Oliver Bateman Does the WorkVerified account

One big change in corporate HR materials is that the work/not-at-work division has almost completely vanished. There are of course federal laws that apply solely to the former, and those are monitored carefully lest a lawsuit ensues, but those are an afterthought now

The next big change — and I’ve said this before — is targeting behaviors that cannot be confined to the workplace. A “microaggression” is a bad act wherever it happens. If an MA occurs outside of work, it offers proof that it happens inside of work too. And one indicates more

A bad act, I should say, that will be regulated by private HR policy, intended to protect the “we the people” who own the company via shares, not the federal law of the “we the people” of constitutional fame. And the former people are much more concerned about PR than the latter

WFH offers some "escape" from this, even as the workplace is collapsed into a single space...but only if you work through terse emails, keep phone calls brief, and keep cameras off when on Zoom. But colleagues in other fields tell me they're being mandated to keep cameras on

Not to mention I've seen company slack feeds full of personal commentary about all kinds of political and social issues, private lives, etc. The only advantage of work, at least for some folks, was that it used to *not be the home*. But now it is one place, policed, & inescapable

This is all part of the HRification of America. Heck, you can be fired for stuff you did in public years ago, even if you worked for somebody else. Even if your current employer didn’t exist when you offended contemporary mores.