San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Tackling office politics
Middle ground: Time off to vote, volunteer a perk at Silicon Valley firms
Edwin Zhang is trying to get out the vote — and his employer is helping him do it.
Zhang, a data scientist at San Francisco car insurance startup Metromile, used vacation time to text people in swing states like Pennsylvania, Arizona and his native Ohio and encourage them to vote.
“I didn’t want to look back and say there was more I could have done in trying to participate in the process,” he said.
Where some tech companies have shied away from politics at work, others are acknowledging that may not be possible in a heated election year. Instead of wrestling with thorny questions of political speech in the workplace, some companies are seeking a
middle path. With generous timeoff policies, sometimes specifically designated for civic engagement, employers are channeling political urges by making it easier for employees to get out the vote, volunteer for campaigns or just cast their ballots Tuesday.
Some states, including California, have laws that require employees be given up to two paid hours off to vote in an election. But the electionrelated perks at certain Bay Area employers go well beyond that.
Metromile created two floating holidays this year that employees can take off on days they view as personally important, including election day or for religious observances, according to Chief People Officer Mark Gundacker.
Gundacker said voting and volunteering around the election are regularly discussed at allhands meetings and on Slack channels.
San Francisco financial technology company Plaid allows employees to take time off for civic purposes like going to protests or volunteering. It has also made election day a holiday.
Software engineer Riley Avron of Plaid has taken time off to volunteer at polling places the last several years. This year Avron has also hosted virtual sessions for coworkers, fielding questions about how to vote and how propositions find their way to the ballot.
Avron said he strives to keep the talks informational and apolitical, and sometimes refuses to answer questions that get into more partisan territory.
“If necessary, I’m totally blunt,” he said.
Sheri Braimah, who works for Redwood City file sharing company Box but lives in Brooklyn, has staffed the polls in years past using the company’s paid volunteer time.
This year, she is volunteering to text bank — like traditional getoutthevote phone banking, but via text message. “I
Some tech companies have shied away from politics at work, while others acknowledge that may not work in a a heated election year.
approached it trying to get more visibility for Black and brown communities who tend to experience the most voter suppression,” she said.
Pleasanton software company ServiceMax has also given employees election day or a day of their choosing off to vote. Beyond that, the company recently ran a threeweek program where employees read articles, listened to podcasts and videos and discussed topics around racial equity and social justice. CEO Neil Barua said Black Lives Matter protests over the summer brought the issues to the fore.
Uber employees are getting election day off with pay, and Lyft, as a member of the Time To Vote initiative, has committed to set employees’ schedules so they can cast ballots. But that generosity does not extend to the drivers who use their apps.
Lyft and Uber are among the supporters of Proposition 22, a California ballot initiative that would exempt ridehail and fooddelivery companies from AB5, a law that makes it hard to classify gig workers as independent contractors. DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates are also financial backers of the Yes on 22 campaign.
For those workers in California, it is almost impossible to separate their work from Prop. 22.
Tyler Breisacher, who delivers for DoorDash part time, has spent hours encouraging voters through text messages and phone calls to vote it down. Other drivers and couriers have protested on both sides of the issue. Uber and Lyft have bombarded drivers and passengers with pro22 messages through their apps.
Tech companies have also found ways to integrate voter registration drives into their products. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have put voting information prominently in their apps and websites. But voting resources are also showing up in lessexpected places.
San Francisco software company Okta manages app logins for its customers. It’s made it simple to add links to Vote. gov, a federal website with polling place lookups and other tools, to corporate app dashboards. CEO Todd McKinnon said the company also gives employees three days off a year, along with flexible vacation time, to vote or volunteer.
Promoting voting may be nonpartisan, but McKinnon, who made campaign contributions to a Democratic candidate in a New York House race this year, public records show, said he is open about his views with his employees and trusts people to be able to have reasonable debates when they want to.
“Some companies have said this is all so divisive, I don’t want to talk about this at work,” he said. “I think that’s the wrong approach.”