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Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

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

#41

Post by Rotten194 »

gadders wrote: post #18
m12k wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair though, keeping politics completely out of any aspect of life becomes increasingly hard when things like science and the definition of "truth" are being politicized. A statement like "I believe the 99% of climate scientists that say climate change is man-made" shouldn't be considered a political statement, yet here we are.

You could... not talk about it at work?

What is "it"? Things that are controversial? Where do we draw the line on that?

Most people would agree that talking about your flight "around" the world is OK, even if it takes a side in the somehow-controversial debate on the shape of the earth.

What about talking to your coworkers idly and you mention "Oh yeah I've been keeping my kids at home cause I'm worried about coronavirus". Controversial, some people think that's fake.

Talking about how you got married last month? If you're gay, that's suddenly controversial.

Talking to your manager about how you need to take time off because a family member died, they ask what happened, turns out they were shot by the police? Suddenly very controversial...

Politics isn't some weird abstract thing, it's life and the events that are happening around us every day. If we live in a world where literally the shape of the earth is a marker of political identity -- how do you expect people to avoid mentioning topics that people might find controversial? Or do you think it's possible to draw a stark dividing line somewhere between "shape of earth" and "police reform" that can be justified in an objective way?

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

#42

Post by ZephyrBlu »

samastur wrote: post #39
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

No, what he said is that no issue is big enough to distract him and Coinbase from making as much money as possible (setting aside how truthful he was). It's also not a question of us against them. What we decide to do or not do all has a meaning, even just standing on the side. It is certainly possible to agree with viewpoints without acting on them, but it's not possible to support them.

> No, what he said is that no issue is big enough to distract him and Coinbase from making as much money as possible (setting aside how truthful he was)

Even if we take his words cynically, is this the wrong thing to do if that is the path he's chosen?

Context switching is very hard for an individual let alone an organization, and no one will ever agree what the most important issue(s) is/are (Racism, poverty, climate change, etc).

The way I see it is that it's about picking your battles. It's impossible to support and act on every good cause out there. I don't understand what you expect people to do.

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

#43

Post by humanrebar »

darkwater wrote: post #30
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

I can think the status quo sucks and that proposed attitudes and alternatives suck too.

Seeing a lack of acceptable options doesn't mean I am supporting any of them. That is a false choice.

And, besides, maybe I am addressing the same problems in another way, it's just not apparent given the false choice framing. For instance, maybe I think fighting racism through political confrontation and segregation is a dead end, so I am fighting racism on a local or personal level. And maybe it's none of your business how that's going so far.

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

#44

Post by danielheath »

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.

I'm unaware of any point in history where 'not taking sides' in a war was viewed favorably by either side.

I'm fairly confident that there will be a civil war shortly after the election.

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

#45

Post by humanrebar »

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?

Workplaces and ZIP codes are more homogeneous than they used to be.

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

#46

Post by anwalters »

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…

I agree with the basic premise: productive people do not have time to engage in petty fights.

On the other hand, there are many situations where there is a silent majority of productive people who would literally need to speak up only once to topple an unfair system.

The unfair system can be an open source project that has been hijacked by a small group of ideologists, it can be bad working conditions in ware houses.

Certainly in the case of the open source project it would require just on mail per silent majority member to express dissent and shut down the bureaucrats.

Yet, even in the simplest case it does not happen. So there seem to be more powerful forces at play than just lack of time: Lethargy, craving irrational authority, prisoner's dilemma (who speaks up first).

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

#47

Post by eeh »

detaro wrote: post #6
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…

It's kinda interesting to see because the cryptocurrency space is surely one of the more political tech developments at the core - replacing fiat money, new financial instruments, self-governing contracts, ...?

The CEO is declaring the focus political issue is cryptocurrency.

The focus is not whales, forests, ice caps, malaria.

Why is this controversial?

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

#48

Post by neilv »

The article mentions Coinbase and Amazon, and we've also seen possibly related HR concerns from Google, Facebook, and others. Is this going to become a thing for many companies?

My current presence on a career site mentions my long-time involvement in societal implications of technology. In my case, the relevance to work is that I'm drawn to some companies and roles, knowingly avoid some others, and some of my technical and product work is informed by, say, some understanding of security&privacy -- but it's not that one day I'll spontaneously become woke on some issue, and organize a march of employees to a media event where we denounce our employer and burn the founders in effigy.

Given some news incidents in the last couple years, I'm wondering whether a job candidate looking like possibly an "activist" is going to become a standard factor for hair-trigger filtering by HR.

Will there be new hiring rituals in which the people who read the interview prep books know the right shibboleth to convey that they're "totally non-political"?

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

#49

Post by ivanbakel »

yyy888sss wrote: post #35
objclxt wrote: post #23

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 hi…

But they are not the same. Every company and organisation will advocate for itself by advertising, lobbying, legal battles etc. Brands will also adopt a LGBT pride/BLM/etc campaign as soon as they think it provides good publicity. The aim of all this is to help the company/org. It's not the same as employees bringing up their social or political views while at work.

That attitude reifies the company - the company itself is nothing more than the collection of people who work together to drive it. Political stances, even for business purposes, come from the individuals who make up the company leadership, not out of some abstract organisation.

In that sense, it's terribly unfair to forbid employees to bring up politics at work. After all, their bosses are doing it: and not only that, their bosses are using their employees' productivity to empower those political views.

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

#50

Post by ClumsyPilot »

yyy888sss wrote: post #35
objclxt wrote: post #23

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 hi…

But they are not the same. Every company and organisation will advocate for itself by advertising, lobbying, legal battles etc. Brands will also adopt a LGBT pride/BLM/etc campaign as soon as they think it provides good publicity. The aim of all this is to help the company/org. It's not the same as employees bringing up their social or political views while at work.

This is the textbook definition of "have it both ways" and "hypocrisy"
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