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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

#521

Post by electriclove »

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.

Isn't this what he said though (just in a more polite tone)?

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

#522

Post by moduspol »

jiscariot wrote: post #494
moduspol wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the real goal is to foist problematic employees onto competitors.

I'm not too familiar with SV culture, but wouldn't an employee exit from Coinbase for the next few months also act as a signal to future employers? Since google has already been bitten from both sides with their "bring your entire self to work" culture, you'd think they'd want to avoid ex-Coinbasers. Maybe I'm reading too much in to this.

Honestly, I wouldn't think so. People can change / learn, too. If you've already ticked off your boss and coworkers at Coinbase with your politics, this might be an excellent time to get some severance, re-evaluate whether or not you should continue to do that in the workplace, and frame your resignation differently when applying elsewhere.

Besides, I'd expect the "true believers" to find some way to outright brag to future interviewers they parted ways with Coinbase over moral / ethical objections.

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

#523

Post by skinkestek »

paulgb wrote: post #223
tossAfterUsing wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When we have had presidents who were willing to condemn white supremacy, we tended not to call on CEOs to. https://twitter.com/robsmithonline/status/131113297546835968...

Last night he was given the chance to unequivocally condemn the Proud Boys and instead told them to "stand back and stand by", which the group themselves has taken as a rally cry. Just like how after Charlottesville, white supremacists took his ambiguous response as a sign of approval. He doesn't condemn, he validates with just enough deniability that people can make lists like the one you posted, while everyone who…

Did you follow that debate closely? Because it seems like a lot more nuanced than the media put it.

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

#524

Post by spollo »

JeremyBanks wrote: post #497
eddof13 wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I concur, I suspect the influx of applicants to coinbase based on this will be larger than the potential loss of people taking the severance

[flagged]

I don't disagree with your underlying feeling here, that is to say I'm on your side of the fence. But don't you think it's a bit extreme to label people sociopaths, insane, evil, incompetent, for expressing their desire to work in a place where they can focus on their craft? Your last sentence is actually really threatening as well.

I can think of many reasons people might find this appealing. They may be incredibly politically engaged in their personal life and want work to be a place of focus. They might disagree with the political solutions that their coworkers favour, which is totally okay! But it would be extremely draining for that person.

Please, start with the best interpretation of people rather than labelling broad swaths of people as wicked and mentally ill. This is a great opportunity for discussion!

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

#525

Post by poulsbohemian »

andy_ppp wrote: post #434

I am caught in two minds on this, I’m personally extremely political, but I want to clearly understand both sides of arguments as deeply as I possibly can. For example I often argue things in my own mind from a conservative, let’s keep everything stable, work hard, individual responsibility POV even though I firmly believe probably 80% of people’s success is down to luck and consequently think a strong welfare state…

Every company has a mission, some are just more explicit about it.

I spent a lot of years as a traveling consultant. Every company I visited broadcast it's culture and in doing so, it's mission. It's in the way companies bring products to market, it's in the words it uses to describe itself. It's in the way it treats its employees.

The mission could be "We want to line the pockets of the founder's family." It could be "we want to build products that make people's lives better in these distinct ways." It can even be "We want to shine this turd just long enough to get acquired by our largest competitor." As employees, we buy in one way or another.

Each of those is a mission, just a very different mission from the way Coinbase is positioning their mission.

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

#526

Post by hackerfromthefu »

thelock85 wrote: post #469
skybrian wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not about being apolitical. The question is whether they can draw a line between mission-related politics (related to cryptocurrency, employment, or just how to do business) and all other politics. There is no clear line to be drawn, so it’s a judgement call, and it will be debated.

> draw a line between mission-related politics and all other politics Agreed. I wonder if they will take some word smithing to the mission statement. Even with the clarification and interpretation presented in the blog post, "economic freedom" encompasses a lot of "other politics". It is a helluva juggling act to want a diverse, thriving team, and a singular shared definition of economic freedom across that team. Mor…

I always thought it's quite normal for people to work together despite not having all the same ideas and definitions. That those flowery words on a mission statement are not precise or exact, and will never stand up to all situations and expectations.

Perhaps it's not really that important, and there's not even much point debating it for the organisation .. people at work could instead get on with the work they are doing and offering value to society through the outcome of their work. Of course they could do various activism in other ways, without inflicting it excessively on their colleagues just because they are earning a living across the hallway from them ..

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

#527

Post by simias »

Reading these comments I feel like the root of the issue is the collapse of American democracy. It's a bit grandiloquent but that's definitely how it looks like. If workers trust that "We, the people" are still in charge on the big picture then it doesn't make sense to bring politics at work. Just vote.

Now if you feel like your power as a citizen has dwindled and you can't meaningfully enact change through democratic means, it makes sense to try and "weaponize" your job, especially if you work for a powerful company and you're a valuable highly skilled worker.

But in the end if you're dissatisfied with your company and you know that there's a fundamental ideological incompatibility it probably makes more sense to just quit, especially when you're a software dev and you can probably find some other job fairly easily.

I guess an other possibility would be to have proper unions but for some reason I don't see that happening in the USA any time soon...

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

#528

Post by makuto »

xoxoy wrote: post #491
cft wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly. If I was looking for a job, I would rank it very high because of this.

perhaps take a step back and realize that the HN demographic of young white males is exactly the type that would have the least issue with this policy...

Fight racism and stereotypes with more racism and stereotypes, that'll work.

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

#530

Post by Apocryphon »

hackerfromthefu wrote: post #498
meheleventyone wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could also be a sign that people feel more empowered to express themselves in work and feel that a workplace that values their ideals is preferable to one that doesn't. Particularly in tech where we're all quite comfortably off we can worry about these things higher up the hierarchy of needs. It will be interesting to see where this takes the culture of Coinbase.

It could also be related to excessive narcissism! A zeitgeist of the times ..

If you're going to talk zeitgeists, it could also be millenarianism, as the belief that the old order is dwindling and about to blow away and must be replaced with something better, the belief in a reckoning, is far from exclusive to either side of the political spectrum but instead is present everywhere.
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