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Grindr’s Return-to-Office Ultimatum Has Gutted a Uniquely Queer Space in Tech (www.wired.com)

submitted 10 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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Grindr’s Return-to-Office Ultimatum Has Gutted a Uniquely Queer Space in Tech::Two weeks after staff at queer dating app Grindr unionized, bosses ordered employees back to the office. Nearly half the app’s workers refused and have been laid off.

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[–] NormandyEssex@lemmy.world 129 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Seems like the RTO was rushed and mishandled for some reason. I can only guess they wanted to punish the unionizers or just do a major layoff without calling it a layoff.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 159 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Article explains it:

Shortly after Arison was hired as CEO in October, Twitter users unearthed tweets he’d written expressing support for conservative politicians, many of whom had expressed anti-LGBTQ+ views. Robin was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt after he told staff he would change, but says the recent alleged union busting has broken that trust.

They hired a rightwingers as CEO, and even if he changed his mind on social policy, he's still obviously a Republican on fiscal.

This is a way to get rid of highly paid people since the labor pool for tech ballooned after twitter fired everyone.

He's hoping for a short dip, then replacing everyone for cheaper salaries.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 131 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Jesus. The CEO of Grindr is a supporter of homophobes. We truly are in the worst timeline.

[–] Daqu@feddit.de 86 points 10 months ago

He googled "how to fuck the gays" and grindr was the top result.

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 32 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yep. Grinder is a trash company now. I think it was even owned by a company in China for a while, which is just weird.

[–] jonne@infosec.pub 30 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Seems like it would just be a useful database for blackmailing a bunch of closeted guys.

[–] SatanicNotMessianic@lemmy.ml 16 points 10 months ago

That’s one of the older tricks, no pun intended. It used to be that you’d have a hard time getting a security clearance if you were gay, with the excuse being that you were vulnerable to blackmail. It’s less of a big deal now, but I can think of a wide class of politicians who would still be vulnerable to blackmail, and grindr is a very popular app during political conventions.

[–] NormandyEssex@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

Yeah that seems reasonable. RTO is quite a powerful/interesting tool for these employers

[–] Astroturfed@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago (2 children)

The second part, I think people don't pick up on that often enough. These return to office pushes are soft layoffs. They get to do a layoff without paying severance or even unemployment.

[–] meyotch@slrpnk.net 6 points 10 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal

You’d think hiring someone fully remote then changing the terms of the job would qualify but I m only a bird lawyer.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

While this is true, they also don't get to have as much control and who leaves.

Normally when you do layoffs you strategically keep the people on who were best for the company.

[–] Astroturfed@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Corporate culture these days seems to value people who will eat shit and smile, not expect raises and not quit when they should above most other metrics.... so they do keep the people "best" for the company.

[–] gian@lemmy.grys.it 7 points 10 months ago

I can only guess they wanted to punish the unionizers or just do a major layoff without calling it a layoff.

Maybe, but this way you have no control on who leave, which probably are the people you would like to keep since they are the most valuable people you have and being good they could find a job that accomodate their WFH request.