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Grindr’s Return-to-Office Ultimatum Has Gutted a Uniquely Queer Space in Tech

https://www.wired.com/story/grindrs-return-to-office-ultimatum-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.

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.

48 comments

NormandyEssex

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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

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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

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

Daqu

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

reddig33

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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

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

SatanicNotMessianic

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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

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

mustardman

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I'm not sure why you are only focused on Twitter. All of the major tech firms have been doing various reductions in force.

Astroturfed

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

const_void

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It's amazing how many of these big companies are suddenly coordinated on this return-to-office push. Do they all get together at their bunker/mansions in New Zealand to discuss these evil plans?

jonne

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Probably Davos. But seriously, all those billionaires follow the same social calendar, and that includes stuff like Davos, the Monaco GP, Warren Buffett's party, etc, and I'm sure they all do get together to talk about stuff like that. The billionaires have class solidarity. Remember that time it came out the biggest 3 software firms had an agreement not to poach talent from each other, keeping wages artificially low?

just_change_it

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Remember that time it came out the biggest 3 software firms had an agreement not to poach talent from each other, keeping wages artificially low?

Look at the line HR ALWAYS uses in salary negotiations. "We pay market rates"

The market rates never go up above market, because that would disrupt the same low wages they currently pay. Unless your role is indispensible in bringing in business (connections to other people who control market share or otherwise generate sales) your wage will consistently drop. The high earners are all commission and perfomance based.

"Worker" professionals like IT, mid-low tier HR, Finance, etc all get paid the same year after year at rates that rise way lower than inflation. It's common to see highly compensated individuals who make the same 1 million dollar salary year after year but their bonuses are a percentage of performance which is way above and beyond that base salary.

Bonus %s are always bigger the higher you go up in an org based on performance too, even for middle management. Why would that be? 10% of 100k is only 10k, but 50% of 500k is 250k. Screwed both ways per usual.

EnderMB

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I mean, Andy Jassy did say a few weeks back that this is the stuff that CEO's have discussed together. It's a fucking stupid statement for a CEO of a huge company to make, because it points towards obvious collusion, but we are where we are.

PostmodernPythia

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It’d only be stupid if there were any chance they’d actually get in trouble.

ipkpjersi

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Why would a CEO care about collusion? You're implying that they can't do whatever they want to.

markr

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Class solidarity is a big thing for the bourgeoisie, unfortunately it is nonexistent for the proletariat.

FlaminGoku

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To put it in context, it's way easier to coordinate with 100 people than a 100M people.

BlackSpasmodic

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They're certainly colluding to screw workers and consumers as much as possible. It benefits them to work together against the working class.

emax_gomax

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I read this as grindr loses 50% of its engineering staff because of dumb management decisions. Honestly the RTO was probably just a cop out to their dwindling user base.

Cryophilia

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The RTO sounds like it was pure union busting.

Hazdaz

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50% is a huge number. If the 50% represent some mid and higher up folks, it could really cripple a company. The worst thing they could do is give in. If the workers stand strong, no company is going to survive with half their staff getting laid off because of this.

ultratiem

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My last company has about 45 employees. 5 of the highest skilled employees left after Covid and it absolutely knocked us on our ass.

Make no mistake, even losing a few key people can end a company.

Tikiporch

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Didn't have Key Man Insurance, I guess.

corsicanguppy

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5 of the highest skilled employees left after Covid and it absolutely knocked us on our ass.

The Dead Sea Effect eats again.

archiotterpup

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TIL this is a thing.

Cyberflunk

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Good. Die in flames. Make room for something more progressive

corsicanguppy

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If the 50% represent some mid and higher up folks, it could really cripple a company.

I've yet to see a company that couldn't lose 50% or more of its mid-to-higher level management without serious consequence. Start with people who are somehow related to current or former company members, and it's a really great start.

Now, a company losing more than 10% of its grunts who make the things the company sells, that'll kill it.

eee

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It's an excuse to union bust.

It seems like the playbook for any company that wants to downsize now is to mandate RTO. That way, they can justify firing people with cause.

In the past, they had to move their operations to Bumfuck, Nowhere and request that employees move, so that those who don't move can be fired easily. RTO mandates are a godsend for such companies now. Cause to fire without cost!

JuxtaposedJaguar

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Ever since we found out that Grindr has been tracking their users' locations at all times and then selling that data to private companies, Grindr has been dead to me.

AnyProgressIsGood

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People literally die from these directives

MotoAsh

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But how else will the executives retain the value of their commercial realestate?! They have long term contracts to pay.

PRUSSIA_x86

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How so?

AnyProgressIsGood

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Covid. Flu. Car accidents

NightAuthor

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The science is definitely pointing to people getting sick and possibly having life long consequences. But has anyone died from post vaccination RTO?

I mean, probably someone. But people die on their commute, and that’s never been a topic of contention. So like, more than that.

rbar

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At minimum someone has in a traffic fatality.

GorgeousDumpsterFire

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I've found that grindr is trying to be more like tinder and less like the hookup app that it once was. Personally, I've been using Sniffies for hookups...haven't touched grindr in like 2 years 💅🏻

MisterD

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Constructive dismissal

meyotch

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People need to have this phrase yelled at them frequently in the US.

Sygheil

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Grindr is a powertool right?

Right?

SpaceCowboy

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I think it's an app for ordering powertools. I heard you can just swipe right and you can have a powerful drill delivered to where you need it.

djmarcone

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https://youtu.be/nsOfcqsMSlE?feature=shared

So funny fry is a treasure

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Treatyoself

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Legend

Potatos_are_not_friends

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Fascinating! This is after Grindr's push to try to make them sound more like a networking app. A bunch of ads masquerading as journalism over the past few weeks.

Grindr might not survive in a few years.