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agonyaunt2025-07-08 04:13 pm
minoanmiss) wrote in agonyaunt2025-07-08 04:13 pm
Entry tags:
Ask a Manager: my colleagues are upset that we’re not “speaking truth to power” on social media
https://www.askamanager.org/2025/07/my-colleagues-are-upset-that-were-not-speaking-truth-to-power-on-social-media.html#c
I am in a niche entertainment field and have a fairly high-profile job within that field. This means that what I do or say online is relatively visible and, for better or worse, carries some weight, at least in my very small area.
Lately, some of my colleagues have taken to posting their thoughts about all the *waves hands helplessly* going on in our country (U.S.) right now. I post every once in a while about something, but I choose those posts carefully and strongly limit what I choose to put on social media. I do work in my community for causes I care about, and I go to protests when I can, but I am not very public about a lot of my personal views online.
Lately, though, many people in my field, including colleagues with jobs that have comparable or higher visibility, have begun to publicly excoriate those of us who have chosen to be more selective with our social media presence. They say that we have a platform and therefore a responsibility to speak out, as we will be listened to more than others and our words will carry more weight. They say that people who don’t choose to do this are valuing their own careers more than our moral responsibility to speak out, that we “will not be forgiven” and history will look poorly on us. These declarations are usually followed by hundreds of likes and comments praising the poster’s bravery and expressing disappointment and disgust with people who are not courageous enough to do the same. Some comments are from people I work with, as well as contractors I have hired. I have not been specifically named, but I can only assume as someone who is selective with my social media that I am among them.
In my view, there is a performative aspect to all this, as well as a lack of nuanced thinking regarding people’s work situations. In my case, while I am in a position of relative power in my field, I do not have safeguards on my job. I make just enough money to live modestly but comfortably, and everything I do reflects on my organization. My contract is not long-term. I can, in fact, be fired if I do something that my board feels reflects badly enough on the organization to warrant it. I think this is actually way more common than people understand, and I feel that it is really easy to look at people like me, assume my career and living situation is totally safe, and that I am a coward for not posting frequently on social media about various causes. The reality though is that if I lose my job, I would lose my home. And in my field, where jobs are scarce, I couldn’t just interview for another. So while I do speak out to the extent I feel comfortable, I do also consider my livelihood in the process.
I guess my question is whether this makes sense, or if I have my priorities skewed. I do recognize that there is another side to this coin; being raised Jewish, I know deeply the consequences of not speaking out until it’s too late. Am I being one of those people? How do you balance speaking out against injustice with the very real dangers of losing one’s job and being in a compromised situation? Or is this exactly the kind of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place?
I do think there’s a moral obligation to speak up if what’s happening around you is wrong and you are positioned to act against it.
But if anyone is arguing that posting on social media is at the top of the list of most important actions someone could take, that’s absurd. So is the belief that if you’re not posting on social media, you must not be doing anything else that matters (including things that matter a lot more than posting on social media).
And yes, posting on social media can come across as performative … and will often only reach an echo chamber of people who already share your views anyway. The effort it takes to do that is pretty damn low, particularly compared to the effort it takes to do things that are likely to have much more of an impact, like lobbying legislators, organizing/attending protests, writing letters to the editor, speaking at town halls, participating in rapid response networks, helping voters get to the polls, showing up at school board and city council meetings, volunteering with groups that provide legal aid, health care, and food assistance, and on and on.
In fact, if you look at the organizations spearheading resistance movements right now, posting on social media appears at the top of exactly none of the many lists of things they’re ask people to do to help (for that matter, it doesn’t appear anywhere on most of them).
And that’s before we get into the issues you mentioned of people needing to make their own decisions about what they safely can and can’t do without jeopardizing their ability to support themselves and their families.
I’m not trying to discourage anyone from posting on social media if that’s what they feel called to do. We need people speaking up in all venues and in ways that they’re inspired by and well positioned to do. But I’d take 10 Oskar Schindlers or Irena Sendlers over 10,000 prolific posters on Twitter.
Ultimately, everyone needs to take their own moral inventory and decide if they’re doing enough and if they will regret in the future not doing more. But no one deserves to be excoriated for staying out of it on social media.
I am in a niche entertainment field and have a fairly high-profile job within that field. This means that what I do or say online is relatively visible and, for better or worse, carries some weight, at least in my very small area.
Lately, some of my colleagues have taken to posting their thoughts about all the *waves hands helplessly* going on in our country (U.S.) right now. I post every once in a while about something, but I choose those posts carefully and strongly limit what I choose to put on social media. I do work in my community for causes I care about, and I go to protests when I can, but I am not very public about a lot of my personal views online.
Lately, though, many people in my field, including colleagues with jobs that have comparable or higher visibility, have begun to publicly excoriate those of us who have chosen to be more selective with our social media presence. They say that we have a platform and therefore a responsibility to speak out, as we will be listened to more than others and our words will carry more weight. They say that people who don’t choose to do this are valuing their own careers more than our moral responsibility to speak out, that we “will not be forgiven” and history will look poorly on us. These declarations are usually followed by hundreds of likes and comments praising the poster’s bravery and expressing disappointment and disgust with people who are not courageous enough to do the same. Some comments are from people I work with, as well as contractors I have hired. I have not been specifically named, but I can only assume as someone who is selective with my social media that I am among them.
In my view, there is a performative aspect to all this, as well as a lack of nuanced thinking regarding people’s work situations. In my case, while I am in a position of relative power in my field, I do not have safeguards on my job. I make just enough money to live modestly but comfortably, and everything I do reflects on my organization. My contract is not long-term. I can, in fact, be fired if I do something that my board feels reflects badly enough on the organization to warrant it. I think this is actually way more common than people understand, and I feel that it is really easy to look at people like me, assume my career and living situation is totally safe, and that I am a coward for not posting frequently on social media about various causes. The reality though is that if I lose my job, I would lose my home. And in my field, where jobs are scarce, I couldn’t just interview for another. So while I do speak out to the extent I feel comfortable, I do also consider my livelihood in the process.
I guess my question is whether this makes sense, or if I have my priorities skewed. I do recognize that there is another side to this coin; being raised Jewish, I know deeply the consequences of not speaking out until it’s too late. Am I being one of those people? How do you balance speaking out against injustice with the very real dangers of losing one’s job and being in a compromised situation? Or is this exactly the kind of thinking that got us into this mess in the first place?
I do think there’s a moral obligation to speak up if what’s happening around you is wrong and you are positioned to act against it.
But if anyone is arguing that posting on social media is at the top of the list of most important actions someone could take, that’s absurd. So is the belief that if you’re not posting on social media, you must not be doing anything else that matters (including things that matter a lot more than posting on social media).
And yes, posting on social media can come across as performative … and will often only reach an echo chamber of people who already share your views anyway. The effort it takes to do that is pretty damn low, particularly compared to the effort it takes to do things that are likely to have much more of an impact, like lobbying legislators, organizing/attending protests, writing letters to the editor, speaking at town halls, participating in rapid response networks, helping voters get to the polls, showing up at school board and city council meetings, volunteering with groups that provide legal aid, health care, and food assistance, and on and on.
In fact, if you look at the organizations spearheading resistance movements right now, posting on social media appears at the top of exactly none of the many lists of things they’re ask people to do to help (for that matter, it doesn’t appear anywhere on most of them).
And that’s before we get into the issues you mentioned of people needing to make their own decisions about what they safely can and can’t do without jeopardizing their ability to support themselves and their families.
I’m not trying to discourage anyone from posting on social media if that’s what they feel called to do. We need people speaking up in all venues and in ways that they’re inspired by and well positioned to do. But I’d take 10 Oskar Schindlers or Irena Sendlers over 10,000 prolific posters on Twitter.
Ultimately, everyone needs to take their own moral inventory and decide if they’re doing enough and if they will regret in the future not doing more. But no one deserves to be excoriated for staying out of it on social media.
a useful link from the comments
Re: a useful link from the comments
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See also this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara
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As for who history will or won't forgive......... let's focus on winning first. I think part of what LW is feeling is their own guilt about not doing enough (because, like, let's be real, who among us really is?). And, while I don't think it's productive to be destroyed by it, I think that kind of guilt is good to deal with as things move forward.
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If the letter writer is indeed the CEO I'm thinking of, I think the employees would be more understanding than the fan base. I think this might also be a silent majority type of situation - most people are going to fall in the middle of a spectrum rather than be at either extreme end, and most of us in the middle will understand that people have reasons to pick and choose what they post about and when. There's also always going to be a very vocal minority that thinks nothing is good enough, that there's always more that a person could do. I don't envy anyone who has a public presence, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!
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I actually wanted it to be a Minecraft streamer I watch, because people recently attempted to cancel him when someone tipped him to force him to say "I support trans rights" and he replied (paraphrase) "Don't put things like that in tips, I won't make political statements I'm paid for and that's not what this stream is about." But the real reason no is the same for both him and your guy, the letter writer's at risk of being fired for it and they both set their own rules.
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