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The blog post specifically mentioned the work chat channel. Talk about whatever you want in other channels. If you were in the middle of a meeting to plan a ne

by imgabe 6y ago

The blog post specifically mentioned the work chat channel. Talk about whatever you want in other channels. If you were in the middle of a meeting to plan a new product launch and suddenly announced "I'm getting married this weekend!" what kind of reaction would you expect? People might be polite but gently remind you that's not really relevant to what's being discussed at the moment and to get back to work. If you kept on trying to turn every discussion about work back to how it relates to your upcoming wedding, they'd eventually get annoyed and write you off as an obnoxious weirdo, and they'd be right.

wry_discontent 6y ago
> People might be polite but gently remind you that's not really relevant to what's being discussed at the moment Have you never been in a workplace before? That is absolutely not what would happen, especially in HN's darling startup atmosphere. No normal person, being told their colleague was getting married would brush it off and say it's not relevant to the work discussion, and nor should they. It's inhuman and gross. I'm not a robot. I want to celebrate with my coworkers. We spend a lot of time together, playing like we shouldn't get personal with our time is absurd.
- dang 6y ago
  Would you please stop posting in the flamewar style to HN? You've been doing it repeatedly, and it's destructive of what this site is supposed to be for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit more to heart, we'd be grateful.
lupire 6y ago
Not every office is full of robots. People chitchat during meetings.
drewbug01 6y ago
“ No more societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account. “ They banned it in all channels, and told their employees to chat on Signal: “ People can take the conversations with willing co-workers to Signal, Whatsapp, or even a personal Basecamp account, but it can't happen where the work happens anymore.” So - it’s not like what you asserted, at all. What you asserted is somewhat reasonable (even if I would want to nitpick at the edge cases) ... but they’re not saying anything close to what you’re saying.
- imgabe 6y ago
  They also didn't ban "chitchat". They banned harassing people about politics, which is entirely reasonable.
  - drewbug01 6y ago
    The banned talking about politics, and my entire point is that my participation in idle chit-chat, when it indirectly confirms my sexuality, is coded as political and thus off-limits. And that this tends to get weaponized against disadvantaged groups.
    - imgabe 6y ago
      I don't doubt that there are people who will try to claim that any mention of a same-sex relationship is political. Based on everything Jason and DHH have ever said or done, do you think that their intent with this policy is to forbid people from mentioning their same sex partners? Do you believe that they would take seriously any complaint in that regard? There is definitely a spectrum of behavior contained in "political discussions". Do think there's not any part of that spectrum that should be discouraged at work? I think they made it pretty clear what area of the spectrum of behavior they're targeting and it's not "casual mentions of same-sex partners".
      - drewbug01 6y ago
        Actually and honestly: I do not know whether or not Jason and DHH would personally do that. I would caution that you never really know what biases people hold simply from reading their Twitter. That said, I would be surprised if they took a complaint like this seriously. But what I’m saying is that people used to take this particular complaint seriously within the past 10 years; and that this complaint is easily generalized to a lot of other complaints that feel very relevant. And moreover the even bigger point is now I have to worry because this has happened to me. Why wouldn’t I be worried it would happen again? (And this policy is creeping in at multiple workplaces: Coinbase, Basecamp, and at least one other place I’m not at liberty to actually say - and the trend is very concerning).
detaro 6y ago
Most companies have places where employees interact outside meetings.
- imgabe 6y ago
  And as far as I can tell, Basecamp still does, and people will still interact and make small talk. So, what's the problem?
  - detaro 6y ago
    Note that the policy is not about "in meetings", but for all spaces of the company, and go back to tshaddox's comment about mentioning marriages in small talk.
tshaddox 6y ago
This announcement is discussing specific prohibitions based on the content of workplace discussions, not the specific timing or context-appropriateness of the discussion. Obviously there are times and contexts at work where outbursts or abrupt personal discussions are inappropriate regardless of their specific content, but I think it’s very clear that this is not what this announcement is talking about.

by imgabe 6y ago

wry_discontent 6y ago

> People might be polite but gently remind you that's not really relevant to what's being discussed at the moment Have you never been in a workplace before? That is absolutely not what would happen, especially in HN's darling startup atmosphere. No normal person, being told their colleague was getting married would brush it off and say it's not relevant to the work discussion, and nor should they. It's inhuman and gross. I'm not a robot. I want to celebrate with my coworkers. We spend a lot of time together, playing like we shouldn't get personal with our time is absurd.

dang 6y ago
Would you please stop posting in the flamewar style to HN? You've been doing it repeatedly, and it's destructive of what this site is supposed to be for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit more to heart, we'd be grateful.

lupire 6y ago

Not every office is full of robots. People chitchat during meetings.

drewbug01 6y ago

“ No more societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account. “ They banned it in all channels, and told their employees to chat on Signal: “ People can take the conversations with willing co-workers to Signal, Whatsapp, or even a personal Basecamp account, but it can't happen where the work happens anymore.” So - it’s not like what you asserted, at all. What you asserted is somewhat reasonable (even if I would want to nitpick at the edge cases) ... but they’re not saying anything close to what you’re saying.

imgabe 6y ago
They also didn't ban "chitchat". They banned harassing people about politics, which is entirely reasonable.
- drewbug01 6y ago
  The banned talking about politics, and my entire point is that my participation in idle chit-chat, when it indirectly confirms my sexuality, is coded as political and thus off-limits. And that this tends to get weaponized against disadvantaged groups.
  - imgabe 6y ago
    I don't doubt that there are people who will try to claim that any mention of a same-sex relationship is political. Based on everything Jason and DHH have ever said or done, do you think that their intent with this policy is to forbid people from mentioning their same sex partners? Do you believe that they would take seriously any complaint in that regard? There is definitely a spectrum of behavior contained in "political discussions". Do think there's not any part of that spectrum that should be discouraged at work? I think they made it pretty clear what area of the spectrum of behavior they're targeting and it's not "casual mentions of same-sex partners".
    - drewbug01 6y ago
      Actually and honestly: I do not know whether or not Jason and DHH would personally do that. I would caution that you never really know what biases people hold simply from reading their Twitter. That said, I would be surprised if they took a complaint like this seriously. But what I’m saying is that people used to take this particular complaint seriously within the past 10 years; and that this complaint is easily generalized to a lot of other complaints that feel very relevant. And moreover the even bigger point is now I have to worry because this has happened to me. Why wouldn’t I be worried it would happen again? (And this policy is creeping in at multiple workplaces: Coinbase, Basecamp, and at least one other place I’m not at liberty to actually say - and the trend is very concerning).

detaro 6y ago

Most companies have places where employees interact outside meetings.

imgabe 6y ago
And as far as I can tell, Basecamp still does, and people will still interact and make small talk. So, what's the problem?
- detaro 6y ago
  Note that the policy is not about "in meetings", but for all spaces of the company, and go back to tshaddox's comment about mentioning marriages in small talk.

tshaddox 6y ago

This announcement is discussing specific prohibitions based on the content of workplace discussions, not the specific timing or context-appropriateness of the discussion. Obviously there are times and contexts at work where outbursts or abrupt personal discussions are inappropriate regardless of their specific content, but I think it’s very clear that this is not what this announcement is talking about.