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Tech's big bad morale problem

Good morning! This Friday, there's turmoil in the tech industry, LinkedIn says bye-bye to China, and some red flags to look out for.
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The rank-and-file runs the tech industry now. If you want to boil down many of the events of the last weeks and months, one thing that unites them all is that employees at tech companies are flexing their individual and collective power more than ever. Even a vocal minority has more ways than ever to make noise and press for change. And instead of worrying about public opinion and business ramifications, bosses are increasingly worried about employee morale above all else.
Facebook is the most obvious example. The company's increasingly aggressive public stance, pushing back on whistleblower testimony and news stories, is less about changing public opinion and more about getting the team back on track.
Or take what's happening at Netflix right now. Employees have voiced issues with Dave Chappelle's new special, which includes transphobic remarks. Trans employees at Netflix are planning a walkout for next week.
This kind of turmoil could be a real crisis for tech companies. The competition for tech talent is always fierce, but right now — when there's a ton of money flying around, a massive amount of pandemic-related upheaval, and uncertainty about every part of work and corporate culture — it's more intense than ever. Brain drain kills companies, and leaders know it.
Many CEOs are increasingly convinced that the court of public opinion is a losing battle. (That's why companies like Coinbase are opting out of the conversation altogether.) But if you lose your employees, you're toast. That gives the tech industry's working class a huge amount of leverage, and they're not wasting it.
If you want to talk to us about how you feel about working in tech, or how your company operates, you can email sourcecode@protocol.com or just reply to this email.
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EU antitrust official Olivier Guersent says the EU needs address Big Tech issues more urgently:
Vladimir Putin doesn't think crypto is reliable enough to settle oil contracts:
Prince William thinks entrepreneurs should focus more on Earth and less on space:
On Protocol | Enterprise: Companies are dead set on figuring out corporate data, including Fivetran's George Fraser:
Sophie Zhang will testify in the U.K. Parliament on Monday. Frances Haugen had previously agreed to do the same, and will talk later this month.
John Carreyrou is allowed back in the Theranos trial courtroom. The former Wall Street Journal reporter has been working on a podcast covering the trial.
Ron Watkins said he's running for Congress. The longtime 8chan administrator — who may or may not be the Q behind QAnon — said he'll run in Arizona as a Republican.
Afrooz Family is back at Apple. He left to co-found Syng, and is now reportedly back to work on making the HomePod successful.
Atlassian will reopen some offices next month. The company reopened briefly earlier this summer but changed plans as the delta variant ramped up.
Steven Shure is joining Neeva as chief business officer. Shure was Amazon Prime's first VP and last worked at AWS.
It's time to understand the Twitter trend flooding your feed: the red flag emoji.
Let's say your friend works in the tech industry, but doesn't read Source Code every day. That's a little sus, right? You could say that's a … red flag? That's when you would use the emoji, and your tweet would look something like: "'I'm a dev and I don't read Source Code.' 🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩." Now go forth and spend the weekend putting your friends on blast with this fun little meme.
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Thoughts, questions, tips? Send them to sourcecode@protocol.com, or our tips line, tips@protocol.com. Enjoy your day, see you Sunday.
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