1/3 of the company had joined this D&I committee, which apparently felt that it’s scope included everything that the company did. The employees proved that they couldn’t be trusted to self-organize into a committee and keep it on topic.
Lack of diversity is certainly a big problem in society at large, but do "minorities" really have problems getting hired in the hot developer job market? Seems to be more of a supply issue than a demand issue perhaps.
Eh? Source? Elaborate.
https://www.platformer.news/p/-what-really-happened-at-basec...
Of course a DE&I committee would look at how the company operates. That's its entire purpose...
Sounds pretty political to me!
Of course it's not just about the specifics of the policy. It's about the list and the leaders discussed and handled it. Rather than just taking the L they kept Posting Through It and alienated their employees.
I believe no committees is because Jason and DHH don't think they're productive.
Not bringing up past decisions you disagree with makes sense to me. What's the point in re-judging the past?
The reason DHH mentioned for 360 reviews was that they didn't contain any real criticism because you're critiquing your co-workers (I'm paraphrasing), and that makes perfect sense to me. I wouldn't want to criticize my co-workers unless I had a very strong relationship with them.
None of these changes feel like DHH and Jason being tyrants and stamping out employee insubordination.
This part stood out for me. This is a very simplistic view, and I would expect more from company leaders.
Of course peer feedback is colored. But that doesn't mean it's without signal.
A statement like "Sandra is great, her work is consistently on time" can be ignored. It's essentially no data.
But a statement like "I couldn't have completed feature X without Susan. She did X, Y, and Z, and these things weren't even part of her job. Everyone needs to be more like Susan." Well... that statement tells you something. And you now have a basis of comparison between Susan's work and Sandras. Give Susan a bonus and Sandra a thumbs up.
Nothing to see here. Good on DHH.
I don't think it's really even about the specific policy.
Note that the "changes" [1] also include "no more committees" (ie, no more feedback/authority/responsibilty except through the line-of-report hieararchy), "no bringing up past decisions you disagree with", and "no more 360 degree reviews" (no formal way to give feedback to your boss).
I think they are basically changes to focus on... "insubordination". Do what we say, do your job as we say it, don't have an opinion.
I think people are leaving because they don't trust or respect or feel respected by the boss, not over a single particular policy -- although in part over how little he cared what his employees opinions were about the policy.
[1] https://world.hey.com/jason/changes-at-basecamp-7f32afc5