
Grubhub CEO tells pro-Trump employees to resign - randomname2
https://i.sli.mg/vB95ZB.jpg
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tejohnso
Paragraph 3: "I firmly believe that we must bring together different
perspectives...including all genders, races.... _ideological preferences_."

Paragraph 4: "...I and everyone else here at Grubhub will fight for your
dignity and your right to make a better life here in the United States."

Paragraph 5: "If you do not agree with this statement then please reply to
this email with your resignation because _you have no place here_."

How is this not a severe contradiction?

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revx
There's a difference between respecting someone's ideological preference, and
discouraging hate speech. I like to think of it like this: your liberties to
express ideology end where someone else's human rights begin.

I would disagree with firing someone for saying that they liked Trump. I would
agree with firing someone for making racist, sexist, or otherwise derogatory
comments toward a co-worker. I think that's what GrubHub's CEO is getting at.

~~~
fdsaaf
> There's a difference between respecting someone's ideological preference,
> and discouraging hate speech

No there is not. "Hate speech" is what liberals call inconvenient conservative
speech. Approving all speech except "hate speech" is just declaring that you
will censor speech you find disagreeable.

The only legitimate speech restrictions are viewpoint-neutral no matter what
the viewpoint.

~~~
MaysonL
"You're a dirty monkey and should go back to Africa" is inconvenient
conservative speech? You'll have a difficult time defending that statement.

~~~
fdsaaf
That statement is absolutely protected speech.

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revx
I think you're mistaking the purpose of the 1st amendment. Racist comments are
protected speech in that the _United States Government_ cannot
arrest/imprison/etc. you for that kind of speech.

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of repercussions for your speech. New
York is an at-will state, meaning there is no legal problem with this email.
There is no protection for people getting fired for hate speech, just like
there is no legal protection for people boycotting or refusing to work for
companies that they disagree with.

~~~
fdsaaf
Private enterprises aren't required by law to uphold a high standard of free
speech, but being decent Americans does. The government MUST NOT censor, but
private companies SHOULD NOT.

~~~
revx
I think we have a very different standard of what a "decent American" is.
Perhaps we'll have to agree to disagree for now.

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randomname2
Analysis by Ken White:

Mini-lawsplainer: maybe @Grubhub isn't safe with that "resign if you support
Trump's politics" email after all. /1

/2 Turns out DC is one of a few jurisdictions with a no-firing-based-on-
political-affiliation law. Sec. 2-1401.11
beta.code.dccouncil.us/dc/council/cod…

/3 In fact, under 1-1401.11(4)(B) it's specifically illegal to publish a
"preference, limitation, specification, or distinction" based on it

/4 So @Grubhub probably just (1) violated the law and (2) gave a fun free
retaliation claim to any Trump supporter they fire or discipline.

/5 [I'll spare you the freedom of association analysis or the hypocrisy-of-
talking-about-freedom-of-association analysis]

/6 In short, @Grubhub, wallow and rant, but do it on your private account.
Boss speech has liability issues.

/7 [Update] For some reason I thought they were in DC. NY and Chicago.
Different laws. I'll look.

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MaysonL
The email isn't "resign if you support Trump's politics" it's "resign if you
act like Trump (in his more distasteful moments) during office hours"

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davidivadavid
IANAL, but that sounds like a pretty irresponsible email to make public for
the CEO of a public company. Is it not?

Edit: CEO just posted a clarification. [http://media.grubhub.com/media/press-
releases/press-release-...](http://media.grubhub.com/media/press-
releases/press-release-details/2016/Inclusion-and-Tolerance-in-the-
Workplace/default.aspx)

Getting some pretty bad backlash on Twitter.

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downandout
He opened the company up to serious liability for discrimination and creating
a hostile work environment. Additionally, shareholders damaged by this
monumentally stupid action can sue. Class action and employment attorneys are
likely searching LinkedIn and other sites for employees emails to contact as I
write this, looking for the ~500 or so employees of their 1,000 that are
likely affected by this.

Hillary lost. Get over it, and (this should be obvious) don't tell your
employees to resign if they disagree with you.

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dpeterson
They absolutely should not turn in their resignations. I work for a state
writing unemployment insurance application software. If the CEO wants them
out, he needs to lay them off/fire them. If the employees hand in their
resignation, they are ineligible for benefits. That is what the CEO wants, but
that is not what the workers should allow. They are owed unemployment
insurance benefits in this case.

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seastonATccs
Title is wrong. He defined several actions that Trump demonstrated as grounds
for immediate termination. He informed all his employees that if they do not
follow company hr policies they should resign.

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sacradix
You could charitably interpret it that way. But he also did write these words:

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

If you identify as a nationalist or favor immigration restrictions, then
you're not in agreement with his statement and are told to resign.

~~~
revx
I think if you act in a violently nationalist way (harming or harassing
someone who is "not American enough"), or taunt legal immigrants because they
"look hispanic", "look indian" etc, that is all completely reasonable grounds
for firing.

In my opinion, you can identify as nationalist or favor immigration
restrictions as long as you don't harm, harass, threaten, etc. someone. And I
think this is what the Grubhub CEO is saying (their later statement reinforces
this).

This isn't censorship of ideas, it's reinforcing a culture of empathy and
goodwill at a company with those values.

Think about it this way: would you enjoy working for a company that did
nothing as co-workers made fun of you for your race, disability, country of
origin, or sexual orientation?

~~~
inimino
> reinforcing a culture of empathy and goodwill

Starting off with politics and ending by threatening to fire people is
generally not the way one cultivates empathy and goodwill.

I agree with your analysis of the motivation, but the execution was a lesson
in what not to do.

~~~
revx
I've thought about it some more and I agree with you. I don't think this
letter is a shining example that should be repeated ad verbatim.

However, I do want to express my opinion that in order for racism & sexism to
be defeated, it's going to take some grit and discomfort. To quote: "When
you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels Like oppression."

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bifrost
Can anyone confirm if this is real? If it is, this is probably going to turn
into a PR disaster for them.

~~~
revx
I think if anything, it'll make people in the more liberal cities - their main
market - more attracted to the company. You may disagree, but my feelings
after reading this are to support Grubhub, whereas before I was neutral on
them. I value companies that are dedicated to inclusion and discourage hate
speech.

~~~
revx
Before anyone accuses me of "being a fascist" for supporting this kind of
censorship, take a moment to read the article again. He's not telling people
to resign if they are pro-Trump, he's asking people who are going to actively
make others' lives worse through hate-speech and derogatory action to resign.
Remember that your liberties end where other's liberties begin.

~~~
nsxwolf
Does that really need to be said? I'm sure it's already in the employee
handbook that you can't call people racial epithets or sexually harass people.

Try to put yourself in the mindset of a Trump voter working st GrubHub and
receiving that email. That wouldn't make you a little bit nervous? Would you
really say to yourself "oh, yeah, I see what he's saying here" or would you
clam up and live in fear of being outed?

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aficiomaquinas
Clickbait title, not exactly what he said.

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inimino
The email sounds like it was written by someone angry and hurt and desperate
to "do something" (the hypothetical "he would have been terminated" is
revealing).

The actual interpretation of who is being asked to resign is ambiguous.

At the least it should be a lesson not to hastily send company-wide emails
while gripped by extreme emotions.

Agreed the headline here is a bit of click baiting.

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detaro
previous submission with some comments and more context in the submitted URL:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12924340](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12924340)
([http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-
em...](http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/boss-tells-pro-trump-employees-to-
resign.html))

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ricardo248
campaigning is different than normal work, all the politics promise something
just to gain votes and it's not different from all the other years. like Obama
promised change but America just sank into more problems, even with the NSA
"the program" he did not do anything about it and even lied to the public
concealing it. I would look at the speeches and interview what he gives before
and after the campaign it's totally different, and i think if Hilary gained
the power America would just be more corrupt if anything even change while
trump is president. i doubt it but i would rather see this positive.

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revx
Source? I'd like to share this but don't want to spread disinformation.

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simosx
sli.mg is the image hosting website that they use on /r/The_Donald

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up_so_floating
It is used there to avoid imgur censorship.

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masondixon
Whoa.

