Predictable.
Basecamp CEO Jason Fried was forced to apologize for asking woke staffers to leave their politics at home. Ben Chesnut at Mailchimp may have been in an even worse position after the Intuit sale.
In a nearly 1,400-word email Chestnut said he’s identified a dangerous trend in his workforce: new hires introducing themselves using their preferred pronouns.
“This is completely unnecessary [for] a woman (who is clearly a woman) to tell us that her pronouns are ‘she/her’ and a man (who is clearly a man) to tell us that his pronouns are ‘he/him,’” he wrote in an email to a small group of employees obtained by Platformer.
Chestnut said he understood the practice was rooted in kindness, but added that “in the long run this approach does more harm than good.” Forcing people to behave a certain way was “the opposite of inclusion,” he added.
In his email, though, Chestnut worried that employees were getting distracted. They cared more about politics than the mission, he wrote, sounding notes that have previously been echoed by founders at companies including Coinbase and Basecamp.
Chestnut went on: “First, there is a very tiny number of peeps at Mailchimp who would consider themselves transgender. Forcing (either with orders, or through guilt) approximately 1,390 other peeps to adopt a new communication paradigm that humanity has never had to use in our 300k year existence, and in our 150k years of spoken language, in order to make things slightly more comfortable for an extremely small group of peeps is completely illogical.”
He added that if people are forced to do something illogical they will “eventually believe and do anything (even if it’s vicious).”
No kidding, albeit behind the curve.
“Now, everything is incredibly politicized,” he said in the email. “I am finding that peeps are no longer motivated by meaningful work – they are motivated to make political statements. They are using company time and company resources to win a game, against their opponents, in a game that is raging in their minds and on social media.”
Chestnut encouraged employees to respect people with different political viewpoints. “Understanding and respecting that fundamental concept – that grown adults can have different views — is a part of being American, and part of being mature adults,” he said. “Peeps of all different political leanings are free to vote the way they want to see our country governed. But that (very American) act is for the ballot box. Not for the workplace.”
Except the workplace is the Left’s latest conquest.
On August 10, Ben Chestnut, the billionaire founder and CEO of Mailchimp, announced he was abruptly stepping down. “Over the last 21 years as Mailchimp’s CEO, I’ve developed a strong sense of timing,” he said in a letter to employees. “Now is the right time for me to take a step aside and evolve my role.”
Maybe it’s unrelated, but Intuit’s statement raises obvious issues.
In an email sent to Platformer, Intuit said it was committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. “We also expect everyone, including leaders, to be accountable for approaching all situations with empathy, always considering the experiences of others,” they added. “While we can’t comment on internal personnel issues, we addressed this immediately and took appropriate action in alignment with Intuit’s values and principles. We have also made our expectations clear to everyone involved in this matter.”
What exactly did he do wrong? Intuit can’t and won’t discuss that. But the pattern is familiar. Anyone who questions the idea that there ought to be politics at work, e.g. Fried, Chesnut, is immediately identified as an enemy to be purged. If he questioned any of the more obnoxious elements of performative wokeness, like pronouns, he can also be denounced as a bigot who is endangering the safety of employees from Group X. It doesn’t matter if you’re a janitor or the CEO, they will come for you.
Hmmm, quite interesting. Another of the curses for being rich. Or that even the rich can’t escape.
I was thinking of an old curse mentioned by Adi Shankara more than 1000 years ago, “the rich even fear their sons”.
Anytime right now Atlas is going to shrug and when he does THX can say I told you so. On the other maybe this is what that look like in a way.
They never discuss the details it so it must be a really awful example of reckless pronoun endangerment. Something so horrendous it can’t be discussed or shown in print. As a related aside the media seems to hide the actual transgression on a regular basis with stories like this and apparently you’re invited to take their coverage at face value.
In Nov 2021 Intuit paid $5.7B for Mailchimp. The Mailchimp CEO got paid you can rest assured of that.
It does remind of me of an old saying, however.
“When you are in the land of cannibals it pays to know what they eat”
I am guessing the Mailchimp CEO will be fine and will be off to his next multi-Billion $ exit soon enough.
I am quite sure that the Mailchimp CEO has screwed over his fair share of conservative employees as well.
Predictable. Basecamp CEO and founder Jason Fried made statements that “echoed” those made “by founders at companies including Coinbase and Basecamp.” FPM continues saving money on editors.
Show me a workplace where there are no politics. Show me a policy or principle that is not political. To say that what you dislike is political but what you like is not is disingenuous. But, hey, D. Greenfield being disingenuous? Predictable.
This is what happens when you decriminalize sexual perversion. Recriminalize homosexuality now!
Objective reality is on the way out. If you insist that it exists, you are on the way out.
These days pronounced opinions have given way to pronouned dogma.
You make zero sense
Btw, what’s a peep? 😉
Bummer. In this case a “peep” is a people.
I thought it was like a tweet. I heard a lot of tweets this afternoon, from birds 🙂
I saw more than a dozen buzzards or vultures flying by. When they were up there the peeps from the small birds were silent.
I’ve never seen more than 3 or 4 buzzards or vultures flying by at the same time before. Living out in the countryside is strange.
“Chestnut said he understood the practice was rooted in kindness,…”. Chestnut is being too kind. The practice is rooted in power and bullying.
Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.
— Voltaire