It's a bit of a statement for what you're trying to communicate with that lid - professional experience, political statements, personal "this is neat"...
And part of this is a for me the lid of the laptop is something that I'd need to be able to be comfortable with displaying in front of a CxO without worry about if they may be offended or not (though perl might be offensive to some).
So far no one has ever been offended by this though. HN is far more sensitive than the average CTO.
That can be a healthy attitude outside of work. People love personality.
But at work, that's not a healthy attitude. You're there to work together, not to be uncompromising in expressing yourself. Your stickers are probably fine, but I can also imagine plenty of musical artists that would certainly be offensive (and rightly so) to some people, whether for their lyrics or for their criminal behavior -- and then the attitude of "that's more your problem than mine" is not gonna fly.
My work quality tanked shortly after because, a) I have ADHD so I was putting 200% into my job to tread water, b) the rampant misogyny and transphobia within the workplace was just suffocating, and c) I dared to use the anonymous reporting system to report people for being shitheads, and I stupidly admitted that to HR. I am 70% sure it was the last point there that got me fired lmao
This kind of shit is why I am no longer aiming to work in tech.
Same. If my stickers serve as a self-filter away from companies I'd rather not work at, or people I'd rather not work with, then that's a positive thing for me.
If someone's offended by, for example, a rainbow sticker on my laptop, well I'd rather not work with them, or for that company. I'll look elsewhere.
I have seen things that came across as misogynistic or very sexually suggestive, however, and the employee had to be asked to remove them.
There are plenty of cases where the problem really is with the employee and the sticker, not the people taking offense.
Just tell those people you're a big fan of Noah and the Old Testament. Then ask them about why they are wearing a cotton blend shirt.
My only point is that the "if someone is offended, that's their problem" attitude is not so black and white. People often use it to justify being an a**hole too. Obviously, gay or trans stickers are not in the category of offensive things. There are things that are appropriate to express, and things that are not. So yeah, sometimes you need to compromise on your self-expression at work because not all of it is appropriate for everyone, you know?
It's at least plausible to taxonomize them under either politics or sexuality. Either of which larger categories some might consider categorically offensive or inappropriate.
Yes, I'm also saying that "vote for $PARTY" (categorically; regardless of which party) and anime catgirls are both potentially offensive or inappropriate. Depending on how much of a stick-in-the-mud people in your local environs are.