I'm pretty sure that you are someone I would not want to work with, because while I may disagree with Eich politically, I find your inability to separate the personal and professional spheres much more alarming. I'm not referring to your personal dislike for working with someone who supported prop 8, I'm referring to your internalizing and remembering that one particular non-politician supported it, and taking the time to post about it to make sure that people associate him with his political views, rather than his professional and public persona.
First of all, I think political views are part of your public persona, especially when you've donated a huge chunk of money towards them. I don't think I could have a professional relationship with someone who was actively campaigning to make my life miserable.
If my boss were donating money to groups trying to strip civil rights from people with Irish ancestry, which I happen to have, could you really fault me for not wanting to work with them?
The phrase "disagree politically" sounds very civilized and sterile. But in practical terms you are asking me to ignore the fact that my boss views me as an inferior being, and holds this feeling so strongly that it's worth spending $1000 to punish me and others like me by legally stripping away my rights.
Interestingly I’ve found repeatedly through my career that there is very little separation between personal and professional spheres.
I will give you that there’s a giant difference between a public persona and the person. But I find when working closely with someone - particularly in 80hour crunch time weeks - you don’t end up dealing with their public persona, but with a version of them much closer to their "personal life". So day to day your experience with your co-workers is very personal, and frequently in an unprofessional mode.
I think that when making choices about who I will work with, I'll lean heavily on what I know about them personally, and treat their public persona with a great deal of distrust.
You're making unsupported assumptions about zacharyvoase's intentions.
And I don't think supporting or protesting Prop-8 is something purely of the personal sphere; it's a moral issue, and morality is and should be an important part of someone's professional life. It was certainly part of my decision to join my company.
