees, “Life is too short to work at a company that you aren’t excited about. Hopefully, this package helps create a win-win outcome for those who choose to opt out.”
His stance runs counter to the climate of many tech companies. A large percentage of Silicon Valley tech companies tend to lean left and the companies are open with respects to allowing and encouraging their employees to get involved with social, racial and political causes.
Two tech giants, Facebook and Google, had to enact policies and procedures to deal with heated conversations on their respective internal message boards. In a Q&A discussion with employees, Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company will update policies to prevent clashes over potentially divisive hot topics, such as politics, racial justice and the Covid-19 pandemic, on the company’s message board.
Both the social media company and search engine giant noticed that the debates over politically charged matters took employees away from their jobs and work responsibilities. Google told its employees that the rules state, “While sharing information and ideas with colleagues helps build community, disrupting the workday to have a raging debate over politics or the latest news story does not.” The company’s guidelines also indicate, “Our primary responsibility is to do the work we’ve each been hired to do, not to spend working time on debates about non-work topics.”
Recently, a small group of Google employees felt that the company did not do enough for social causes. They decided to form the Alphabet (the parent company of Google) Workers Union. Whereas traditional unions utilize their collective bargaining strength to negotiate higher salaries, better health benefits and pensions, this new union is focused on social issues. It calls for workers to join the union and “fight the systems of oppression that persist to this day.” The union envisions, “All aspects of our work must be transparent, and we must have the freedom to choose which projects benefit from our labor.” The union contends, “Alphabet can make money without doing evil. We must prioritize the well-being of society and the environment over maximizing profits.”
In 2019, workers at online furniture retailer Wayfair walked off their jobs to protest the company’s decision to sell about $200,000 of bedroom furniture to a government contractor that operates immigration detention centers on the U.S. and Mexico border. When Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah refused to comply with the workers’ demand to cancel the sales, employees protested by staging a walkout. The anger and frustration was captioned by employee Madeline Howard, “We don’t want our company to profit off of children being in concentration camps.”
The Basecamp story sends a message to people who are searching for a new role. It’s the American way to be passionate about politics and fight for your preferred political party. Be advised, in this day and age, it’s a risky decision to bring this fervor into the interview process and workplace.
Job hunters have the right to campaign and vote for whomever they desire, but you must recognize the reality that at least half of the people you’ll interview with won’t share your political views. You are taking a big risk of alienating people when you promote your political preferences.
It is a sad commentary on our current climate that people will automatically form negative opinions about you based on your political preferences. Potential hiring managers and those involved with the interview process will formulate generalizations about you if you favor a certain candidate or politician. It’s not just Democrat versus Republican. You may be a Democrat, but not left leaning enough. You may be too centrist for a staunch, right-wing Republican.
Job seekers and workers have to be careful of their social media presence. Hiring managers and recruiters search Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and other sites to conduct due diligence on a candidate before making a hiring decision.
A manager with an alternative opinion may pass you up for a promotion, raise or bonus, as they feel some animosity toward you. You might never know why this happened since the offended persons never brought the matter up to you directly. You’ll be going through your daily activities unaware of the rancor held against you by the professionals who have control over your future at the company.
Although it feels as if tensions have been reduced somewhat with President Joe Biden taking office, we still have an uncomfortable divide among Americans. Politics seems to seep into any type of conversation. In the past, the big arguments at the office were over sports teams. Now, it’s over social, racial and political issues.
Companies now need to develop policies and procedures to ensure that people can feel free to both express themselves while not making others feel uncomfortable or marginalized. This isn’t an easy task, especially as companies are focused on figuring out how to bring people back to work and balance a hybrid, in-office and remote setup.
Source: Forbes
