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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

#451

Post by C1sc0cat »

nemo44x wrote: post #118
kkhire wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s there to admire? This is common sense and he should have set these expectations from the start. why are people discussing politics at work?

It’s generally a small but vocal group. And I wouldn’t call it politics so much as activism. A sort of religious zeal has made its way into our institutions like schools and universities. Some people have taken to it like a missionary would religion and believe it’s their duty to spread the word everywhere at all times. The Inquisition was no different in this regard. You just have to read what the activism says. It…

Politics by definition is activism.

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

#452

Post by ryanobjc »

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.

You gotta realize that millions, tens of millions, of Americans are white supremicists, look at black people getting shot by the police and think “they must be criminals they got what they deserved.”

We are having an (ongoing) argument in America as to who deserves what kinds of civil rights. Rights like marriage (which confers extensive legal rights), protection from being fired, fair treatment by the cops and legal system, and much more.

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

#453

Post by thelock85 »

erik_landerholm wrote: post #395
thelock85 wrote: post #342

This won’t end well. The moment Coinbase articulates anything remotely related to an underlying set of values or business ethics, the accusations of politicization (and hypocrisy) will come flying. I believe that corporations are not governed or regulated to support activism writ large, but there has to be room for dissent (even if it ends in separation). How else do you arrive at a shared definition of “economic fre…

What do you mean next step? You can process anyone’s money, it good for business. Name one money processing entity that’s ever taken a stand against...anything?

Apologies if I'm missing the mark on your question.

If the first step is "apoliticism or we'll help you find the door" then isn't a potential next step "amorality or we'll help you..."?

Again not arguing that any CEO should nurture activism (though I personally might like it), but healthy dissent is important for solving hard problems, and not every hard problem is purely logical.

If my company's mission is to create an open financial system for the world, how can we possibly do that without holding space for the multitude of values, beliefs, and political opinions across the world about financial systems?

Seems one way would be to take an amoral stance on the multitudes and stick to a tightly held definition of what an open financial system means.

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

#454

Post by dang »

The thread on the original blog post is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24610267

It got relatively little discussion because it set off the flamewar detector (http://hnrankings.info/24610267/). Normally we'd turn that off in such a case, but we missed that one.

Also: don't miss that there are multiple pages of comments in this thread. That's what the More link at the bottom points to. Or click:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24636899&p=2

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

#455

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

C1sc0cat wrote: post #450
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.

I suspect its only some activists that Mr Armstrong want's rid of.

I highly doubt that. Unrestrained political activism on either side has been shown to be a lose-lose situation for any large company. The only winning move is not to play (at work).

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

#456

Post by CarelessExpert »

kkhire wrote: post #81
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.

What’s there to admire? This is common sense and he should have set these expectations from the start. why are people discussing politics at work?

> why are people discussing politics at work?

Probably because the work these companies do is frequently political.

Let's be clear: What Coinbase is saying is, we the founders, who set the company's mission, and are doing so with a clear political view (rooted in libertarianism and so forth), are allowed to use the company to further our political ends.

But the staff? Sorry, you have no voice.

Maybe that's fine. The clear message to staff is: you are either onboard with our mission, or you can leave.

But let's not pretend companies and workplaces are apolitical. That's, at best, deeply naive.

Frankly, I wonder how much of what we're seeing now is due to the destruction of unionized labour, which were organizations explicitly designed to channel the political views of employees into collective action. Absent those structures, a) you get this bizarre perception that the workplace is apolitical (it's not), and b) staff no longer have a path whereby their views and values can be channeled and expressed.

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

#457

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

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!

> we were always too busy with...work!

I think that's one side effect of having these gargantuan, hugely profitable tech companies. They can essentially have a huge portion of their workforce be unproductive if the essential "money machine" at each company (e.g. AdWords at Google) is running smoothly.

Other, smaller companies can't afford to have as much fat in their workforce, so their workers need to be actually focused on, you know, work, and if they're not, their lack of productivity is much more visible.

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

#458

Post by Aunche »

kkhire wrote: post #81
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.

What’s there to admire? This is common sense and he should have set these expectations from the start. why are people discussing politics at work?

It's easiest just to go along with the popular opinion so you don't stick out. Given that all the most valuable companies are taking stances about social issues, I'd wager that it's profitable to do so. I think it's admirable for being honest with his apolitical stance as opposed to just going along with the flow.

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

#459

Post by lliamander »

adamjb wrote: post #406
lliamander wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my existence itself is a political statement (in support of legal immigration) Unless those in your country who are opposed to immigration literally want you dead, this is a pretty hyperbolic statement.

One can oppose the existence of something on the basis of its location while not being opposed to its existence generally. See: NIMBYs.

The mainstream "anti-immigration" position is about curtailing future immigration, rather than removing current immigrants.

The objection isn't to the presence of the immigrants per se, but rather the consequences of continuing the flow of people on the labor market and on cultural cohesion.

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

#460

Post by mythrwy »

The current situation in these big tech companies reminds me a little bit of Wahhabism and the founding of modern Saudi Arabia.

Initially the king used the Wahhabi extremists as troops and it was quite a successful partnership. But eventually it went sour as the king tried to modernize the country bringing in phone lines and roads and he was attacked by his former extremist friends who were opposed to the sinful modern world. Eventually the king enlisted the aid of the British with airplanes and machine guns and the Wahhabi were subdued (with a large number being killed).

A couple of parallels and potential lessons here.

Beware of getting in bed with unreasonable and fanatical extremists. They will turn on their former benefactors fairly quickly and the danger often isn't worth the risk.

And, if you are an fanatical extremist (not passing judgement on just noting), you likely won't actually ever take power for long and will be quickly disposed of when no longer useful or you become problem which you will shortly. Cynical people will take advantage of your idealism for their own purposes but you won't see the benefits.

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