
The Real Lesson in Grubhub CEO Telling Trump Supporters to Resign - kshatrea
http://www.wirepoints.com/the-real-lesson-in-grubhub-ceo-telling-trump-supporters-to-resign-plus-an-earlier-personal-one-wp-original/
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Latty
Clearly, this email was a terrible idea. People have a right to their own
politics without it affecting their career.

That being said, the statement sounds terrible when summarised like this. The
email was (to my eyes) clearly intended as a message of support to those who
felt threatened by Trump's policies.

By pairing it with Trump's politics specifically, it is turned into a threat
to those who support Trump. Whether the author did this intentionally is
pretty irrelevant, he's going to end up threatening those people just as he
tried to defend others against being threatened. While he technically didn't
say explicitly what the title claims, it's clearly implied (intentionally or
not).

If instead, the email had decried actual issues that will (in my opinion) come
from the Trump presidency, then that would have been reasonable.

This is, as always, the hard question of how far we have to tolerate
intolerance. Generally we draw the line at a call to action, and supporting a
candidate definitely doesn't cross that line.

~~~
ant6n
> If instead, the email had decried actual issues that will (in my opinion)
> come from the Trump presidency, then that would have been reasonable.

"I absolutely reject the nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful politics of
Donald Trump"

While probably not a good idea (especially with Trump supporters having a bit
of a chip on their shoulder), the e-mail did make it clear what behavior he's
not going to accept at his work place.

~~~
Latty
My view is that plenty of Trump's support is white people who believe they are
under attack - there has been a push for some time that every gain for the
rights of minorities comes at the cost of the majority. Those people are
falling for a racist lie, and telling them 'If you support this candidate, get
out.' isn't going to help that, just push them further to feel that lie is
true, and entrench their support.

Instead, if the email had explained the harm those policies might do to
colleagues, and how the company aims to defend those people... maybe views get
changed.

Honestly, I imagine this email is an angry mistake, intended to provide help
to those who will suffer support, however, it ends up being an unintended
threat. It's hard to say without a magical detector for intent, but the damage
is done.

~~~
ant6n
On the face of it this is of course reasonable, the problem is the context.
You're basically asking people that have been oppressed and are fighting for
their rights (often resulting in more vicious oppression), to now come and
cuddle what they perceive as their current and former oppressors.

Another issue is that the many white males who perceive themselves as under
attack respond to it by engaging in even more vicious racism and sexism. Just
look at the way they treated Obama who didn't actually do much if anything to
threaten white people, he was barely noticeable as black.

Maybe people who are fighting for their rights are sick and tired of the
racists and sexists, and now having to reach out a hand to them yet again,
when they themselves have always refused that.

~~~
Latty
"Come and cuddle" isn't really the same thing as not firing someone.

I agree with your second point - but I don't see how that's solved by firing
them - again, it's just going to reinforce the idea that "white men are under
attack!".

I get what you are saying, but it turns out almost half of the voting
population agrees with his ideas, so the fight isn't over. I, too, thought we
were past this point, but clearly we are not. It's exhausting, but it's
reality.

I'm hoping that it's just people believing the lie - hopefully people will
realise that denying other's their rights won't magically solve unrelated
problems they have. Enabling their victim complex by doing stuff like this
definitely won't help.

~~~
ant6n
> "Come and cuddle" isn't really the same thing as not firing someone.

True, but it's not like he was gonna fire Trump voters just for being Trump
voters. So not firing them is not enough. They also want to get listened to,
and they want the feminists and the "SJW"s to accept that they are oppressed
now as well. Which will simply never happen.

~~~
Latty
Well, I don't believe that was his intent, but someone who voted for Trump
reading that email, who believes that white men are being persecuted, probably
does. Leaving them scared, and entrenching them. It's a huge mistake to phrase
it so carelessly as to allow that interpretation.

------
jondubois
The email just shows what a sheep he is for regurgitating everything the media
has said about Trump without actually taking a second to think about it.

Trump's wife is an immigrant! Can there be any better proof that Trump doesn't
hate immigrants? The xenophobia argument was bullshit made up by the media to
manipulate people to vote for Hillary and this CEO bought it hook line and
sinker.

Trump media also told a lot of bullshit - I'm not trying to target Hillary
supporters specifically. I would say the same thing if a CEO was trying to
tell his employees that Hillary should be 'locked up' if Trump had lost - To
me it would be equally stupid media-vomit.

It's just that when I see how much of a 'follower' (of the media) these
supposed 'leaders' can be, it's depressing.

------
ntdb
What Matt Maloney (Grubhub CEO) said was:

"I want to affirm to anyone on our team that is scared or feels personally
exposed, that I and everyone else here at Grubhub will fight for your dignity
and your right to make a better life for yourself and your family here in the
United States. If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to
this email with your resignation because you have no place here."

That's not an statement against supporting Donald Trump, that's a demand for
the protection of human dignity and opportunity. Perhaps the author assumes
that there are no Trump supporters who support dignity and opportunity for
all, an absolutely false generalization.

~~~
mistermann
Respectfully, I think you are being intellectually dishonest:

"Full Email Text:

SUBJECT: So... that happened... what's next?

I'm still trying to reconcile my own worldview with the overwhelming message
that was delivered last night. Clearly there are a lot of people angry and
scared as the antithesis of every modern presidential candidate won and will
be our next president.

While demeaning, insulting and ridiculing minorities, immigrants and the
physically/mentally disabled worked for Mr. Trump, I want to be clear that
this behavior - and these views, have no place at Grubhub. Had he worked here,
many of his comments would have resulted in his immediate termination.

We have worked for years cultivating a culture of support and inclusiveness. I
firmly believe that we must bring together different perspectives to continue
innovating - including __all __genders, races, ethnicities and sexual,
cultural __or ideological preferences __. We are better, faster and stronger
together.

Further I absolutely reject the nationalist, anti-immigrant and hateful
politics of Donald Trump and will work to shield our community from this
movement as best as I can. As we all try to understand what this vote means to
us, I want to affirm to anyone on our team that is scared or feels personally
exposed, that I and everyone else here at Grubhub will fight for your dignity
and your right to make a better life for yourself and your family here in the
United States.

 __If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email
with your resignation because you have no place here. __We do not tolerate
hateful attitudes on our team.I want to repeat what Hillary said this morning,
that the new administration deserves our open minds and a chance to lead, but
never stop believing that the fight for what 's right is worth it.

Stay strong, Matt"

Cherry pick and twist however you want but anyone with common sense who is
paying attention knows exactly what this means.

~~~
ntdb
My intention was to succinctly address the post, not to cherry pick. I do not
disagree with anything in Matt's email but I do see opportunities for his
intention to be misinterpreted. I agree that he could have been more careful.

Frankly, statements like "anyone with common sense who is paying attention
knows exactly what this means" are intellectually lazy. Please explain
"exactly what this means" because I do not see it.

~~~
mistermann
If you do not hide the fact that you are a Trump supporter, you will be fired
(or more accurately, a reason will be found for you to be fired).

------
vishalzone2002
Again such a wrong headline. He did not say that at all. He pointed out
specific ideas of Trump that he was against and those are the ones that any
sane person would be against.

Clickbait titles can be very harmful.

~~~
pcunite
He quotes from the email. Was this not true?

 _If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with
your resignation because you have no place here._

~~~
athenot
The statement is well put. It is differentiating between the behavior and the
person.

Doing some quick reading comprehension stuff:

\- The demeaning, insulting and ridiculing BEHAVIOR has no place.

\- I reject the POLITICS of Donald Trump

\- shield our community from this MOVEMENT (i.e. the aforementioned politics)

He clearly laid out _values_ of Mr. Trump then proceeds to explain how
espousing them would result in a bad fit for his company.

More specifically, here's what _cannot_ be derived from his email:

\- "If you VOTED for Trump you're fired." As hard as it is for _me_ to
understand, I do realize one may have other reasons why he/she voted for
Trump.

\- "If you support Trump, you're fired." This one is murky but one may support
_some_ of his actions while rejecting others.

~~~
mzw_mzw
Do you really think that someone who voted for Trump, and now fears for their
employment in the context of a hard-left industry and hometown full of people
freaking out and making wild threats, is going to carefully parse the letter
in this fashion and decide they have nothing to worry about?

Imagine _you_ got this letter from your boss. Would you then happily stroll up
to him at the water cooler and tell him how proud you were to vote for Donald
Trump on Tuesday?

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perseusprime11
"If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to this email with
your resignation because you have no place here"

This is elitist and exactly why we are here today. The country right now needs
all of us to be at our best and show inclusiveness.

~~~
jameshart
The statement which he was asking people to agree with being:

"to anyone on our team that is scared or feels personally exposed, I and
everyone else here at Grubhub will fight for your dignity and your right to
make a better life for yourself and your family here in the United States"

That seems pretty inclusive to me. I have no idea in what way it is 'elitist'.

~~~
internaut
> will work to shield our community from this movement as best as I can.

This is the statement that upon rereading his email, troubles me the most.

The rest of it with the Principal of Charity could be taken more favourably.

In the context he can only mean shielding 'his community' from Trump
supporters. What other 'movement' could he be talking about?

So it follows that his community does not contain Trump supporters. That's the
presumption.

I started to defend him in an earlier thread, but now I wished I had not after
I parsed that line properly.

I'm ashamed to see a fellow Irishman being so blockheaded.

------
spydum
As others posted, it seems to me care wasn't taken to be super clear on what
was slightly ambiguous email about telling people to resign. That is a huge
deal from a CEO. That line should have been left out. CEO should not be so
careless with communication.

------
myf01d
Alright, he made a gamble here, he wrote this so leftists and liberals make it
viral and the company becomes a champion for diversity and other companies
join him and the stock goes up, aaaand he was wrong.

------
jkern
"Most Americans now say they know the media have exaggerated Trump’s rhetoric
and flaws (though I’m not defending him here)"... huh?

~~~
sago
A recent wise comment said "the left takes Trump literally, but not seriously,
his supporters take him seriously but not literally."

It is indeed possible that the media exaggerated his views by reporting his
rhetoric in isolation to his broader message.

This is the political sport of our age. Atomise someone's speech and treat it
as self-evident evil. Can anyone say "different public and private positions"?

------
geofft
> _Upon regaining composure after reading the email today, I tried to short
> the stock. Too late. It had already dropped by over 4% — $120 million of
> shareholder value already incinerated._

> _Didn’t he see the firestorm coming? Like I said from my experience, Matt
> has been a good steward of shareholder money. How could he do something this
> stupid? I don’t think Matt would have knowingly risked the damage done for
> political principle._

It's a weird world in which it's _unthinkable_ that you might be willing to
risk shareholder value for political principle.

------
rockmeamedee
This is kind of weird logic to me. I see the letter as a good thing.

He thinks the letter is bad because Grubhub's market cap dropped $120M? To me
this CEO is commendable. He stands for protecting people from a dangerous and
inept man, despite the monetary (and probably social capital) costs. If
dumbass VCs don't see a threat in Trump's behavior and want to shun this guy,
he's ok with that.

The author of this article is saying "Don't say bad things about the fascists,
you'll lose money". I strongly disagree. Do everything you can to keep people,
at-risk communities, and the planet safe during this presidency.

Someone else wrote it better on twitter today: "The Holocaust Museum in DC
features IBM in its permanent exhibition. Our industry can choose its role in
history." (by @marcprecipice)

If you weren't previously aware of the fact that IBM used its technology to
facilitate the Holocaust, you can read about it here:
[http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com/](http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com/)

~~~
mzw_mzw
Whoa, whoa, whoa. We've been assured by everyone else on this topic that the
CEO wasn't saying anything bad about Trump and his supporters, no how, no way,
why the very idea is absurd. And now you're saying that yup, he was, and it's
great?

Who's right here?

