1/ I’m sorry to be late to this conversation, but feel proud to be able to echo what so many former colleagues have already said.
A thread about my time at Gimlet and thoughts on the current Reply All controversy
A thread about my time at Gimlet and thoughts on the current Reply All controversy
2/ As context, I worked at @Gimlet for a little under 2 years. I worked for the show ELT. I started as an intern, was picked up as a contract associate producer, and then hired as a full time associate producer.
3/ I was at Gimlet when @GimletUnion talk first began, stayed through management’s decision to NOT voluntarily recognize, and left shortly after the staff successfully voted to establish the union and Spotify bought Gimlet.
4/ I was active in the unionization effort, but (much to my regret) not active enough, partly because of fear for my own job.
5/ I left, largely, due to ugliness I witnessed around anti-union efforts of some former colleagues. However, my direct superiors weren't happy with my work and had recently put me on a kind of performance review — so who knows how long I would have been welcome, had I not left.
6/ So to the issue at hand,
Throughout my entire time at the company, @eeddings was one of the most supportive, kind, approachable, and generous people in the office. On a personal level, him and his team were the first to invite me sit in on an editing session.
Throughout my entire time at the company, @eeddings was one of the most supportive, kind, approachable, and generous people in the office. On a personal level, him and his team were the first to invite me sit in on an editing session.
7/ He shared personal details about his contract and compensation in order to empower me to advocate for my own. He checked in on me, and was just a kind human in the hallways. All in all, he never missed an opportunity to use his power at the company to help the people below him
8/ The degree to which @eeddings stuck his neck out for his coworkers before and during the unionization effort (and now *after* he has left Gimlet) was (and is) almost mind boggling in its scale and generosity.
9/ For context, we were all “busy” but this man is a father of a young child, for god sakes. He was the host of a show, was constantly working to increase his audience and secure the longterm fate of The Nod. He had more on his plate than most of us but...
10/ He always always always chose to take on an ocean of unpaid labor, helping to lead efforts to protect workers all the way at the bottom of the company’s ladder.
11/ The amount of sh*t that he signed up for and put up with when it came to representing his colleagues and campaigning for their best interest — to both top management and to fellow coworkers — is unbelievable. For that, I will remain been deeply grateful.
12/ @EricMennel took the words out of my mouth here:
https://twitter.com/EricMennel/status/1361827152635772929?s=20
13/ As to Reply All, while I was aware at the time that the higher-ups at RA were actively working against the union effort, @eeddings recent thread outlines specific actions by PJ & Sruthi that are beyond inappropriate and disappointing, and enter into the realm of plain ugly.
14/ His composure in the face of that kind of behavior is just another example of the kind of person and leader that Eric is.
15/ I’ve already tweeted this before and I have told you this in person... But @eeddings, your work on behalf of your coworkers (present & former) remains a constant source of inspiration and a guide of what it means to be an ally in the truest sense. Thank you for sharing this.
16/ I also think it is important to note the problem Eric outlines at Gimlet went far beyond Reply All — though their questionable decision to pursue a story about offenses that they were guilty of committing themselves has rightfully brought them under increased scrutiny.
17/ From what I heard and saw 1st hand, there was a solid contingent of longtime employees who actively worked against the union. Staff at Heavyweight, on the Engineering Team, floating story editors, and (obviously) people on the management and business teams.
18/ Somethings that all of these people shared: strong personal connections and lines of communication to the top of Gimlet (Alex Bloomberg, Matt Leiber, Jim Grau, etc.), a feeling of entitlement that seemed to stem from having been there from “the good old days”...
19/ ...of Gimlet’s scrappy beginning, and (most importantly in my mind) they stood to gain a life-altering amount of money from the then-uncertain Spotify purchase of Gimlet, and subsequent share buyout.
20/ I have sat with bitterness from this period and have tried to make sense of it. What would cause coworkers, some of whom I really like and respect, to come out against an organic effort led by their colleagues — mostly POC — to try and make their workplace a healthier place?
21/ My personal opinion is that it mostly came down to money. Gimlet unionizing felt like a threat to the impending but seemingly uncertain Spotify buyout.
22/ In the context of that fear of losing a big payout, I think these colleagues built themselves various justifications for opposing the union, playing down their colleagues concerns, and otherwise abdicating their responsibility as part of a community and a larger team.
23/ The entire time period was made more complicated by management’s inability to behave as if they were in charge of the livelihood of some 200 employees, rather than a scrappy, informal group of buds in a basement.
24/ News of a possible Spotify purchase (& its details) came slow, late, & piecemeal to the majority of employees. But those with ties to management were having informal conversations that gave a better handle on the whole situation and shaped their response to all that happened.
25/ That is all to say, this time period was just as ugly as Eric wrote. RA played a large role, though certainly were not the only people in the company who behaved that way. And when all is said and done, it is my opinion these people chose profit over compassion.
26/ An apology is nice, and needed. But what does it really mean when the money is safe in your bank account? I honestly don't know the best path forward, but I also don't think any of these actions are unforgivable. They just stung, a lot.
27/ I think it opens up a larger conversation about the format of host-based narrative non-fiction radio, where listeners feel like they “come to know” these hosts on a personal level, despite the fact that they are merely consuming a highly-edited & self-scripted version of them
28/ Of course we all feel gutted that PJ and Alex and Sruthi and Alex Bloomberg and Matt Leiber (but he is the ray of sunshine that hits your cat through the window on a winters day!) are easily capable of selfishness and cruelty.
29/ We have been delivered an open-minded, liberal, sweet-as-pie version of real people who make real, and sometimes ugly, human decisions. The salt in the wound, for me, is using their megaphone & direct line to audiences to give a self-narrated appraisal of their own mistakes
30/ And the same is the case for Alex Bloomberg's post-Spotify-purchase Start Up special episode. These people are all deeply talented reporters, and so their incomplete coverage of stories involving their own personal mistakes feels particularly disappointing.
32/ To end, I just want to retweet some responses from other former coworkers who worked tirelessly, side by side with @eeddings , in the early days of creating the union:
And some other thoughts on the topic that I found important:
I should clarify. I in no way feel that everyone, or even a majority, on the teams at Reply All, Heavyweight, Engineering or any other part of Gimlet behaved in hurtful ways or took sides I disagree with. My point is that there were powerful people all over the company...
... that fought the union for, what I believe, were self-serving reasons — at the sacrifice of the wellbeing of people with less power.
I would like to add a few clarifying comments to this thread, as I am not used to so many people reading my tweets.
For context, my 15-tweet thread last week about the end of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) garnered one comment, and it was from my mother-in-law.
For context, my 15-tweet thread last week about the end of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) garnered one comment, and it was from my mother-in-law.
First, I feel embarrassed that I misspelled Alex Blumberg's name. That was an accident, but it feels disrespectful and I am sorry.
Second, this tweet was meant in earnestness:
https://twitter.com/erinreiss/status/1362431035858804737?s=20
RA was the first podcast I really started listening to and I fell in love with PJ and Alex as characters as well. Sruthi's work, in particular, has been and remains some of the most inspiring and moving radio journalism that I have ever heard.
I was genuinely gutted to see where their priorities lay during the union battle.
I also regret the sarcasm directed at Matt Leiber, and the reverent RA post-scripts dedicated to him. My point was that the "character" and the "person" are different things and that the person is human and errs — but my sarcastic tone undercut my point and I apologize for it.
Lastly (for now) my naming of other teams at Gimlet who had powerful team members speak out against the union was an attempt to avoid calling out individuals by name, while also acknowledging that the behavior under discussion was not specific to RA.
I want to reiterate again that while individuals on these teams made decisions I disagree with, I in no way mean to extend that criticism to the whole team, or even a majority of it. Most people where just trying to keep their heads down, and keep their own jobs — I can relate.
Thank you to former colleagues who reached out to help me see why that needed to be clarified <3
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