4 ms·

> Irrespective of the original memo, and this is something I've felt more strongly in the past couple years, it's just not safe to share dissenting viewpoints i

> Irrespective of the original memo, and this is something I've felt more strongly in the past couple years, it's just not safe to share dissenting viewpoints in tech anymore. It is not safe to share your viewpoints anywhere where it is not considered germane: and the workplace is high on that list. A firm will fire someone who becomes annoyingly political or who makes a public ass out of themselves on social media. I work for a medium sized tech firm in the American South and we had one engineer that was very open and sometimes combative about her progressive viewpoints and people stopped wanting to talk to her, even those who agreed with her. She didn't last a quarter. Expecting firms to give their employees a forum to speak openly about anything not work related is a recent phenomenon across the board, and many still hold onto the view that if you want to engage in political discussions then do so outside of the workplace.

beaconstudios 9y ago
part of the problem is that the organisations themselves have become extremely political. Google is known to be a very left-leaning company and I can imagine that working inside such a political organisation, especially one that talks a big talk about being logic and reason-driven, would cause one to want to express their views.
- uncletaco 9y ago
  > organisations themselves have become extremely political This is not true if only for the fact that organizations have always engaged in politics. In one of the worst cases, the United Fruit Company lobbied the US President to overthrow the elected government of Guatemala. In one of the most benign cases, Subaru sponsored gay pride events and publicly supported LGBT groups in the 1990s. Besides that, everything else you've said is useless hyperbole. Get your history together before you go spouting nonsense.
  - beaconstudios 9y ago
    organisations have always been political, but the current political environment inside tech is at what I would consider to be an extremely high point. Politics right now are extremely divisive (I think much more so than say 10 years ago) and many tech companies have openly picked a side. Yes I am familiar with the UFC, and have read about their involvement in various Caribbean nations and the whole "banana republic" concept. > Besides that, everything else you've said is useless hyperbole. Get your history together before you go spouting nonsense. Why be so hostile? If you want to be a dick to strangers on the internet then piss off back to reddit. Feel free to point out which of these two statements is useless hyperbole: > Google is known to be a very left-leaning company > [Google] talks a big talk about being logic and reason-driven Everything else I said was conjecture.
Caveman_Coder 9y ago
> Expecting firms to give their employees a forum to speak openly about anything not work related is a recent phenomenon across the board, and many still hold onto the view that if you want to engage in political discussions then do so outside of the workplace. But Google does this (Memegen and eng-misc), the problem is that you're only able to speak about certain things and entertain certain opinions...so naturally, conservatives will feel muzzled and want to not go against the dominant culture/power structures

beaconstudios 9y ago

part of the problem is that the organisations themselves have become extremely political. Google is known to be a very left-leaning company and I can imagine that working inside such a political organisation, especially one that talks a big talk about being logic and reason-driven, would cause one to want to express their views.

uncletaco 9y ago
> organisations themselves have become extremely political This is not true if only for the fact that organizations have always engaged in politics. In one of the worst cases, the United Fruit Company lobbied the US President to overthrow the elected government of Guatemala. In one of the most benign cases, Subaru sponsored gay pride events and publicly supported LGBT groups in the 1990s. Besides that, everything else you've said is useless hyperbole. Get your history together before you go spouting nonsense.
- beaconstudios 9y ago
  organisations have always been political, but the current political environment inside tech is at what I would consider to be an extremely high point. Politics right now are extremely divisive (I think much more so than say 10 years ago) and many tech companies have openly picked a side. Yes I am familiar with the UFC, and have read about their involvement in various Caribbean nations and the whole "banana republic" concept. > Besides that, everything else you've said is useless hyperbole. Get your history together before you go spouting nonsense. Why be so hostile? If you want to be a dick to strangers on the internet then piss off back to reddit. Feel free to point out which of these two statements is useless hyperbole: > Google is known to be a very left-leaning company > [Google] talks a big talk about being logic and reason-driven Everything else I said was conjecture.

Caveman_Coder 9y ago

> Expecting firms to give their employees a forum to speak openly about anything not work related is a recent phenomenon across the board, and many still hold onto the view that if you want to engage in political discussions then do so outside of the workplace. But Google does this (Memegen and eng-misc), the problem is that you're only able to speak about certain things and entertain certain opinions...so naturally, conservatives will feel muzzled and want to not go against the dominant culture/power structures