“ No more societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account. “

They banned it in all channels, and told their employees to chat on Signal:

“ People can take the conversations with willing co-workers to Signal, Whatsapp, or even a personal Basecamp account, but it can't happen where the work happens anymore.”

So - it’s not like what you asserted, at all. What you asserted is somewhat reasonable (even if I would want to nitpick at the edge cases) ... but they’re not saying anything close to what you’re saying.

This announcement is discussing specific prohibitions based on the content of workplace discussions, not the specific timing or context-appropriateness of the discussion. Obviously there are times and contexts at work where outbursts or abrupt personal discussions are inappropriate regardless of their specific content, but I think it’s very clear that this is not what this announcement is talking about.

Most companies have places where employees interact outside meetings.

> People might be polite but gently remind you that's not really relevant to what's being discussed at the moment

Have you never been in a workplace before? That is absolutely not what would happen, especially in HN's darling startup atmosphere.

No normal person, being told their colleague was getting married would brush it off and say it's not relevant to the work discussion, and nor should they. It's inhuman and gross. I'm not a robot. I want to celebrate with my coworkers. We spend a lot of time together, playing like we shouldn't get personal with our time is absurd.

Not every office is full of robots. People chitchat during meetings.