Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission • Hacker News Board

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#21

Post by choppaface » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:12 AM UTC

What's up with the 7 year exercise window? All contracts I've seen lately have adopted the modern 10 year window. Bonus to cover exercise + 83b is also now more common for non-execs now. 7 years sounds like they chose something less than the max intentionally.

Furthermore, 6 months severance is on the lighter side for 3yrs of service in cases where the company did something remotely controversial. Setting the aside the issue of allowing politics at the workplace or not, actual implementation of the policing invites all sorts of non-standard harassment and first amendment claims. Any of the lawyers in the Bay Area who helped Uber employees negotiate severance could likely get a deal like this doubled, especially if the employee is a manager or senior-level. While 6 months of salary is nothing to scoff at, there's a time and a place for major company ideology changes and COVID is not the time to make employees worry about their employment.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#22

Post by ZephyrBlu » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:16 AM UTC

krapp wrote: post #13

howlgarnish wrote: post #11

As a non-American, I find it truly bizarre (and sad) that's it's now controversial to publicly state that you're not taking sides.

It isn't possible to not take sides. It's only possible to support the status quo, either explicitly or implicitly, or else oppose it.

I don't understand this "us against them" mentality because it leaves no room for nuance.

I strongly believe in PG's top of mind theory [1], and I don't see how you can achieve anything if you're constantly fighting for or against the status quo.

Don't you believe it's possible to agree with certain viewpoints but not act on them?

You also don't have to parade around your support during every waking moment, which is basically what Brian asked his employees not to do.

[1] http://paulgraham.com/top.html

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#23

Post by objclxt » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:17 AM UTC

Brian Armstrong wants to have it both ways. He wants employees to focus “on the mission”, and not bring societal politics and activism into the workplace. Fair enough. For better or for worse, we live in a capitalist system, and companies are not first and foremost social justice organisations. I am not unsympathetic to the problems he is trying to solve.

But he also wants to influence politics and laws to benefit his company. Coinbase pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobbyists and lobbying companies around the world to advocate for their position (this is all public information).

He seems to believe that you can separate “political decisions that benefit Coinbase” and “political decisions that are irrelevant to Coinbase”, but you can’t. They’re all interconnected. It’s naive to pretend otherwise.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#24

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:18 AM UTC

dwardu wrote: post #8

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #3

I agreed with what Brian Armstrong said in his blog post and thought it was admirable to publicly take that position, but now I have even more respect for his dedication. I don't know if the severance package is good or not, but it seems generous and it gives employees who aren't aligned with the company an easy way out.

Brian should have said we don't mix politics and activism in our company, if you don't like it, leave. Which should have ended like that. On the other hand, it's a good move because it keeps things neutral. These annoyed employees should just take it and leave.

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#25

Post by sagichmal » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:18 AM UTC

jiofih wrote: post #12

This must feel harsh for those on the receiving end, but is the right thing to do. It is not effective to try and turn every company into a rights activism group just because it is a group of people. This may be a sign that it’s become increasingly hard to organize or take part in such activism outside of work. What happened?

It is incorrect to think of the things under discussion here as "rights activism", as something unrelated to the mission of the company.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#26

Post by hardwaresofton » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:19 AM UTC

jiofih wrote: post #12

This must feel harsh for those on the receiving end, but is the right thing to do. It is not effective to try and turn every company into a rights activism group just because it is a group of people. This may be a sign that it’s become increasingly hard to organize or take part in such activism outside of work. What happened?

> This may be a sign that it’s become increasingly hard to organize or take part in such activism outside of work. What happened?

I might be over-simplifying but the vast majority of people most affected by political decisions no longer have the incomes and free time to partake in such activism.

For example if you cared about something like workers' unions (let's assume the relatively well-run, non-corrupt version), the people in the best place to perform the activism do not feel they need the unions because they have the spare income and time (ex. tech workers at TechCompanyX). Those who would be most helped by the activism (ex. workers in TechCompanyX's factories/warehouses/wherever) have grueling work schedules and lower pay.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#27

Post by yholio » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:19 AM UTC

Hypocrisy is rampant with some Coinbase figures that cry out for "acknowledging the injustice and inequality that affects many current and future Coinbase users."

Good God, your firm exists to facilitate trading in speculative assets peddled by libertarian internet millionaires and that just so happen to be exceptionally useful for laundering money - enabling a whole online industry of shadow markets that were thought impossible a decade ago.

I understand that your values dictate that association with this unsavory bunch is an acceptable compromise when pitted against the grave dangers of government overreach and surveillance - I am of the same opinion. But social revolutionaries you are certainly not, just opportunists speaking the slogans of the day while lining their own pockets. So Armstrong's sincerity and lack of pretense is refreshing.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#28

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:19 AM UTC

throwawaysea wrote: post #2

I applaud Coinbase’s CEO on his position of keeping politics out of work. Other tech companies have been overrun with employee activism, which just means one political side has weaponized those companies in favor of their ideology. It is disrespectful to all their customers that don’t align with those views, damaging societally when digital public squares (Facebook and Twitter) are corrupted by employee politics, and…

[deleted]

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#29

Post by onion2k » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:21 AM UTC

I wonder if this is a way for Coinbase to push politically engaged employees out of the company in order to reduce the possibility of anyone pushing for internal change like people who want worker's rights groups or unionization. Operating with a workforce who only want to turn up and write code and never discuss anything that affects them as a group puts Coinbase in a very strong negotiating position because there's almost complete information asymmetry in their favor.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#30

Post by darkwater » Wed, Sep 30, 2020, 10:21 AM UTC

ZephyrBlu wrote: post #22

krapp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't possible to not take sides. It's only possible to support the status quo, either explicitly or implicitly, or else oppose it.

I don't understand this "us against them" mentality because it leaves no room for nuance. I strongly believe in PG's top of mind theory [1], and I don't see how you can achieve anything if you're constantly fighting for or against the status quo. Don't you believe it's possible to agree with certain viewpoints but not act on them? You also don't have to parade around your support during every waking moment, which is…

> Don't you believe it's possible to agree with certain viewpoints but not act on them?

Obviously you can choose to agree on something is not good and at the same time to not collaborate in changing it. But then you should acknowledge that you are helping the status quo with your attitude, and helping the status quo is also a political action (like most human actions, since we are a society).