A large number of employees, including senior staff, have left the US web software company Basecamp following a controversial memo and a severance offer, the Verge reported.

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Roughly a third of the 57 employees have resigned, the report mentioned.

The mass exodus has come in the wake of Basecamp’s co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson’s statement that the company would offer generous severance packages to anyone, not in agreement with CEO Jason Fried’s proposed philosophy at Basecamp that prohibited, among other things, "societal and political discussions” on internal forums, said the Verge report.

As of Friday afternoon, 18 people had tweeted they were planning to leave the organization.

CEO Jason Fried had outlined Basecamp’s new philosophy in a controversial blog post on April 26.

Soon after Fried’s blog post became public and was revised at times amid public backlash online, co-founder Hansson announced the terms of the new severance offer in a separate blog post on Wednesday (April 26).

"Yesterday, we offered everyone at Basecamp an option of a severance package worth up to six months’ salary for those who’ve been with the company over three years, and three months’ salary for those at the company less than that. No hard feelings, no questions asked. For those who cannot see a future at Basecamp under this new direction, we’ll help them in every which way we can to land somewhere else”, Hansson mentioned in the blog.

Employees who have tendered resignations reportedly include head of marketing Andy Didorosi, head of design Jonas Downey and head of customer support Kristin Aardsma. Most of them have listed “recent changes” at Basecamp as their reason for leaving.

“Given the recent changes at Basecamp, I’ve decided to leave my job as Head of Design,” Downey said in a tweet, adding that he had helped design and build all of Basecamp’s products since 2011.

Given the recent changes at Basecamp, I’ve decided to leave my job as Head of Design.

I've helped design & build all of our products since 2011, and recently I’ve been leading our design team too.Will be looking for something new, so please reach out / RT. DMs open.— Jonas Downey (@jonasdowney) April 30, 2021

The original blog post that stirred the storm at the tiny company detailed how Basecamp would do away with “paternalistic benefits,” committees, and would prohibit “lingering or dwelling on past decisions”. But it was the “societal and political discussions” item that stirred up the most reactions, the verge reported.

(Edited by : Jomy)