Not a family : Shopify CEO tells staff the company will focus on business, not solving social ills washingtonexaminer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonexaminer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Shopify
Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke sent an email to managers outlining the company s core beliefs.
The email came in the wake of intense internal debate about issues of race.
In the email, Lütke said that us-vs-them divisiveness could break teams.
Over the past year or so, a debate over the role that companies should play in its employees lives has played out in the corporate world.
While some workers have high expectations for how their employers should be engaging when it comes to social issues, companies are sorting through how to best respond, while staying focused on their businesses.
Reuters/Lucas Jackson
Former Shopify employees say a noose emoji was discovered in their Slack system last summer.
The emoji, plus a video that some felt was in poor taste, caused heated debate among workers.
As the debate intensified, CEO Tobi Lütke changed a diversity-focused channel to be read-only.
Shopify, the Ottawa-based e-commerce platform known for the tools it offers to entrepreneurs and small-business owners, has dealt with some internal strife over its handling of racial and social-justice issues over the past year, former employees say.
Six former employees, some of whom left as recently as this spring, told Insider they felt that tensions came to a head in July, when they say another employee brought to people s attention that an emoji depicting a noose had been added to Shopify s