TORONTO -- Talking politics at work is a long tradition for many office workers, but it’s now a no-go at U.S. software company Basecamp.

In a blog post on Monday, Basecamp co-founder and CEO Jason Fried announced a ban on “societal and political discussions” on the company’s online workplaces. While work-from-home has become widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic, Basecamp has long been a remote work company.

“Today's social and political waters are especially choppy,” he wrote. “These are difficult enough waters to navigate in life, but significantly more so at work. It's become too much. It's a major distraction. It saps our energy, and redirects our dialog towards dark places.”

The ban, which follows a similar move last year at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, received immediate criticism on Twitter from some Basecamp employees.

“I've worked at Basecamp for a long time because it's a company full of smart and kind people, and together we've always tried to take care and do the right things. I don't agree with the changes announced today, and I'm sad & upset," tweeted Jonas Downey, the company’s design lead.

Fried noted in his post that employees could still engage in political talk with willing coworkers on apps such as Signal and WhatsApp.

In a separate post, Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson said the company would continue to in engage in politics that directly relates to its business, but would no longer weigh-in publicly on societal political affairs not related to the business.

The ban on politics talk was just one of a number of measures announced by Fried, including cutting “paternalistic benefits” covering fitness, continuing education and farmers market purchases.

“They felt good at the time, but we’ve had a change of heart,” he wrote. “It's none of our business what you do outside of work, and it's not Basecamp's place to encourage certain behaviors — regardless of good intention. By providing funds for certain things, we're getting too deep into nudging people's personal, individual choices.”

Fried said the company would instead pay employees the full cash value of the benefits for this year. He also said the company had recently introduced a 10 per cent profit sharing plan.

Basecamp is also ending decision-making by committees, streamlining its employee review processes, and, according to Fried, will cease “lingering or dwelling on past decisions”.