site banner

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 9, 2022

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

7
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I'll second most everything nara is saying.

Rumors of corporate capture in tech have been greatly exaggerated. Grumbling about mandatory stuff that takes away from actual work is a bonding force that transcends politics. If you can be tactful in your day-to-day, the most "evil" to which you will be subjected is poorly-executed sexual harassment training. Our corporate ancestors have complained about, but survived, that for decades--we can do the same.

This may be somewhat reasonable in direction, but I think it still has an incomplete threat model. One could reasonably exclude Brendan Eich or Gina Carano as outside of normal roles, or Damore as having brought his politics to work or at least to a public forum under his real name; the same exceptions do not really apply to James Garfield. There are very clear examples where being tactful and polite and toeing the party line in public isn't actually enough. Even on top of the limitations inherent to Kolomogrov Complicity themselves -- what's going to become taboo in a year, or two years, and what mandatory to publicly support? -- there's also the simpler failure mode where someone lifts up the rock you've been hiding under, takes a picture, and shows it to your boss. Or, in certain especially 'woke' areas in especially 'woke' businesses, where the discrimination is just addressed "to who may be concerned", since an honest non-woke person should object to it even if they aren't affected.

There are arguments that this sort of attack isn't specific to tech, which is true! But not especially calming. Especially as many of the strongest activists and corporate movements here are in tech, and just as someone making the same concerns for politics or public service or social work or academia or certain parts of the military (!) would not be calmed by hearing tech is nearly as bad.

There are separate arguments that this sort of attack isn't common. That's difficult in part because there are so few clear attempts at broad statistic analysis, and even fewer trustworthy ones; this is not, very clearly, a place you can ask the EEOC or NLRB for numbers, and it's fairly rare for the effects of corporate capture to explicitly state that they are doing things because of your bad tweets. The majority of this stuff . Instead we mostly are relying on what makes it into publicity, which by definition will only cover high-profile cases, or ugliness like tumblrs and twitters focused on getting people fired, which tend to not be greatly focused on specific fields of employment anyway.

But I think to many people, the rate of incidence isn't particularly what concerns them: they wear seatbelts even though they haven't gotten in crashes, and don't stand under the biggest tree in a forest during a thunderstorm even if they've never been struck by lightning. I'm skeptical that this is genuinely a 1-in-a-million thing, but a 1-in-a-million-lifetime risk of getting fired in a high-profile way which ends with the intentionally-vague 'racial or sexual misconduct' on your pink slip and any reference calls is actually something I'm willing to jump through a lot of hoops to avoid even outside of the realm of politics.

Now, some of the resulting philosophy remains the same, regardless of your take on this position. A First Commandment of Working While Not Out, regardless of your beliefs about how common, will probably start with something like :

  • You shall have no personal political beliefs, do not have a sense of humor that you are aware of, do not recognize the names of anyone not a direct employee.

But if you have the above concerns, it goes further:

  • You don't know anything about local sports team (is it required or objectionable to take a knee?). Your hobbies do not exist at your work place, since they're both an increased attack surface, a potential fault space, and an OpSec failure waiting to happen. Things as simple as traffic, or graffiti, or housing prices, are all land mines. You will volunteer or be volunteered to tasks that are morally objectionable to you, and you will need to smile as you do them. Not because any one of these matters will individually end up with your leading a failed lawsuit and a poorly-designed fired4truth website, but because you wouldn't know whether you're 'not a team player' or 'not a 'team' player' at your performance review or after an HR complaint.

This is, to some extent, a thing that happens in any field, outside of 'woke' influences. This is, to some extent, a thing that won't necessarily impact you.

But a serious engagement with what has happened in the past, makes for a drastically different threat model.

If you have the above concerns, it goes further.

Right, and that’s where i think it diverges from the thunderstorm. (Maybe even the seatbelts, though I’m inclined to think the expected value there is way higher.)

I see people who are terrified of cancel culture, of getting outed and fired for bullshit reasons. They’re not wrong that the consequences can be severe! Compare, though, a driver who not only wears the seatbelt, but refuses to drive at night. This objectively makes him safer, and also constraints his actions far more. There is a point of diminishing returns to caution.

I’m of the opinion that the point is pretty low. That people can keep the sports team and the hobbies, can try to relate to their coworkers, and still mitigate the bulk of any career risk. It’s worth cultivating a sense of tact and unsafe topics; it is less useful, and perhaps even harmful, to act without any personality.

It’s possible that I’m too credulous. There’s definitely a subset of companies which crank the risk factor much higher. They are rare. Without knowing the OP’s city, my prior is that his particular company is not one of them.