Just for the record, I think there are totally contexts that could justify that threat. I would be surprised if one of those had occurred here, but I can totally imagine scenarios where the behavior in the screenshot is totally appropriate (or at the very least really not that bad, given the circumstances).
I really respect that even in the middle of all this you (and other members of the LW team) still team leave comments like these.
I think serious mistakes were made in how this situation was handled but I have never doubted that you guys are trying your best to help the community, and comments like this are proof of that.
Could any realistic scenario justify both the threat and not dishing on the employees bad behavior when asked about them, in order to stop the employee bad-mouthing you though? Presumably someone would have to have behaved incredibly badly before threatening their career could possibly be appropriate, but then you surely shouldn’t be prepared to tell friends and acquaintances at allied orgs that the person is fine, or keep silent about their misbehavior when asked about them.
I’m particularly interested in whether or not they were encouraged to break the law for people who had financial and professional power over them, which seems less nuanced than ‘how threatening is or isn’t this WhatsApp exchange’.
I’m not sure I’ve imagined a realistic justifying scenario yet, but in my experience it’s very easy to just fail to think of an example even though one exists. (Especially when I’m baking in some assumptions without realizing I’m baking them in.)
Just for the record, I think there are totally contexts that could justify that threat. I would be surprised if one of those had occurred here, but I can totally imagine scenarios where the behavior in the screenshot is totally appropriate (or at the very least really not that bad, given the circumstances).
I really respect that even in the middle of all this you (and other members of the LW team) still team leave comments like these.
I think serious mistakes were made in how this situation was handled but I have never doubted that you guys are trying your best to help the community, and comments like this are proof of that.
Could any realistic scenario justify both the threat and not dishing on the employees bad behavior when asked about them, in order to stop the employee bad-mouthing you though? Presumably someone would have to have behaved incredibly badly before threatening their career could possibly be appropriate, but then you surely shouldn’t be prepared to tell friends and acquaintances at allied orgs that the person is fine, or keep silent about their misbehavior when asked about them.
I’m particularly interested in whether or not they were encouraged to break the law for people who had financial and professional power over them, which seems less nuanced than ‘how threatening is or isn’t this WhatsApp exchange’.
I’m not sure I’ve imagined a realistic justifying scenario yet, but in my experience it’s very easy to just fail to think of an example even though one exists. (Especially when I’m baking in some assumptions without realizing I’m baking them in.)