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A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

blog.coinbase.com

51–60 of 774 posts

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#51

It's interesting to hear Coinbase management insist that they're apolitical when the company makes significant political contributions itself[1]. [1] https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?...

I think they only claimed to be apolitical in matters that don't affect the company's core business.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#52

One thought: If you see a resume with Coinbase until October 2020, that's probably someone who prefers political activism in the workplace. That might be seen in a positive or negative light, depending on your stance. I personally am afraid to associate myself too publicly with a political stance, lest I be wrong and/or the environment changes.

a lot of people might have just taken this opportunistically and did not have anything to do with politics. i don’t think you can really read into it.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That employee is distanced enough from the idea that people would genuinely want to leave that I kinda laugh when I read their quote. COBRA alone would eat up most of the severance. Either people managed to get through a _whole interview process_ in a week, or they're fine with the idea of being jobless during the worst economy in 12 years, or they price the benefit of not being there fairly high. Which then leads us…

Healthcare was also part of the severance package, and the market for software engineers in the Bay Area remains strong.

It wasn't

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#55
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something being a political statement doesn't necessarily mean it is directly in support of one pole or the other. It's still political. Saying "my business supports whatever the current US government's stated opinion is on all issues" is a political stance. It may not be partisan, but it absolutely is political. Those aren't synonymous.

Saying ‘we don’t want to be an activist organization beyond our business goals, therefore we want to keep political discussions out of the workplace’ is not the same thing as saying ‘my business supports whatever the US government’s stated opinion is’. Nobody supports the status quo.

Correct, but both are political statements. "We don't want to be involved in the political discussion" is just as political as "we want to be involved in the political discussion".

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't, the generosity is allowing you to pick up COBRA

I believe COBRA is available for up to 36 months after your employment ends in California by law. As a result, I don’t know how to read “6 months COBRA” from the excerpt of the severance email besides “we will pay 6 months of employer premiums.”

COBRA means employees paying the employer premium, by guaranteeing COBRA, an employer is saying "We won't stop paying the health insurance company for _everybody else's insurance_, so you'll still have someone to pay" - it's a great PR jiu jitsu move, I didn't realize until this thread how confusing it is - I'm only familiar with it because sadly I had to sunset a company in California.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#58

> Armstrong said in the memo he recognizes that what counts as politics is “a blurry line.” Good luck dealing with disagreements on this when it's so poorly defined.

Is this something where there needs to be a bright-line rule? It feels like having a rigorous formal definition for "be nice to your coworkers" - a healthy company can resolve these kinds of disputes informally, and an unhealthy company will struggle no matter how clear the rules are.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#59
post #15

I don't think it can be understated how much saying 'no politics' is a political statement. Supporting the status quo is a political statement. And supporting the status quo in this political climate is a strange hill to plant your flag on.

I really dislike this argument.

Anyone using it is just saying “If you are not with us, your against us”.

It’s simply a way to force a divide of the world into black and white and that sucks.

Re: A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

#60
post #15

I don't think it can be understated how much saying 'no politics' is a political statement. Supporting the status quo is a political statement. And supporting the status quo in this political climate is a strange hill to plant your flag on.

Coinbase didn't say "no politics" or "we support the status quo". They just said that the company is focused on cryptocurrency, and won't engage in political causes other than supporting cryptocurrency.

As someone else pointed out, they seem to have no problem in donating to political candidates as a corporation so this is the height of hypocrisy. Individual employees don't get to have a say in the direction of the company's politics.
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