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.

  • NormandyEssex@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    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
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      2 years ago

      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.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

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

        • reddig33@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          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.

    • Astroturfed@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      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.

      • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        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
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          2 years 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.

  • emax_gomax@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    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.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    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.

    • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

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

    • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      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.

  • GorgeousDumpsterFire@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    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 💅🏻

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    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.