4 ms·

Your suggested title is more misleading than the current title. Not allowing employees to personally attack other employees isn't restricting internal dissent.

Your suggested title is more misleading than the current title. Not allowing employees to personally attack other employees isn't restricting internal dissent. Employees are free to voice their dissent all they want as long as they keep it professional. Posting memes and trolling another person is unprofessional and childish, and would likely get you written up or even fired at practically every company in existence. The fact this was ever deemed acceptable in the first place is actually the more shocking news.

geofft 7y ago
What is the professional way to say that a war criminal should not be treated as part of polite society and should not be afforded good faith, even if your employer has hired them for a purpose totally unrelated to their war crimes? Should you say it at all? (I'm not at all claiming Miles Taylor is a war criminal - among other things, there's no war. But my alma mater got Henry Kissinger to speak at the opening of our new CS college recently, Condoleezza Rice is on the board of Dropbox, etc. I think it's worth answering this question in the abstract, leaving aside the question of how we should treat Miles Taylor specifically for the moment. "War criminal" is a good enough proxy for someone where both social norms dictate that they shouldn't be afforded the presumption of good faith and it's reasonably likely that a large powerful multinational corporation would want to overlook this pesky detail to hire a politically-connected war criminal in a key position.)
- SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
  The point of professionalism is to create a safe space, where people can work together to achieve things without their personal, political, and religious differences getting in the way. Saying your coworker is evil and must be excluded from society is inherently unprofessional. I can't tell you with a straight face that you should never in any circumstance be unprofessional. But the ability to have respectful relationships across the aisle is incredibly valuable, and you'd better be sure it's worth losing. I think a lot of people don't even consider that cost.
  - geofft 7y ago
    That's a fair answer, thanks. (I also think that, given that answer, it's unsurprising that so many people have no interest in being professional. I agree it's worth considering the cost carefully, but it seems like a far easier conclusion than, say, rejecting capitalism, which is also understandably popular.)

geofft 7y ago

What is the professional way to say that a war criminal should not be treated as part of polite society and should not be afforded good faith, even if your employer has hired them for a purpose totally unrelated to their war crimes? Should you say it at all? (I'm not at all claiming Miles Taylor is a war criminal - among other things, there's no war. But my alma mater got Henry Kissinger to speak at the opening of our new CS college recently, Condoleezza Rice is on the board of Dropbox, etc. I think it's worth answering this question in the abstract, leaving aside the question of how we should treat Miles Taylor specifically for the moment. "War criminal" is a good enough proxy for someone where both social norms dictate that they shouldn't be afforded the presumption of good faith and it's reasonably likely that a large powerful multinational corporation would want to overlook this pesky detail to hire a politically-connected war criminal in a key position.)

SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
The point of professionalism is to create a safe space, where people can work together to achieve things without their personal, political, and religious differences getting in the way. Saying your coworker is evil and must be excluded from society is inherently unprofessional. I can't tell you with a straight face that you should never in any circumstance be unprofessional. But the ability to have respectful relationships across the aisle is incredibly valuable, and you'd better be sure it's worth losing. I think a lot of people don't even consider that cost.
- geofft 7y ago
  That's a fair answer, thanks. (I also think that, given that answer, it's unsurprising that so many people have no interest in being professional. I agree it's worth considering the cost carefully, but it seems like a far easier conclusion than, say, rejecting capitalism, which is also understandably popular.)