Thanks for writing this Casey. It seems that Singer's comments did not come off well on the call, and I obviously I have no idea how it sounded or exactly how it was phrased, but nothing in that email seems particularly objectionable. It's probably how a majority of the country feels.
Demanding purity tests and denunciations is a weird thing that's started happening in liberal spaces lately and I really can't fathom how anyone finds it reasonable. "Say this combination of words or you're a bigot" doesn't really sound like a good-faith, productive conversation to me.
This entire incident seems to confirm that mixing work and politics is just a bad idea, I'd imagine Basecamp will get many applicants who are tired of awkward work interactions like this, and in a few years they'll come out ahead.
1) "To a manager, the exchange that led to Singer’s departure could lend credence to the idea that addressing social injustices on company Zoom calls is bound to be disastrous. " It seems that "could lend credence" is mathematically equivalent to 100%.
2) I have had a multi-decade career in small and large companies, most recently a $1B corporation with 10,000 employees. This situation decimates delivery capability when you lost 33% of employees. Now, my companies have had Instant Messaging , TEAMS, and Hangouts as tools...not Slack. Basically, the rule-of-thumb is use these tools to get your work done.
We did not have in-depth discussions on politics, and if we did at conferences or over lunch or talking with each other, all people had the sense to know when to move on before the subject became too personal or encroaching on other people personally.
I have had teammates that worked for me that were 100% politically opposite, and we made it through and had good relationships. I rehired one of them at one point after they went to another job for awhile.
I might add we also instituted "Affinity Groups" which had racial, gender, or sexual-orientation focus (always open to all employees) in order to provide channels of communication to senior execs and provide additional events and opportunities for the group members.
What is going on in Basecamp, and I guess Coinbase to a certain extent, really is not something that should happen and it takes some common sense for people to be sensitive to what is appropriate in a workplace.
1) Companies have zero loyalty to you: - you can go from hero to zero overnight, this is the lesson best learned early in your career!
2) HR is there to protect the company’s interest not yours
3) Money talks: Spotify/Joe Rogan and Penguin House, Jordan Peterson, and JK Rowling.
4) Companies mostly pay lip service to diversity.
To Quote: “Very often, if you express a dissenting view, you get called a Nazi. … I have not felt this is open territory for discussion. "
It was really brave or incrediably stupid of him to bring that subject up. Regardless the moment he brought that up his career at the company was üretty much over! Funnily enough this showed up in my inbox at the sametime. John McWhorter, People Getting Fired for Referring to the N word!
Thanks for writing this Casey. It seems that Singer's comments did not come off well on the call, and I obviously I have no idea how it sounded or exactly how it was phrased, but nothing in that email seems particularly objectionable. It's probably how a majority of the country feels.
Demanding purity tests and denunciations is a weird thing that's started happening in liberal spaces lately and I really can't fathom how anyone finds it reasonable. "Say this combination of words or you're a bigot" doesn't really sound like a good-faith, productive conversation to me.
This entire incident seems to confirm that mixing work and politics is just a bad idea, I'd imagine Basecamp will get many applicants who are tired of awkward work interactions like this, and in a few years they'll come out ahead.
Hmmm. A couple comments...
1) "To a manager, the exchange that led to Singer’s departure could lend credence to the idea that addressing social injustices on company Zoom calls is bound to be disastrous. " It seems that "could lend credence" is mathematically equivalent to 100%.
2) I have had a multi-decade career in small and large companies, most recently a $1B corporation with 10,000 employees. This situation decimates delivery capability when you lost 33% of employees. Now, my companies have had Instant Messaging , TEAMS, and Hangouts as tools...not Slack. Basically, the rule-of-thumb is use these tools to get your work done.
We did not have in-depth discussions on politics, and if we did at conferences or over lunch or talking with each other, all people had the sense to know when to move on before the subject became too personal or encroaching on other people personally.
I have had teammates that worked for me that were 100% politically opposite, and we made it through and had good relationships. I rehired one of them at one point after they went to another job for awhile.
I might add we also instituted "Affinity Groups" which had racial, gender, or sexual-orientation focus (always open to all employees) in order to provide channels of communication to senior execs and provide additional events and opportunities for the group members.
What is going on in Basecamp, and I guess Coinbase to a certain extent, really is not something that should happen and it takes some common sense for people to be sensitive to what is appropriate in a workplace.
watching and listening... this won't be the last time something like basecamp happens.
... when do we get to say: "oh shit, another basecamp?" or... "they got basecamp'd"!
... maybe never.
Excellent Reporting Casey!!!
A few random thoughts
1) Companies have zero loyalty to you: - you can go from hero to zero overnight, this is the lesson best learned early in your career!
2) HR is there to protect the company’s interest not yours
3) Money talks: Spotify/Joe Rogan and Penguin House, Jordan Peterson, and JK Rowling.
4) Companies mostly pay lip service to diversity.
To Quote: “Very often, if you express a dissenting view, you get called a Nazi. … I have not felt this is open territory for discussion. "
It was really brave or incrediably stupid of him to bring that subject up. Regardless the moment he brought that up his career at the company was üretty much over! Funnily enough this showed up in my inbox at the sametime. John McWhorter, People Getting Fired for Referring to the N word!
https://johnmcwhorter.substack.com/p/people-getting-fired-for-referring