But after this week’s presidential election, the largely liberal workforces of tech’s biggest companies were quiet. While the definitive nature of the election most likely played a role, the change also represented an effort by executives to dampen employee activism in recent years.
If the presidential election was going to be the biggest test of these new rules, the vigilance wasn’t necessary. Reactions to the election on company message boards and forums were muted.
The heads of most of the country’s leading tech employers didn’t acknowledge the election results to their staffs, though many of them posted their congratulations to Trump on X, praising his “decisive” and “hard-fought” victory.
Trump’s victory landed in an industry deeply changed since his last term. Tech companies had long espoused the idea of bringing your whole self to work, and they were built on a culture of blunt expression. But the turmoil of the past several years has turned executives from the freewheeling cultures they once fostered.
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And as they have focused their companies on efficiency coming out of the pandemic, they have also taken a more assertive approach to their own workers, enacting in some cases the largest layoffs in their histories and demanding that people return to working in an office — or show themselves the door. Google since 2019 has instructed employees to keep politics out of the workplace, and this year the company cracked down on its irreverent Memegen forum, its corporate town square, after workers feuded about the war in Gaza.
But the real test of tech’s newfound neutrality will be once Trump takes office, if he follows through on his promises on issues the companies have opposed.
“Remember the famous travel ban?” he said at a September rally. He vowed to bring it back.
