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You mean the professionalism of the founder going off on people in petty ways after they pointed out that making fun of customer names is bad and the company sh

You mean the professionalism of the founder going off on people in petty ways after they pointed out that making fun of customer names is bad and the company should review it's culture? Or where they banned any ability to give negative feedback about management under the disguise of banning political discussions? If anything, I see everyone who is leaving as being the professional ones in this situation.

digitaltrees 6y ago
I haven’t seen this allegation. It would help the discussion if you could link to someone citing this reason.
- Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 6y ago
  https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/27/22406673/basecamp-political-speech-policy-controversy https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/27/22406673/basecamp-politic... > Employees say the founders’ memos unfairly depicted their workplace as being riven by partisan politics, when in fact the main source of the discussion had always been Basecamp itself. > “At least in my experience, it has always been centered on what is happening at Basecamp,” said one employee — who, like most of those I spoke with today, requested anonymity so as to freely discuss internal deliberations. “What is being done at Basecamp? What is being said at Basecamp? And how it is affecting individuals? It has never been big political discussions, like ‘the postal service should be disbanded,’ or ‘I don’t like Amy Klobuchar.’”
  - digitaltrees 6y ago
    From the article: After months of fraught conversations, Fried and his co-founder, David Heinemeier Hansson moved to shut those conversations down. If my team spent months debating these issues I would be concerned as well.
    - MattRix 6y ago
      You say that as if the team spent literally all their work time debating these issues during those months.
      - digitaltrees 6y ago
        It only takes a ten minute dysfunctional conversation to profoundly damage a team. If the debate became detrimental then a pause is warranted.
  - Aeolun 6y ago
    > “There’s always been this kind of unwritten rule at Basecamp that the company basically exists for David and Jason’s enjoyment,” Well, of course! If you are working for a private company then this is exactly what you are signing up for.
- superultra 6y ago
  Is it too much to ask to read the linked article (and corresponding background info, also linked in the posted article), before commenting?
  - digitaltrees 6y ago
    The parent thread is a link to Twitter so not sure what you are referring to.
  - innocentoldguy 6y ago
    The “linked article” was a Twitter circle jerk, wasn’t it?
anon7725 6y ago
I agree that a leader should not single individuals out in a public way. That’s wrong. However, if DHH’s verbatim quote of his response is accurate, it sounds like things had gotten out of hand with this company’s culture. If a leader says “this is unacceptable - we will do better going forward”, that should be enough in this kind of situation. But apparently it wasn’t for the employee that you allude to. A third of the company had joined some D&I committee and that committee apparently felt that its scope extended to the entire operations of the company. It sounds incredibly disruptive.
- moduspol 6y ago
  And I'm reading the company was ~60 employees, all remote. In a business that small, it's difficult to imagine how far the culture was off the rails to have 20 people focusing time and effort on something like a D&I committee.
  - jrochkind1 6y ago
    If you don't think DE&I is important, than of course you think it's "off the rails" to have 20 people spending time and effort on it. If you do think it's important, then there'd be nothing "off the rails" about having mass participation in it. Oddly, according to the coverage, the owners had previously said publicly and internally that they thought it was important. The owners had previously been very publicly and assertively taking very "liberal" and "progressive" positions. They have been on the "wrong" side of the "culture wars" for those who think it's "off the rails" to be spending signficant time and effort on DE&I. "Hansson had encouraged employees to read Between the World and Me, a memoir by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and The New Jim Crow... Both founders are also active — and occasionally hyperactive — on Twitter, where they regularly advocate for mainstream liberal and progressive views on social issues." I wonder how it will feel to them to become the darlings of people very opposed to those positions they had been taking, as seen in these threads. I wonder if the owners will become born-again to the right-wing side of the "culture wars".
    - moduspol 6y ago

digitaltrees 6y ago

I haven’t seen this allegation. It would help the discussion if you could link to someone citing this reason.

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 6y ago
https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/27/22406673/basecamp-political-speech-policy-controversy https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/27/22406673/basecamp-politic... > Employees say the founders’ memos unfairly depicted their workplace as being riven by partisan politics, when in fact the main source of the discussion had always been Basecamp itself. > “At least in my experience, it has always been centered on what is happening at Basecamp,” said one employee — who, like most of those I spoke with today, requested anonymity so as to freely discuss internal deliberations. “What is being done at Basecamp? What is being said at Basecamp? And how it is affecting individuals? It has never been big political discussions, like ‘the postal service should be disbanded,’ or ‘I don’t like Amy Klobuchar.’”
- digitaltrees 6y ago
  From the article: After months of fraught conversations, Fried and his co-founder, David Heinemeier Hansson moved to shut those conversations down. If my team spent months debating these issues I would be concerned as well.
  - MattRix 6y ago
    You say that as if the team spent literally all their work time debating these issues during those months.
    - digitaltrees 6y ago
      It only takes a ten minute dysfunctional conversation to profoundly damage a team. If the debate became detrimental then a pause is warranted.
- Aeolun 6y ago
  > “There’s always been this kind of unwritten rule at Basecamp that the company basically exists for David and Jason’s enjoyment,” Well, of course! If you are working for a private company then this is exactly what you are signing up for.
superultra 6y ago
Is it too much to ask to read the linked article (and corresponding background info, also linked in the posted article), before commenting?
- digitaltrees 6y ago
  The parent thread is a link to Twitter so not sure what you are referring to.
- innocentoldguy 6y ago
  The “linked article” was a Twitter circle jerk, wasn’t it?

anon7725 6y ago

I agree that a leader should not single individuals out in a public way. That’s wrong. However, if DHH’s verbatim quote of his response is accurate, it sounds like things had gotten out of hand with this company’s culture. If a leader says “this is unacceptable - we will do better going forward”, that should be enough in this kind of situation. But apparently it wasn’t for the employee that you allude to. A third of the company had joined some D&I committee and that committee apparently felt that its scope extended to the entire operations of the company. It sounds incredibly disruptive.

moduspol 6y ago
And I'm reading the company was ~60 employees, all remote. In a business that small, it's difficult to imagine how far the culture was off the rails to have 20 people focusing time and effort on something like a D&I committee.
- jrochkind1 6y ago
  If you don't think DE&I is important, than of course you think it's "off the rails" to have 20 people spending time and effort on it. If you do think it's important, then there'd be nothing "off the rails" about having mass participation in it. Oddly, according to the coverage, the owners had previously said publicly and internally that they thought it was important. The owners had previously been very publicly and assertively taking very "liberal" and "progressive" positions. They have been on the "wrong" side of the "culture wars" for those who think it's "off the rails" to be spending signficant time and effort on DE&I. "Hansson had encouraged employees to read Between the World and Me, a memoir by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and The New Jim Crow... Both founders are also active — and occasionally hyperactive — on Twitter, where they regularly advocate for mainstream liberal and progressive views on social issues." I wonder how it will feel to them to become the darlings of people very opposed to those positions they had been taking, as seen in these threads. I wonder if the owners will become born-again to the right-wing side of the "culture wars".
  - moduspol 6y ago