The Technology 202: Software company Basecamp restricts talk of politics and social issues at work
Cat Zakrzewski
with Aaron Schaffer
Basecamp is telling employees to keep chatter about politics or social issues out of work, amid growing limits on employee speech across the tech industry.
Jason Fried, the CEO of the Chicago-based software company, wrote in a blog post that such conversations were a “major distraction” and “not healthy,” and he said the company was finished hosting them on internal workplace tools.
“Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy, or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant,” he wrote. “You shouldn't have to wonder if staying out of it means you're complicit, or wading into it means you're a target.”