4 ms·

what was unpleasant about the very liberal workplace?

badrabbit 8y ago
Same as conservative. Someone telling me what is ok and not ok to believe. I did not show up to work to get a brain-wash. I joined a company,not a cult.
- itronitron 8y ago
  point taken, that definitely seems over the line
- CharlesW 8y ago
  > Someone telling me what is ok and not ok to believe. Like what?
roenxi 8y ago
There is the unreachable ideal of political neutrality, then there are the achievable murky states of "neutral enough" that we can strive to achieve in daily life. A workplace should be, first and foremost, a place where work is done. The march of history has proven that allowing people who are mistaken in their beliefs to contribute positively has achieved great things. Consider, for example, Fritz Haber - many of his beliefs and principles are clearly bad ideas, and his overall contribution is overwhelmingly positive. This is a particularly good example of a general principle that exists up and down the industrial underpinnings of modern western civilisation. Politics entering the workplace, and monocultures in particular, represent a threat the the mechanisms that allow corporations to drive good outcomes. Nobody should want that, especially considering that even apparent fact sometimes turns out to be wrong.
throwaway1230n9 8y ago
Not the OP, but twofold: Being told that certain hobbies/beliefs I had were explicitly disallowed to be discussed, whereas comparable statements on the other side were perfectly OK, and having the situation escalated on me aggressively when I asked to understand the apparent hypocrisy. (These were not radical things, by the way, take an example as 'laser tag'; I'm leaving out detail as I'll mention in my second point) Secondly, following from the first, the fact that I have to post something even as innocuous as this this anonymously out of fear of retribution of it was linked with my professional identity.
- mike10010100 8y ago
  > Being told that certain hobbies/beliefs I had were explicitly disallowed to be discussed Context is important. If we're talking about the hobby of being a KKK member, I'd say that it's perfectly reasonable for that to be disallowed.

Same as conservative. Someone telling me what is ok and not ok to believe. I did not show up to work to get a brain-wash. I joined a company,not a cult.

itronitron 8y ago
point taken, that definitely seems over the line
CharlesW 8y ago
> Someone telling me what is ok and not ok to believe. Like what?

roenxi 8y ago

There is the unreachable ideal of political neutrality, then there are the achievable murky states of "neutral enough" that we can strive to achieve in daily life. A workplace should be, first and foremost, a place where work is done. The march of history has proven that allowing people who are mistaken in their beliefs to contribute positively has achieved great things. Consider, for example, Fritz Haber - many of his beliefs and principles are clearly bad ideas, and his overall contribution is overwhelmingly positive. This is a particularly good example of a general principle that exists up and down the industrial underpinnings of modern western civilisation. Politics entering the workplace, and monocultures in particular, represent a threat the the mechanisms that allow corporations to drive good outcomes. Nobody should want that, especially considering that even apparent fact sometimes turns out to be wrong.

throwaway1230n9 8y ago

Not the OP, but twofold: Being told that certain hobbies/beliefs I had were explicitly disallowed to be discussed, whereas comparable statements on the other side were perfectly OK, and having the situation escalated on me aggressively when I asked to understand the apparent hypocrisy. (These were not radical things, by the way, take an example as 'laser tag'; I'm leaving out detail as I'll mention in my second point) Secondly, following from the first, the fact that I have to post something even as innocuous as this this anonymously out of fear of retribution of it was linked with my professional identity.

mike10010100 8y ago
> Being told that certain hobbies/beliefs I had were explicitly disallowed to be discussed Context is important. If we're talking about the hobby of being a KKK member, I'd say that it's perfectly reasonable for that to be disallowed.