The Basecamp saga continues

Moving from explosion to implosion

Basecamp: It’s the values, stupid.

So, as promised in last week’s newsletter, I had a lot to say about the recent brouhaha over the Basecamp “manifesto.” (And no, they didn’t call it that, I did.) I spoke about it, ticking through each point of the manifesto, one by one, sharing my unvarnished thoughts, in episode 55 of The Op-Ed Page podcast. And if you want to catch up on all the inside scoop shared by current and former Basecamp employees, the premier source is Casey Newton and his Platformer newsletter.

And I might have let it go at a take-down of the manifesto, but then it became clear that at a contentious all-hands meeting post-manifesto publication, Basecamp lost a good third of its employee base (which was only 57 to begin with) including some very senior and mission critical people. And more are presumed to be following.

The manifesto exploded onto the scene, and the implosion was soon to follow. And it somehow seems very apropos that I’m publishing this on Star Wars Day (#Maythe4thBeWithYou) because the rapid chain reaction evokes Death Star to me.

Here’s the thing, Basecamp founders…by springing the changes in the manifesto on your employees and sharing it simultaneously with the public, and by being steadfastly unapologetic when you see the horrified responses of both your employees and the public, you are making it so that any employee who stays is going to be associated with the values you expressed in your manifesto. You are the ones who drew the very hard line. You made it so that mere employment at your company was going to make the kind of political/societal statement you say you don’t want to exist.

Worse yet, you released cherrypicked private correspondence publicly to defend yourself, and it basically forced your former and current employees to meet reputational fire with fire and push back on your narrative. You did all that, guys. It was an epic unforced error that forced everyone’s hands.

If you read through Casey Newton’s posts of inside scoop on what was the straw that broke the founders’ backs, it was the idea, the VERY IDEA, that systemic structural racism and bigotry exists, might exist at their company, and that implicit biases are a primordial soup in which we are all simmering. And even more so? The idea that bigotry exists on a spectrum, and that dismissing or excusing or ignoring or normalizing behaviors on the lower end of the spectrum contributes to an environment where behaviors that are higher on the spectrum, and more widely acknowledged to be serious, can bubble up in the first place. The Anti-Defamation League’s “Pyramid of Hate” graphic was shared, and that is what apparently started the unraveling of Basecamp’s founders.

If you see this graphic, and think it’s an attack against you, I’m really worried about what you’re up to.

So, the bottom line is that Basecamp set up a diversity committee, a BUNCH of employees thought it was important enough to volunteer their extra time to be on it, and within a few weeks the committee raised an issue about something at the company (not just about politics at large, mind you), acknowledged it might seem or even be mild, but that there are reasons a company needs to even address seemingly mild behaviors in order to foster the inclusive work culture they say they want. And that was too much for these guys who have written multiple culture and management books to handle without shutting the whole thing down.

Ri. dic. ulous.

I have no idea what happens next for Basecamp. I have to admit that the unfolding of these events have been so dramatic I’ve wondered if this was part of some grand design!! But giving 3-6 month severance to more than a third of your company when you already run lean just doesn’t fit into any entrepreneurial playbook I can think of, not even a mad scientist one.

But again…this was an utterly unforced error made by a couple of folks who perhaps got carried away with their own sense of importance and centrality to their employees. And their employees said, nope, my personal brand, my personal ethos, and my personal values cannot stay in the same workplace culture as yours. Sort of like Finn’s character at the beginning of The Force Awakens…he pull off his storm trooper helmet, looks at the havoc being wreaked by his colleagues, and simply says, “nope. I am not down with this. Not anymore.”

Last week-ish

In addition to last week’s podcast, I also published my latest byline for the Kinder Beauty Blog, all about the 4 binge-worthy shows you can watch to restore your faith in humanity.

I have had both vaccine doses now, and am 3-4 days away from “Freedom Day.” And right now, particularly, I have been around more people in the last 18 hours than I had in the previous 14 months, because I had a professional meeting last night, and today I rode BART and had lunch at a restaurant.

You may be people-ing more soon too. So, I feel like this list is a good reminder that we like some people, and being around some people is actually very nice!

One other thing of note last week: Thanks to the recommendation of a friend I signed up for a continuing ed class at Stanford, called Four by Sondheim. It’s four Saturdays, two and a half hours each week digging deeply into Company, Follies, Sweeney Todd, and Sunday in the Park (those latter two being my two favorite Sondheim works). I have never done such a thing before. I have never signed up for a course on something entirely for pleasure, and certainly not for something where I’ll probably know a big chunk of the material covered already, but I expect to be introduced to many little nuggets of info and bits of trivia that will make me even happier when seeing or listening to these shows. All to say: I tried something new, and I enjoyed it. I’ve tried more than just baking sourdough now, thanks to the pandemic.

What new things have you tried?

Coming this week-ish

There are so many zeitgeist-y things going on…do I talk about Billie Eilish in Vogue? The theoretically feminist, Amy Pohler-produced YA movie Moxie? The new Marvel trailer? Bill and Melinda divorcing, and the new road trip movie starring Melinda, Mackenzie, Kim, and Priscilla that I’m writing a treatment for? The meaning of a dandelion, and how reaction to one illustrates everything wrong with rightwing media? Maybe I’ll do an entirely quick-take-oriented episode where I share 10 words about each of all of the above topics? What do you want me to tackle?

Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts on all of the above. And as always I appreciate a share of this newsletter or my podcast. 

And if you think I can help you break through the things that are keeping you stuck, you can always set up your first introductory 30-minute consult for free by booking it in my Calendly.

Have a great week-ish!