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This is exactly my feeling. Gusto just comes across as a nauseatingly virtue-signaling company (another is Lyft which I found out when I interviewed with them).

I read an interview somewhere by Joshua Reeves, and he seemed to answer every question like he was Tony Robbins or some top-level guru. Dude, I don't want your life advice, tell me how to run a profitable company.

Silicon Valley tech is overtaken by this need to project wokeness. That's one big reason I wanna leave this place and work for a more blue-collar tech place. Don't know where that exists.

(I am non-white, and an immigrant, so don't be quick to accuse me of extremist views)




>That's one big reason I wanna leave this place and work for a more blue-collar tech place

I'm guessing you'll quickly find that a "blue-collar tech place" isn't quite the panacea you expect. There's a reason no one in Silicon Valley pines for traditional corporate culture. Because it sucks really bad. Putting up with some faux-wokeness is a small price to pay to get away from it.


Personally if I had to choose the tech equivalent of a "blue-collar" company I'd want to work at it'd be Costco.

Pay above average with good benefits, no uniforms (white collar equivalent of the uniform is in-your-face "culture"), no frills, no BS.


Partially agree. I have no inclination to work for IBM or corporate software. Just wanna work for a startup where I can crack non PC jokes. Where the company hires for competence and not because they wanna show off that they hire 50% women.

I think the Valley was like this 10 years ago.


I feel like there's a big gap between "our mission is to save the word with payroll software"-esque virtue signalling, and a "PC" culture. 99% of the time, "politically correct" === "polite and respectful of boundaries."


Sorry, I am all for basic courtesy and niceties. But PC culture means not tolerating debate, not open to challenging ideas. It's dogma.


Well, okay, one example of PC culture is sensitivity towards microaggressions. Based on your previous comment, you're probably already rolling your eyes, but bear with me. Microaggressions are usually (and very broadly) defined as actions which unintentionally marginalize people. These actions are almost never noticed by the person at fault -- that's what makes them "micro." Examples include things like calling a black colleague "aggressive" when they're arguing -- that particular language has been applied to black people for a long, long time to cast them as violent or criminal, and thus comes across differently than when applied to a white person.

Anyway, I list that as an example because what you're talking about isn't actually an example of political correctness (which is, again, a shitty term for basic respect and awareness of social context). Humans like black-and-white issues. It's really nice for us to be able to put things in boxes. So when we perceive someone's action in a certain way, our gut instinct is to cast that entire person as that way. Do people sometimes take someone's rudeness (even if accidental) and brand them a racist, discarding all of their opinions? Absolutely. Do some of my family members hear that I voted for Hillary and decide that none of my opinions have value? Also certainly. Humans are dogmatic. "Political correctness" is an umbrella term for cultural sensitivity, and can (like any idea) be applied dogmatically. It is not fundamentally dogmatic.


>non PC jokes

Why would you want to do this at work? No well-run place will allow this because it makes for a hostile work environment.

You have roughly 128 hr/week outside of work to do those things


You are right. But I'm also spending 40 hours a week at work. It's not that I wanna make lewd jokes all the time. It's just that, I wanna feel that if I say something that isn't appropriate, I don't' wanna be excoriated. I have a darker sense of humor and so I don't wanna feel like I'm walking on eggshells.


No place like that anymore


If you think that is a valley only thing you are highly mistaken. Its actually worse in other tech areas like Austin.




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