Obvious Diversion

It would seem Washington Mutual has seen fit to tell it’s employees how to vote in a company-wide email. This is disturbing to say the least. I believe a company should encourage it’s employees to get registered and be a part of the democratic process, but telling them how to vote is simply unhealthy. This creates a situation where employees who disagree with the company’s election choices are afraid to speak up for fear of, well, who knows? Would you feel comfortable talking about the issues with other co-workers or with their boss over lunch after seeing this email? Anything that stifles discourse is clearly not healthy to a democratic system.

As a result, I’ll be closing my Washington Mutual account and moving over to a credit union. Once I’ve transitioned over to the new account, I’ll head to my Washington Mutual branch and tell them exactly why I’m done with them. It’s a shame since Washington Mutual has been very good to me over the years (for a bank) and before this I didn’t have a single complaint.

As a side note, I know a lot of my friends use Washington Mutual’s ATMs since they are usually free of fees. I don’t see in any harm in continuing to do so as they don’t profit from that scenario.