I don't want to downplay what was happening inside of the organisation or the sheer, unadulterated, hostile authoritarianism that's at play here.
But the decision was obviously a bad one even before we knew any of what was going on in the background.
The policies are openly hostile to the work force. They amount to a declaration that the work force can't be trusted to do its job.
This is especially galling considering that Basecamp is a software co. Software dev, being a theory-building practice, requires a LOT of trust