It just took awhile for the rest of me to catch up.

To prove this, let me tell you a story about a Facebook all hands meeting where the upper management had two important policy decisions they wanted to ship. This all hands took place sometime in 2008 maybe, but well past the Microsoft deal where MS committed to buying all of Facebook’s ad inventory. There were also hundreds of employees as we shuffled into the local Aquarius theater we rented to host our rapidly growing company all hands.

The first policy announcement was a change in vacation – Facebook employees enjoyed 21 days of vacation thanks to a mistake early on where three work weeks (15 days) was translated to three actual weeks (21 days). The change was intended to rectify this mistake.

Second, was a formal “moonlighting” policy, where moonlighting is the word you use to describe someone’s second job as shady. I forget if we had one already or it was just an update.

The executive chosen was new to the company and delivered a mini-speech sort of like this, near the end of the meeting, fairly casually –

We’re going to change the way your vacation works. You will still have the same amount of vacation, it will just accrue more slowly. Currently you can have up to 21 days of vacation on the books and moving forward you will only be able to bank 15 days. Also, we are announcing a moonlighting policy. Moving forward, employees will not be able to have second jobs, adviser roles, etc. where the company involved somehow interacts with Facebook.

My progressive heart beat a little rapidly in the middle of that speech – the executives were trying to pull a fast one on me and my fellow employees – but at the time as an early employee I felt confident that I could continue to help shape the company into a place I would happily work forever. (I think I quit about three years later, but that’s another story.) I don’t recall if I was able to ask a question immediately or had to wait until an open Q&A session at the end, but I asked something like the following as soon as possible –

Hey there… I’ve got a two parter… First, on that moonlighting policy, this is Facebook and we provide a login button for websites on the Internet, so doesn’t this effectively mean engineers can’t work anywhere else? Also, will the executives be resigning from their existing board memberships? Anyway, second part… I’m no mathematician, but isn’t 15 days strictly less vacation than 21 days?

I recall some laughter and applause at various points – you can imagine where the people were most pleased. Ultimately, employees kept their 21 days vacation. I am not sure what happened to the moonlighting policy, and back to the notion of the rest of me catching up – I just wasn’t there yet. Today, I would have followed up after the meeting on both fronts to make sure people didn’t have their power to be their best selves stripped from them by the company / by upper management.

I’ve grown and changed more than I would have thought possible. One piece of me that remains steadfast forever though is the world is made of people and the world is at its best when all people everywhere are empowered to be their best. My life has been dedicated to helping others be their best and I continue the quest.

Does my story resonate with you? Have you always been a progressive at heart too? I think it’s time we team up. I think its time we unite for progress for the people and empower everyone to be their best.

If this sounds good to you, a good place to start is the Justice Democrats.