Last year, 37signals employees shared the “pyramid of hate” in a work chat in response to seeing a list of “funny Asian names” of customers. Upper management responded by banning discussion of politics at work (I presume “politics” means “anything that creates a sense of social responsibility beyond investor value”). Its handling of the situation caused a third of its employees to resign.
However, I don’t think this policy is in effect anymore: 37signals leadership is using a company blog for railing against diversity and inclusion, and then doubling down after criticism. Is the “no politics” rule lifted, is upper management exempt, or does “no politics” only refer to politics that challenges David Heinemeier Hansson to change his behavior? I look forward to hearing a clarification on this rule.
Update : Mikołaj Hołysz tells me that this isn’t a company blog; however, I do think this likely reflects a current or future political stance from 37signals against diversity, equity, and inclusion.
37signals is known for creating Basecamp, Hey.com (an email service with bespoke email filters that are somehow incompatible with IMAP), and for creating Ruby on Rails. It appears to remain a key member of the Rails Foundation. For now.