Basecamp, a Chicago-based company that’s developed a reputation for its tech counter-culture ways, instituted new policies this week that ask employees to refrain from engaging in conversations about political and societal issues while at work.
In a slew of new company policies published on the software developer’s website, the first and most controversial policy states employees are banned from having societal and political discussions on the Basecamp account as the leadership works to refocus its team on developing software.
“It's a major distraction,” wrote co-founder and CEO Jason Fried in the announcement. “It saps our energy, and redirects our dialog towards dark places. It's not healthy, it hasn't served us well. And we're done with it on our company Basecamp account where the work happens.”
In an email interview with Inno Tuesday morning, Fried said the decision to ban societal and political talk at Basecamp was long in the works, but that a specific discussion last week, which he did not reveal the contents of, caused the company to officially institute the new policy. Fried said he considers societal and political issues to include “election politics, Russiagate and riots.”
Since the announcement, some current and former employees, as well as those in the tech and startup industry broadly have expressed their frustration with the new policy, saying in social media posts that the changes are “disheartening” and that they’re “sad and upset.”
“[I] totally understand some people are upset,” Fried said. “Not at all unexpected, as I referenced in my post. It's only been 24 hours, so we're letting things play out, giving people the space they need. We're in the raw stage right now. Things will heal in time and we'll see where we're at.”
While employees cannot discuss politics and social issues on Basecamp work chats, Fried said he isn’t discouraging employees from talking about it elsewhere on other apps, like Whatsapp or Signal.
One of the other new policies Basecamp revealed Monday is that the company is eliminating committees as a way to get rid of “groupthink recommendations” and “bureaucracy." According to Fried’s announcement, committees will now be turned over to the company’s head of People Ops. The new policy comes after a group of Basecamp employees formed a DEI Council in February, Fried confirmed. According to Fried, the council had not made official recommendations yet.
Other company changes Basecamp announced Monday include eliminating “paternalistic benefits,” such as fitness benefits, wellness allowances, farmer's market shares and continuing education allowances. Instead, Basecamp is paying every employee the full cash value of the benefits this year and has introduced a 10% profit-sharing plan with employees. The company is also doing away with a peer review system it had in place.
Basecamp, which employs about 60 people, has developed a reputation as being a tech contrarian since its inception over 20 years ago. Fried and his co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson, who goes by DHH, have publicly talked about how and why they’re different from other tech companies, making Monday’s announcement not unusual.
Fried has long been vocal about his opposition to raising venture capital, and his support for fully remote teams and workplace flexibility. Fried and DHH also authored the book ReWork, a guide for entrepreneurship that details how companies can grow without raising massive amounts of outside capital or creating an overly demanding workplace.
Fried described Basecamp’s company culture as “a trusting, open and positive one overall, [but] not without its warts or rough patches, like any organization.”
Basecamp’s announcement follows in the footsteps of Coinbase, which in September announced that employees were no longer allowed to “debate causes or political candidates internally that are unrelated to work."
Brian Armstrong, the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase who authored the announcement, commended Basecamp in a tweet on Monday for its similar policy, saying, “Another mission focused company. It takes courage in these times. Who will be next?”
Jim Blasingame, the host of the syndicated radio program Small Business Advocate Show hosted by Insperity, also said that releasing a policy like this takes “courage.”
“I’m very happy to see a CEO take this stand,” Blasingame said. “He’s trying to take back control of the focus of the company.”
Yet, others are perplexed by Basecamp’s new policies. Critics say there's a difference between talking about who to vote for in an upcoming election and whether a group of people is facing discrimination for their gender, race or sexual orientation, which can be directly related to an individual's experience at their place of work.
“I am stunned that Jason and DHH took that position,” said Josh Inglis, the founder and CEO of startup and tech PR firm Propllr. “They've been counter tech culture for forever, and now that tech companies are coming around to their thinking on remote work, the monopoly power of Apple, and the evils of the hustle ethos, it's almost like they both looked around to find some other prevailing thing to counter. But boy was their aim off on this one.”
