I once reviewed Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson's It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at Work, a nice and refreshing book that said things like 'Don't work too much' and 'When the boss says “My door is always open,” it’s a cop-out, not an invitation. One that puts the onus of speaking up entirely on the employees.'
A mate asked me about this book and I can't remember why, but I started searching online for Fried to see if he has had new books recently published.
On Twitter, I saw outrage. At first, I couldn't really tell what about, as I couldn't find the source of it all; I then found this post.
It is a post that is explicitly top-down.
Fried writes in imperial style, and yes, he is CEO of Basecamp, but there is a no-prisoners-taken style about it all.
I would be mistaken if I would argue that Fried should be more chilled-out and let more people in: Basecamp is a capitalist company. Capitalist companies have one main goal: to make as much money as possible for their shareholders. Capitalist companies are fascist in structure, meaning that their hierarchy is top-down; The person who earns the lowest monthly wage at Basecamp may have better ideas than Fried; Are their ideas equally weighed? You tell me. Especially after reading Fried's words from Above.
Let me dig into some of what he has written:
1. No more societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account. Today's social and political waters are especially choppy. Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy, or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant. You shouldn't have to wonder if staying out of it means you're complicit, or wading into it means you're a target.
Fried, Jason. 2021. “Changes At Basecamp.” Basecamp. April 26, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427072207/https://world.hey.com/jason/changes-at-basecamp-7f32afc5.
This is something that even pre-Socratic philosophers discussed. Not saying something is also saying something. Silence is almost always a standpoint.
Fried's colleague David Heinemeier Hansson has written this on the matter:
You shouldn't have to wonder if staying out of it means you're complicit, or stepping into it means you're a target. That is difficult enough outside of work, but almost impossible at work.
Heinemeier Hansson, David. 2021. “Basecamp’s New Etiquette Regarding Societal Politics At Work.” Hey/Basecamp. April 26, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427081627/https://world.hey.com/dhh/basecamp-s-new-etiquette-regarding-societal-politics-at-work-b44bef69.
Consider that Fried is censoring societal and political discussions: what he is actually saying is that discussions about society and social relations are banned from Basecamp and Hey. He says '[...] it can't happen where the work happens anymore'.
One of my thoughts about this mirrors what Noam Chomsky touches on in his seminal The Responsibility of Intellectuals:
IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY of intellectuals to speak the truth and to expose lies. This, at least, may seem enough of a truism to pass over without comment. Not so, however. For the modern intellectual, it is not at all obvious. Thus we have Martin Heidegger writing, in a pro-Hitler declaration of 1933, that “truth is the revelation of that which makes a people certain, clear, and strong in its action and knowledge”; it is only this kind of “truth” that one has a responsibility to speak.
Chomsky, Noam. 1967. “The Responsibility Of Intellectuals.” The New York Review of Books. February 23, 1967. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427082933/https://chomsky.info/19670223/.
If you care about making money, you speak out against what hurts your business; These injustices could be logical, moral, ethical, or a mixture of any and all of those factors.
If you believe that your company is hurt by societal and political words that are spoken by people who work at your company, only while at work, you're at risk of becoming an autocrat. A paranoid autocrat, perhaps.
I believe that Basecamp are now saying that being silent is valued more than speaking out. Once you start to erect barriers in the minds of people, they will do two things: stop speaking or/and leave the company for freedom. Or they speak their mind and are reprimanded for it.
The phrase 'It's become too much' is a bit vague from Fried, who has written books that advocate speaking out.
There are other takes on the same thing:
Coinbase's CEO declared his company "apolitical." He says that he thinks of his company as a professional sports team. Paying no attention, it seems, to how actual professional sports teams have responded to social justice issues. He gave people a week to take severance if they disagree.
https://mailchi.mp/c45049891063/companies-dont-make-decisions-people-do?e=692e3b70e2
People can take the conversations with willing co-workers to Signal, Whatsapp, or even a personal Basecamp account, but it can't happen where the work happens anymore.
Fried, Jason. 2021. “Changes At Basecamp.” Basecamp. April 26, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427072207/https://world.hey.com/jason/changes-at-basecamp-7f32afc5.
Do note that two of the three systems that Fried use for examples are private. In other words, only people who you explicitly want to see what you're writing will see just that.
This goes against his previous actions. An example:
Fried, Jason. 2019a. “When Google Puts 4 Paid Ads Ahead Of The First Organic Result For Your Own Brand Name, You’re Forced To Pay Up If You Want To Be Found. It’s A Shakedown. It’s Ransom. But At Least We Can Have Fun With It. Search For Basecamp And You May See This Attached Ad.” @jasonfried On Twitter. September 3, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427075919/https://twitter.com/jasonfried/status/1168986962704982016.
And yes, people change, so Fried could today behave differently than he did in 2019. He wrote that from his personal Twitter account and late in the evening. I wonder if HR people at Basecamp and Hey are now being trained to monitor employee actions during work hours.
A long-standing group of managers called "Small Council" will disband — when we need advice or counsel we'll ask individuals with direct relevant experience rather than a pre-defined group at large. Back to basics, back to individual responsibility, back to work.
Fried, Jason. 2021. “Changes At Basecamp.” Basecamp. April 26, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427072207/https://world.hey.com/jason/changes-at-basecamp-7f32afc5.
Is this not strange? Humans need other humans to work together well, to bounce ideas off each other, to evolve and discover things together, for the sake of themselves and others, including that of a company.
'Direct relevant experience'. Were the groups made up of people without relevant experience, or was the experience indirect? I wish this dogma had been edited before it was posted.
If the purpose of this individualistic credo is to reinstate 'individual responsibility', it sounds more like a way to backtrack blame rather than a possibility create as much value as possible.
I hope that I'm wrong in feeling this.
4. No more lingering or dwelling on past decisions. We've become a bit too precious with decision making over the last few years. Either by wallowing in indecisiveness, worrying ourselves into overthinking things, taking on a defensive posture and assuming the worst outcome is the likely outcome, putting too much energy into something that only needed a quick fix, inadvertently derailing projects when casual suggestions are taken as essential imperatives, or rehashing decisions in different forums or mediums. It's time to get back to making calls, explaining why once, and moving on.
Fried, Jason. 2021. “Changes At Basecamp.” Basecamp. April 26, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427072207/https://world.hey.com/jason/changes-at-basecamp-7f32afc5.
Firstly, 'becoming precious' is abhorrent: it does not mean anything.
Secondly, if Fried is trying to say 'Don't overthink things: do rather than think', he should write just that.
Thirdly, why not 'dwell on past decisions'? Without the power of history, we are baseless. That's quite funny as the company is named Basecamp.
Fourthly, I wonder if this means Basecamp will stop using version-handling software. Teehee!
Who's responsible for these changes? David and I are. Who made the changes? David and I did.
Fried, Jason. 2021. “Changes At Basecamp.” Basecamp. April 26, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210427072207/https://world.hey.com/jason/changes-at-basecamp-7f32afc5.
Compounded with some of the above, this sounds like Jason Fried is saying 'We're fed up with what groups tell us. If you're against our decision, speak up as an individual.'
I hope that Basecamp and Hey's HR departments are still open to listening to groups of people.