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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

#101

Post by tnolet »

sneak wrote: post #69
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.

Does the country in which you live have a status quo of the regular imprisonment, enslavement, and public executions of a specific race of people? That's the issue in the USA, and "not taking sides" on that matter is, well, an issue, because it means you don't care about human rights.

This is kinda equivalent to Bush's "if you're not with us, you're with the terrorists".

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

#103

Post by mountainb »

Closi wrote: post #92
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…

As someone who works for a mostly apolitical organization - it depends on the issue. For example, the company refuses to take a stance on: - Brexit (even though it will negatively impact them) - Elections or any vote (even though again, this impacts them) But for example actively campaigns on: - Agricultural issues (It's in the food industry) The company VERY strongly supports LGBT rights and minority rights, and wil…

It's not true that "LGBT Rights" are value-free. Promoting LGBT rights also alienates members of the largest religious groups in the world, including those that are majority-non-European like Islam and Catholicism. Being a practicing L, G, B, or T or pro any of them is against sharia, the Catechism, and against the rules of many major Protestant sects like Mormons. Gay marriage is expressly against the rules of most major global belief groups that are not the US and its Marshall Plan colonies.

Without a lot of double speak, there is no such thing as a 'universally tolerant' corporate policy because different legal, social, and religious moral frameworks are mutually incompatible. In the US people just prefer to pretend that post-Protestant Woo-ism is universally friendly to everyone.

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

#104

Post by demygale »

moduspol wrote: post #94
kkhire wrote: post #65

I’ve never worked in the Bay Area, so could just be OOL but I’m genuinely surprised that this is such a big deal, or that this blog post got so much praise. Never discussed politics at any of the companies I’ve worked for, we were always too busy with...work!

Virtually every meaningful task humans have accomplished has been a result of groups of us putting aside our differences to unite and focus on solving the problem at hand.

What if the problem at hand is ending structural racism in the workplace?

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

#105

Post by username90 »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #83
howlgarnish wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, companies spend money to elect politicians who will favor them, and the fact that those politicians have to have positions on social issues as well is (for companies) an unavoidable negative. Hobby Lobby type companies with an active social agenda are a tiny minority.

Ah, so these companies lobby for policies that have no impact on any social issues, like taxes and immigration? They have no effect on my life?

Lobbying about taxes and immigration is working as intended since it is just telling politicians what policies would benefit said company. It is important for politicians to know about it when they make policies so they can better consider pro's and con's.

However lobbying for for laws such as for/against gay marriage or religious rights is unrelated to their business. Then the company is used to exert some individuals political influence instead of just being a business.

Of course politicians are sometimes corrupt and get favors from the companies and then go to do whatever the companies lobbyist tells them to, that is what people usually mean when they mention "lobbying". But lobbying itself isn't inherently a malicious or political act, in its purest form it just conveys information so politicians can make better decisions.

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

#106

Post by davidgerard »

eeh wrote: post #47
detaro wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

for a start, you've just separated "cryptocurrency" from "ice caps", when Bitcoin generates country-sized quantities of CO2.

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

#107

Post by iso1631 »

adamisom wrote: post #67
doublesCs wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll bet you $100 there won't.

Heck I'll raise that, and offer 20:1 odds to danielheath, I pay $400 if there's a civil war, he pays $20 if there's not.

How did the value of US dollar compared to other currencies change during the US civil war?

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

#108

Post by jeromegv »

moduspol wrote: post #94
kkhire wrote: post #65

I’ve never worked in the Bay Area, so could just be OOL but I’m genuinely surprised that this is such a big deal, or that this blog post got so much praise. Never discussed politics at any of the companies I’ve worked for, we were always too busy with...work!

Virtually every meaningful task humans have accomplished has been a result of groups of us putting aside our differences to unite and focus on solving the problem at hand.

??? Nice way to rewrite history. Would you say the civil rights movement was successful because it wanted to put aside differences? Or because they fought for their rights, their difference, and the privileged majority had to make concessions?

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

#109

Post by nilkn »

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…

I have to say most companies I’ve worked for have subscribed to the policies in Armstrong’s blog post, and it has worked very well. But these companies were mostly outside the Bay Area.

I suspect the Bay Area is extremely nondiverse and homogeneous, and folks there aren’t actually used to having to work with and get along with people who strongly disagree with them on politics. In that kind of monoculture, it’s easy to think that politics can and should be part of work life. In a much more diverse workforce, though, it rarely works well.

If Coinbase is going to be remote-first, as they recently announced, the company’s employees are certainly going to encounter a level of diversity they haven’t been exposed to in the Bay Area. This could be preparation for that.

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

#110

Post by _b8r0 »

anoncake wrote: post #99
danpalmer wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference between strongly supporting LGBT rights and strongly supporting remaining in the EU? Both likely affect the company significantly, both are (unfortunately) political issues, both (unfortunately) alienate people. It seems the only distinction here is that Brexit is a closer call in the UK. Is there another way of looking at it?

One is a human rights issue, the other is not.

Brexit is absolutely a human rights issue. The leave campaign specifically talked up withdrawing from EU human rights laws and agreements.
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