Re:Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
by username90 on Friday August 23, 2019 @03:17PM
(#20781477)
Do you discuss politics at work in an online forum where 100 000 persons can pitch in? It is very different from discussing politics in person, things gets way more toxic online since there are more people who can take offence so arguments often escalate.
Re:Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
by bradlys on Friday August 23, 2019 @06:36PM
(#20783397)
Sure - I get that. I understand with enough people in a semi-anonymous forum that it could get toxic quickly from just a few bad actors.
However, a lot of the commentary here has been around in-person interactions and not on an online forum.
Re:Google Doesn’t Want Staff Debating Politics at Work Anymore
by throwaway3563 on Friday August 23, 2019 @04:04PM
(#20782004)
It could depend on multiple factors, such as: number of people you're debating with, their demographics, and the fact that some people are more ... shall we say... "trigger-happy" than others.
I don't think it really has to. I debate politics with people at work enough. I won't get into specifics too much but it's not uncommon to meet someone who has a controversial opinion. You talk with someone, find out why they believe what they believe, and then question a few things (mostly asking why they believe they believe - what lead them to their beliefs). It doesn't have to get heated - it can be a boring lecture to one another about why you believe what you believe. It only gets ugly when you do things that won't lead to change like: "No - you're dumb! You should think what I think!" Which I don't think people who are emotionally and socially competent would do that often...
That said - I don't think of people at Google (or other big companies) as being particularly emotionally or socially competent because they don't hire and train for that.