[bmarquez]

> Cirne’s wife is a contributor to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, another sore point for many New Relic employees even though she has no role with the company...They see his wife’s donations to Trump as antithetical to the company’s stated values...

What do the employees want to happen? Cirne to divorce or publicly condemn his wife over political contributions?

He can't forbid someone else from making political contributions.

[bigbubba]

I suppose these complaining employees have a very regressive mindset in which it's a man's role to boss around his wife...

[bmarquez]

Agreed. I was previously getting downvoted on the basis of mentioning Trump, but that wasn't the point...this was.

[thatswrong0]

He could at the very least state that his wife's political views are not a reflection of his own. Sure, it's speculation, but I would guess that, given his other questionable donations, he probably isn't opposed to his wife's political donations.

IMO this, along with a few other choice quotes from the article [0][1], indicate to me that he's neither an inspiring nor effective leader. He blames his employees rather than himself for the failings of the company, and he blames his employees for combative discourse rather than his own actions and donations. Yuck.

Sidenote, the rush to his defense in this comment section is nothing short of odd.

[0]: "It is clear that some of you are devoting more energy and attention inwards, than towards our customers.”

[1]: Two days later Cirne sent a scolding memo to the entire company, admonishing employees to work harder and warning that New Relic was trailing competitors.

[bigbubba]

> He could at the very least state that his wife's political views are not a reflection of his own.

It's unreasonable to expect somebody to publicly denounce their spouse like this. It's inappropriate for people to make a coworker's spouse a matter of contention in the first place.

[thatswrong0]

That's not denouncing. That's a neutral way of stating that he had nothing to do with those donations.

And stop pretending that this is just any ordinary coworker. This is the public face and leader of the company that publicly advertises a certain set of values. This is also a person who has been made rich by the success of the company, and then is using that money to donate to very morally questionable causes (either directly himself or via his wife).

The guy literally donated an "ordinary coworker's" years salary to an organization that explicitly discriminates against members of the LGBTQ+ community. Do tell me exactly why it is inappropriate for employees of the company to complain about such dubious donations of their CEO, who they helped make mind-numbingly rich?

[bigbubba]

> This is also a person who has been made rich by the success of the company,

Would you say the degree to which a coworker's personal relationship with their spouse is 'your business' is proportional to their salary? Or how exactly do you figure this works?

His relationship with his spouse is his business, not yours. It's really that simple.

[thatswrong0]

In case you missed the details here somehow, this is in conjunction with his own personal donations to discriminatory organizations.

> His relationship with his spouse is his business, not yours. It's really that simple.

If his wife yelled racial slurs and he said nothing about it, should employees just shut up about that as well?

[bigbubba]

If you have a problem with a woman, you should take it up with that woman, not her husband. What century is this?

[thu2111]

This is the public face and leader of the company that publicly advertises a certain set of values

Presumably you're arguing they should stop advertising that set of values. But then that'd be used to condemn them as well.

why it is inappropriate for employees of the company to complain about such dubious donations of their CEO

Totally appropriate, just as long as those employees don't mind the CEO telling everyone that their political donations are dubious/questionable, demanding they publicly denounce their spouse, or controlling their private political and charitable donations.

But of course those employees would explode if the CEO even hinted at doing any of those things. One rule for them and another for the boss, likely justified with vague rhetoric about power. But, you can't have it both ways. If employees can demand control over the CEO's life but not vice-versa, then it's the employees who have the power, not the CEO. Yet we all know that's not how companies actually work. Eventually even tech CEOs will realise that, so expect them to get a lot more aggressive against this kind of employee activism in future. It's simply not fair on them, currently.

[tpxl]

Ah yes, employees don't like what their boss is doing, they call him out, and now they have the power, not the boss. They can suddenly set their own hours, raise their pay, steer the products and take vacations whenever they like. What a load of bullshit.

The bosses have the most power and money and therefore deserve the most scrutiny.

[thu2111]

The bosses only have power if they are willing to exercise it in order to fire the people who are 'scrutinising' them. Is that really what these people want?

[barumi]

> What do the employees want to happen? Cirne to divorce or publicly condemn his wife over political contributions?

This wouldn't be the first case where donations were made through an illusory third-party for the sake of plausible deniability.

[robertlagrant]

Sigh. Speculation.

[barumi]

> Sigh. Speculation.

Not speculation, it's a pretty clear refutation of the hypothesis that channeling a donation through a third-party severs all links between the contribution and those who actually make the contribution.