Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

How is it a useful democratic exercise to inundate non political employees, or employees who don’t share the majority’s moral political views?

The types of moral politics I am thinking about is discussing the tweet-du-jour, basically celebrity gossip about politicians, etc. Worse still would be people taking strong, loud and uninformed positions on foreign policy, like Syria. I actually happen to find that triggering, given my background. I would rather that people keep their opinions outside of my cubicle so that I can focus on producing the best work I can - instead of constantly being reminded of the shithole I left behind.



What you do matters. The people on the ground turning Syria into the shithole you consider it to be were probably also "just focusing on producing the best work they could". Apparently they did a pretty good job.


Will someone talking about Syria at Gitlab have any meaningful affect?


Syria was an example, in practice it depends the relevant questions will depend on your company.

For example: I work at a MedTech company. I consider it supremely important that I (and everyone else) am able to say no, I am not going to work on feature X because it would breach patient privacy, or feature Y that is impossible to do without unacceptable risks of causing malpractice.

Of course, whoever proposed those projects would then be free to make a convincing case for how we could mitigate those problems, or why I might be wrong.


That’s not discussing politics - that’s keeping your company in compliance and keeping them from getting sued. That is work related.

I would go so far as advocating not manufacturing in China because of the current political climate is work related because it can have a direct impact on the bottom line.


Being work-related is orthogonal to if it is political, or the benefit it'd bring to your employer.

I'd be making the same objections if I didn't have GDPR and Patientdatalagen to point to. Hell, I'd have been in favour of introducing those laws, even knowing that it would increase our costs (which I also care about, just not to the same degree).


The purpose of going to work is to get a paycheck and to either make your company money or save your company money. Doing what’s best for your customer is a long term investment in your company.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: