patrick.net

https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=242297

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So one third of Basecamp workers quit because they couldn't be "woke" on company time and get paid for it?

About one-third of employees at software company Basecamp quit days after bosses told them to keep ideology out of the workplace and focus on the company’s actual business.

“We make project management, team communication, and email software,” CEO Jason Fried wrote April 26. 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.”

Good.

That's exactly correct of Jason Fried, and if the staff doesn't like it then quitting means no unemployment for you, and those people can go take their anchors with which they destroy their productivity somewhere else.

When I ran MCSNet we had a very simple policy: You're here to advance the interests of the company. You do not set policy as an employee, you follow it. If you have a problem with this then the door is right over there and you're welcome to use it -- once.

I was presented with all manner of outside demands for this accommodation or that on various issues all the time. This group or that thought they should have some sort of "special recognition", whether it be gay people, Christians, or whatever. My answer to all of them was the same: No.

The reason was simple: Extortion never ends once you say yes.

MCSNet was not a political organization, it was a business. It existed for the purpose of delivering services to people in a voluntary exchange of said goods and services for money. I recognized only one form of discrimination -- green. If you desired to voluntarily exchange green pieces of paper with dead Presidents images printed on them or their electronic equivalent you were a customer, and if not you were not a customer. Our goal was singular: To attempt to convince you that the bargain we offered was superior to that of the other competitors in the marketplace.

That's it.

If I believed there was an advertising campaign available that I could target at some group of people that argued we were the better choice on that basis then I'd do so -- and did, repeatedly. We had employees of all shapes, sizes, colors and preferences. As with my view of what the firm did my firm on employees was the same: You are here to provide a service to the company in exchange for money and no other reason. I do not care what you do outside of work but whatever advocacy and other activities you wish to engage in they stop at the door in both directions; you may neither bring them in here or bring your professional association with the company out there.

There was exactly one person authorized to speak on behalf of the company: Me.

If you want to engage in political activity, no matter the issue, do it on your own time and without any affiliation connected to your employment. Do it otherwise and you're out. Period.

Bravo Basecamp.

PS: Oops. Perhaps not so much on the bravo. They apparently have now reversed course and "apologized." Just file bankruptcy now Basecamp; you're done. You've now cooked your own goose from both ends and are finished; it is merely a matter of time.
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