Compartmentalization is a privilege

Originally published on 7 Bridges

Much has been made and much ink has been spilled over Jason Fried’s team memo at Basecamp last week asserting new cultural values and direction for the company. Rightly, most of the attention has been focused on the first declaration that “societal and political discussions” are banned from the company Basecamp account. There’s a lot to engage with here and the generational aspect and the personal discomfort lens to the conflict has been surfaced already by many others, so for the sake of weekend brevity (not usually my strong suit), I’m going to focus in on a particular dimension of this first declaration. This idea that employees not only should but must take these discussions elsewhere is deeply problematic and reveals some blindspots that need some light.

That sociopolitical conversations have no place in an organization, that deeply personal dialogue that affects every aspect of a person’s life are not to be brought anywhere into an organization reflects a desire to compartmentalize that is a feature of safety and privilege that not everyone is afforded. Saying “that conversation is getting in the way of our work — have it elsewhere” pre-supposes that it can be separated, that it has nothing to do with power dynamics or creativity at work, and that the company is immune from social dynamics and better off without the…