71% Of Professionals Believe That There Is An Anti Conservative Bias In Tech

There have been discussions about political monoculture in Silicon Valley tech companies for quite some time now. In our past surveys, the data revealed that employees at Google and Facebook, who identify as conservatives, feel like their non-liberal beliefs are often shunned. 

 On Blind, an anonymous professional network with 3.6M verified users, a Google employee ran a poll asking, “Is there an anti-conservative bias in tech?”

The poll had 1,093 responses and robust dialogue with 262 professionals commenting on their own experiences; here are some key learnings: 

• 71% of professionals believe that there is an anti-conservative bias in tech
• 13% of professionals believe that there is a non-purposeful anti-conservative bias in tech
  • 81% of Microsoft professionals believe that there is an anti-conservative bias in tech
  • 89% of Uber professionals believe that there is an anti-conservative bias in tech
  • 89% of Airbnb professionals believe that there is an anti-conservative bias in tech
    • Contrasted by only 30% of Intuit professionals and 46% of VMWare professionals that believe that there is an anti-conservative bias in tech

You can see the report highlighting the overall responses here.

 A user at Uber responded by saying, “There is less tolerance for crass viewpoints or comments about race, gender, sexual orientation, etc. and more tolerance for expressing positivity about the same. Some might view that as an anti-conservative bias.”

 A user at SalesForce responded, saying, “Not really. There’s an anti-anti-science bias in tech for sure. But fiscally speaking, we’re mostly on the same page. It depends on what you mean by conservative, I guess.” 

However, in July of 2019, we surveyed 3,040 users and found out that 84.6% of conservative tech employees find that diverse political opinions are NOT accepted at their company. Over 90% of Uber, Microsoft, and Google employees with conservative values stated that their political opinions are not accepted in the workplace. With 71% being notably less than 85%, it appears that conservative beliefs are becoming more accepted within the tech community.

Perhaps this is why our users are turning to Blind for political discussions with their peers. Whether they lean liberal or conservative, it seems like an anonymous platform gives them a safer space to talk about politics. Especially with the US presidential election coming up in 2020, we have seen an increase in discussions about politics on Blind. We see conversations that professionals would usually avoid bringing up in the workplace. For example, users want to have civilized conversations about why some voted for Trump, why some voted for Obama twice, and silencing of Conservatives in the Bay Area. 

We see time and time again that anonymity brings out discussions that cannot happen otherwise in a workplace environment. 

So do you believe that diverse political opinions are accepted in your workplace? Let us know on Twitter @teamblindapp

2019 Blind Survey Key Findings:

• 84.6% of Conservative tech employees stated that diverse political opinions are NOT accepted at their company.
• Over 90% of Uber, Microsoft and Google employees with Conservative values stated that their political opinions are not accepted in the workplace.
• Only 32% of Liberal employees in tech stated that diverse political opinions are NOT accepted at their company.
• Liberals at  Google, Uber and Microsoft, were also the top three companies with employees that answered ‘No’.