6 ms·

Grubhub CEO tells pro-Trump employees to resign

57 points by randomname2 10y ago

masondixon 10y ago
Whoa.
seastonATccs 10y ago
Title is wrong. He defined several actions that Trump demonstrated as grounds for immediate termination. He informed all his employees that if they do not follow company hr policies they should resign.
- sacradix 10y ago
  You could charitably interpret it that way. But he also did write these words: Further I absolutely reject the nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful politics of Donald Trump and will work to shield our community from this movement as best as I can. ... If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here. If you identify as a nationalist or favor immigration restrictions, then you're not in agreement with his statement and are told to resign.
  - revx 10y ago
    I think if you act in a violently nationalist way (harming or harassing someone who is "not American enough"), or taunt legal immigrants because they "look hispanic", "look indian" etc, that is all completely reasonable grounds for firing. In my opinion, you can identify as nationalist or favor immigration restrictions as long as you don't harm, harass, threaten, etc. someone. And I think this is what the Grubhub CEO is saying (their later statement reinforces this). This isn't censorship of ideas, it's reinforcing a culture of empathy and goodwill at a company with those values. Think about it this way: would you enjoy working for a company that did nothing as co-workers made fun of you for your race, disability, country of origin, or sexual orientation?
    - inimino 10y ago
      > reinforcing a culture of empathy and goodwill Starting off with politics and ending by threatening to fire people is generally not the way one cultivates empathy and goodwill. I agree with your analysis of the motivation, but the execution was a lesson in what not to do.
      - revx 10y ago
        I've thought about it some more and I agree with you. I don't think this letter is a shining example that should be repeated ad verbatim. However, I do want to express my opinion that in order for racism & sexism to be defeated, it's going to take some grit and discomfort. To quote: "When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels Like oppression."
  - tssva 10y ago
    He is just trying to make sure everyone is a good cultural fit for the company. That excuse usually flys on HN when discussing avoiding hiring folks of my age range, so why shouldn't it also when discriminating against people based upon their political beliefs.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
aficiomaquinas 10y ago
Clickbait title, not exactly what he said.
revx 10y ago
Source? I'd like to share this but don't want to spread disinformation.
- simosx 10y ago
  sli.mg is the image hosting website that they use on /r/The_Donald
  - up_so_floating 10y ago
    It is used there to avoid imgur censorship.
ricardo248 10y ago
campaigning is different than normal work, all the politics promise something just to gain votes and it's not different from all the other years. like Obama promised change but America just sank into more problems, even with the NSA "the program" he did not do anything about it and even lied to the public concealing it. I would look at the speeches and interview what he gives before and after the campaign it's totally different, and i think if Hilary gained the power America would just be more corrupt if anything even change while trump is president. i doubt it but i would rather see this positive.
davidivadavid 10y ago
IANAL, but that sounds like a pretty irresponsible email to make public for the CEO of a public company. Is it not? Edit: CEO just posted a clarification. http://media.grubhub.com/media/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/Inclusion-and-Tolerance-in-the-Workplace/default.aspx http://media.grubhub.com/media/press-releases/press-release-... Getting some pretty bad backlash on Twitter.
bifrost 10y ago
Can anyone confirm if this is real? If it is, this is probably going to turn into a PR disaster for them.
- randomname2 10y ago
  It is: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-employees-to-resign.html http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-em...
- revx 10y ago
  I think if anything, it'll make people in the more liberal cities - their main market - more attracted to the company. You may disagree, but my feelings after reading this are to support Grubhub, whereas before I was neutral on them. I value companies that are dedicated to inclusion and discourage hate speech.
  - revx 10y ago
    Before anyone accuses me of "being a fascist" for supporting this kind of censorship, take a moment to read the article again. He's not telling people to resign if they are pro-Trump, he's asking people who are going to actively make others' lives worse through hate-speech and derogatory action to resign. Remember that your liberties end where other's liberties begin.
    - nsxwolf 10y ago
      Does that really need to be said? I'm sure it's already in the employee handbook that you can't call people racial epithets or sexually harass people. Try to put yourself in the mindset of a Trump voter working st GrubHub and receiving that email. That wouldn't make you a little bit nervous? Would you really say to yourself "oh, yeah, I see what he's saying here" or would you clam up and live in fear of being outed?
  - pavel_lishin 10y ago
    > I think if anything, it'll make people in the more liberal cities - their main market - more attracted to the company. I consider myself to be very liberal, and I live in New York, and I find that message to be gross as hell. I dislike everything Trump stands for, but I would likely quit if our CEO sent us an email like that. I'm sure the CEO meant it to be an affirmation of the values that I hold myself to, but it reads more like a specifically political anti-Trump screed.
detaro 10y ago
previous submission with some comments and more context in the submitted URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12924340 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12924340 (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-employees-to-resign.html http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-em...)
tejohnso 10y ago
Paragraph 3: "I firmly believe that we must bring together different perspectives...including all genders, races....ideological preferences." Paragraph 4: "...I and everyone else here at Grubhub will fight for your dignity and your right to make a better life here in the United States." Paragraph 5: "If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here." How is this not a severe contradiction?
- revx 10y ago
  There's a difference between respecting someone's ideological preference, and discouraging hate speech. I like to think of it like this: your liberties to express ideology end where someone else's human rights begin. I would disagree with firing someone for saying that they liked Trump. I would agree with firing someone for making racist, sexist, or otherwise derogatory comments toward a co-worker. I think that's what GrubHub's CEO is getting at.
  - smsm42 10y ago
    He was talking not only about "hate speech" (though even this category has long since have been extended by some to include anything disagreeing with the Party Line) but about nationalism and policies of Trump in general, which has been wholesale called "hateful". Of course, one can read it as "I oppose the policies of Trump that I consider hateful but not ones that are not" but since no way of distinguishing between the two has been offered, I assume that was not the intent and surely not how most of the people read it. It reads as a wholesale denunciation of Trump and his supporters as hateful. Maybe it wasn't the intent, but in that case the nuance was lost somewhere on the way. In a message that instructs anybody who disagrees to resign the lack of nuance is not the best idea - unless that is exactly what the author meant.
  - fdsaaf 10y ago
    > There's a difference between respecting someone's ideological preference, and discouraging hate speech No there is not. "Hate speech" is what liberals call inconvenient conservative speech. Approving all speech except "hate speech" is just declaring that you will censor speech you find disagreeable. The only legitimate speech restrictions are viewpoint-neutral no matter what the viewpoint.
randomname2 10y ago
Analysis by Ken White: Mini-lawsplainer: maybe @Grubhub isn't safe with that "resign if you support Trump's politics" email after all. /1 /2 Turns out DC is one of a few jurisdictions with a no-firing-based-on-political-affiliation law. Sec. 2-1401.11 beta.code.dccouncil.us/dc/council/cod… /3 In fact, under 1-1401.11(4)(B) it's specifically illegal to publish a "preference, limitation, specification, or distinction" based on it /4 So @Grubhub probably just (1) violated the law and (2) gave a fun free retaliation claim to any Trump supporter they fire or discipline. /5 [I'll spare you the freedom of association analysis or the hypocrisy-of-talking-about-freedom-of-association analysis] /6 In short, @Grubhub, wallow and rant, but do it on your private account. Boss speech has liability issues. /7 [Update] For some reason I thought they were in DC. NY and Chicago. Different laws. I'll look.
- ubernostrum 10y ago
  Followup: GrubHub isn't headquartered in DC.
- MaysonL 10y ago
  The email isn't "resign if you support Trump's politics" it's "resign if you act like Trump (in his more distasteful moments) during office hours"
inimino 10y ago
The email sounds like it was written by someone angry and hurt and desperate to "do something" (the hypothetical "he would have been terminated" is revealing). The actual interpretation of who is being asked to resign is ambiguous. At the least it should be a lesson not to hastily send company-wide emails while gripped by extreme emotions. Agreed the headline here is a bit of click baiting.
mtimjones 10y ago
That's quite the business plan he's got there. And for everyone who thinks Trump is the only one with hate speech, I refer you to Wikileaks. This women was hateful.
downandout 10y ago
He opened the company up to serious liability for discrimination and creating a hostile work environment. Additionally, shareholders damaged by this monumentally stupid action can sue. Class action and employment attorneys are likely searching LinkedIn and other sites for employees emails to contact as I write this, looking for the ~500 or so employees of their 1,000 that are likely affected by this. Hillary lost. Get over it, and (this should be obvious) don't tell your employees to resign if they disagree with you.
dpeterson 10y ago
They absolutely should not turn in their resignations. I work for a state writing unemployment insurance application software. If the CEO wants them out, he needs to lay them off/fire them. If the employees hand in their resignation, they are ineligible for benefits. That is what the CEO wants, but that is not what the workers should allow. They are owed unemployment insurance benefits in this case.

57 points by randomname2 10y ago

Whoa.

Title is wrong. He defined several actions that Trump demonstrated as grounds for immediate termination. He informed all his employees that if they do not follow company hr policies they should resign.

sacradix 10y ago
You could charitably interpret it that way. But he also did write these words: Further I absolutely reject the nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful politics of Donald Trump and will work to shield our community from this movement as best as I can. ... If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here. If you identify as a nationalist or favor immigration restrictions, then you're not in agreement with his statement and are told to resign.
- revx 10y ago
  I think if you act in a violently nationalist way (harming or harassing someone who is "not American enough"), or taunt legal immigrants because they "look hispanic", "look indian" etc, that is all completely reasonable grounds for firing. In my opinion, you can identify as nationalist or favor immigration restrictions as long as you don't harm, harass, threaten, etc. someone. And I think this is what the Grubhub CEO is saying (their later statement reinforces this). This isn't censorship of ideas, it's reinforcing a culture of empathy and goodwill at a company with those values. Think about it this way: would you enjoy working for a company that did nothing as co-workers made fun of you for your race, disability, country of origin, or sexual orientation?
  - inimino 10y ago
    > reinforcing a culture of empathy and goodwill Starting off with politics and ending by threatening to fire people is generally not the way one cultivates empathy and goodwill. I agree with your analysis of the motivation, but the execution was a lesson in what not to do.
    - revx 10y ago
      I've thought about it some more and I agree with you. I don't think this letter is a shining example that should be repeated ad verbatim. However, I do want to express my opinion that in order for racism & sexism to be defeated, it's going to take some grit and discomfort. To quote: "When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels Like oppression."
- tssva 10y ago
  He is just trying to make sure everyone is a good cultural fit for the company. That excuse usually flys on HN when discussing avoiding hiring folks of my age range, so why shouldn't it also when discriminating against people based upon their political beliefs.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

aficiomaquinas 10y ago

Clickbait title, not exactly what he said.

revx 10y ago

Source? I'd like to share this but don't want to spread disinformation.

simosx 10y ago
sli.mg is the image hosting website that they use on /r/The_Donald
- up_so_floating 10y ago
  It is used there to avoid imgur censorship.

ricardo248 10y ago

campaigning is different than normal work, all the politics promise something just to gain votes and it's not different from all the other years. like Obama promised change but America just sank into more problems, even with the NSA "the program" he did not do anything about it and even lied to the public concealing it. I would look at the speeches and interview what he gives before and after the campaign it's totally different, and i think if Hilary gained the power America would just be more corrupt if anything even change while trump is president. i doubt it but i would rather see this positive.

davidivadavid 10y ago

IANAL, but that sounds like a pretty irresponsible email to make public for the CEO of a public company. Is it not? Edit: CEO just posted a clarification. http://media.grubhub.com/media/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/Inclusion-and-Tolerance-in-the-Workplace/default.aspx http://media.grubhub.com/media/press-releases/press-release-... Getting some pretty bad backlash on Twitter.

bifrost 10y ago

Can anyone confirm if this is real? If it is, this is probably going to turn into a PR disaster for them.

randomname2 10y ago
It is: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-employees-to-resign.html http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-em...
revx 10y ago
I think if anything, it'll make people in the more liberal cities - their main market - more attracted to the company. You may disagree, but my feelings after reading this are to support Grubhub, whereas before I was neutral on them. I value companies that are dedicated to inclusion and discourage hate speech.
- revx 10y ago
  Before anyone accuses me of "being a fascist" for supporting this kind of censorship, take a moment to read the article again. He's not telling people to resign if they are pro-Trump, he's asking people who are going to actively make others' lives worse through hate-speech and derogatory action to resign. Remember that your liberties end where other's liberties begin.
  - nsxwolf 10y ago
    Does that really need to be said? I'm sure it's already in the employee handbook that you can't call people racial epithets or sexually harass people. Try to put yourself in the mindset of a Trump voter working st GrubHub and receiving that email. That wouldn't make you a little bit nervous? Would you really say to yourself "oh, yeah, I see what he's saying here" or would you clam up and live in fear of being outed?
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  > I think if anything, it'll make people in the more liberal cities - their main market - more attracted to the company. I consider myself to be very liberal, and I live in New York, and I find that message to be gross as hell. I dislike everything Trump stands for, but I would likely quit if our CEO sent us an email like that. I'm sure the CEO meant it to be an affirmation of the values that I hold myself to, but it reads more like a specifically political anti-Trump screed.

detaro 10y ago

previous submission with some comments and more context in the submitted URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12924340 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12924340 (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-employees-to-resign.html http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-em...)

tejohnso 10y ago

Paragraph 3: "I firmly believe that we must bring together different perspectives...including all genders, races....ideological preferences." Paragraph 4: "...I and everyone else here at Grubhub will fight for your dignity and your right to make a better life here in the United States." Paragraph 5: "If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with your resignation because you have no place here." How is this not a severe contradiction?

revx 10y ago
There's a difference between respecting someone's ideological preference, and discouraging hate speech. I like to think of it like this: your liberties to express ideology end where someone else's human rights begin. I would disagree with firing someone for saying that they liked Trump. I would agree with firing someone for making racist, sexist, or otherwise derogatory comments toward a co-worker. I think that's what GrubHub's CEO is getting at.
- smsm42 10y ago
  He was talking not only about "hate speech" (though even this category has long since have been extended by some to include anything disagreeing with the Party Line) but about nationalism and policies of Trump in general, which has been wholesale called "hateful". Of course, one can read it as "I oppose the policies of Trump that I consider hateful but not ones that are not" but since no way of distinguishing between the two has been offered, I assume that was not the intent and surely not how most of the people read it. It reads as a wholesale denunciation of Trump and his supporters as hateful. Maybe it wasn't the intent, but in that case the nuance was lost somewhere on the way. In a message that instructs anybody who disagrees to resign the lack of nuance is not the best idea - unless that is exactly what the author meant.
- fdsaaf 10y ago
  > There's a difference between respecting someone's ideological preference, and discouraging hate speech No there is not. "Hate speech" is what liberals call inconvenient conservative speech. Approving all speech except "hate speech" is just declaring that you will censor speech you find disagreeable. The only legitimate speech restrictions are viewpoint-neutral no matter what the viewpoint.

randomname2 10y ago

Analysis by Ken White: Mini-lawsplainer: maybe @Grubhub isn't safe with that "resign if you support Trump's politics" email after all. /1 /2 Turns out DC is one of a few jurisdictions with a no-firing-based-on-political-affiliation law. Sec. 2-1401.11 beta.code.dccouncil.us/dc/council/cod… /3 In fact, under 1-1401.11(4)(B) it's specifically illegal to publish a "preference, limitation, specification, or distinction" based on it /4 So @Grubhub probably just (1) violated the law and (2) gave a fun free retaliation claim to any Trump supporter they fire or discipline. /5 [I'll spare you the freedom of association analysis or the hypocrisy-of-talking-about-freedom-of-association analysis] /6 In short, @Grubhub, wallow and rant, but do it on your private account. Boss speech has liability issues. /7 [Update] For some reason I thought they were in DC. NY and Chicago. Different laws. I'll look.

ubernostrum 10y ago
Followup: GrubHub isn't headquartered in DC.
MaysonL 10y ago
The email isn't "resign if you support Trump's politics" it's "resign if you act like Trump (in his more distasteful moments) during office hours"

inimino 10y ago

The email sounds like it was written by someone angry and hurt and desperate to "do something" (the hypothetical "he would have been terminated" is revealing). The actual interpretation of who is being asked to resign is ambiguous. At the least it should be a lesson not to hastily send company-wide emails while gripped by extreme emotions. Agreed the headline here is a bit of click baiting.

mtimjones 10y ago

That's quite the business plan he's got there. And for everyone who thinks Trump is the only one with hate speech, I refer you to Wikileaks. This women was hateful.

downandout 10y ago

He opened the company up to serious liability for discrimination and creating a hostile work environment. Additionally, shareholders damaged by this monumentally stupid action can sue. Class action and employment attorneys are likely searching LinkedIn and other sites for employees emails to contact as I write this, looking for the ~500 or so employees of their 1,000 that are likely affected by this. Hillary lost. Get over it, and (this should be obvious) don't tell your employees to resign if they disagree with you.

dpeterson 10y ago

They absolutely should not turn in their resignations. I work for a state writing unemployment insurance application software. If the CEO wants them out, he needs to lay them off/fire them. If the employees hand in their resignation, they are ineligible for benefits. That is what the CEO wants, but that is not what the workers should allow. They are owed unemployment insurance benefits in this case.