Much has been made and much ink has been spilled over Jason Fried’s team memo at Basecamp this week asserting new cultural values and direction for the company. Rightly, most of the attention has been focused on the first declaration that “societal and political discussions” are banned from the company Basecamp account. There’s a lot to engage with here and the generational aspect to the conflict has been surfaced already by many others, so for the sake of weekend brevity (not usually my strong suit), I’m going to focus in on a particular dimension of this first declaration. This idea that employees not only should but must take these discussions elsewhere is deeply problematic and reveals some blindspots that need some light.
Compartmentalization is a privilege
Compartmentalization is a privilege
Compartmentalization is a privilege
Much has been made and much ink has been spilled over Jason Fried’s team memo at Basecamp this week asserting new cultural values and direction for the company. Rightly, most of the attention has been focused on the first declaration that “societal and political discussions” are banned from the company Basecamp account. There’s a lot to engage with here and the generational aspect to the conflict has been surfaced already by many others, so for the sake of weekend brevity (not usually my strong suit), I’m going to focus in on a particular dimension of this first declaration. This idea that employees not only should but must take these discussions elsewhere is deeply problematic and reveals some blindspots that need some light.