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A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company

blog.coinbase.com

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

#181

Post by pembrook »

Like other comments, I am skeptical 5% are actually quitting due to this overblown twitter melodrama, instead of just taking a sweet deal.

Furthermore, what political mission did these people falsely believe they were joining when they got hired?

Coinbase is literally an app designed for the sole purpose of helping 22 year old kids lose money by speculating on the now deflated crypto bubble.

For a while, coinbase was allowing kids to “invest” using credit cards. I’m not kidding.

How could there be such a disconnect with that many people about what the company actually does—-especially from the inside where you can literally see how they actually make their money?

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

#182

Post by uniqueid »

modeless wrote: post #161
uniqueid wrote: post #85

I could see this working out badly. I think Coinbase will now attract/retain fewer conscientious employees. The kind of employees who definitely won't leave are the ones with careerist/mercenary personality types. If that becomes a vicious cycle ( per the 'like attracts like' thing https://youtu.be/wTgQ2PBiz-g?t=75 ), the culture could lead to wide-spread ass-covering and fraud. Then again, this isn't an area in whic…

I think the opposite. The employees who stay are the kind who agree with the mission and want to focus on it. The kind who leave were focused on something other than advancing the company's goals. The company will be more effective at achieving its goals with a workforce that is all pointed in the same direction with less distraction. And the CEO mentioned that the people who left were not disproportionately underrep…

My thinking is that it takes a certain personality type to whistle-blow, or push back against SOP for moralistic (or customer-focused) reasons. I don't want to overplay my hand here — I don't know for certain — but Coinbase's current messaging strikes me as off-putting to that sort of personality type.

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

#184

Post by altdatathrow »

jojo2333 wrote: post #142
mplewis wrote: post #72

I'm curious to know how many of these exits were in engineering – those with the privilege to know another engineering job is immediately available somewhere else – versus other roles in the company.

Quite possible this could blacklist you from many other companies.

There are literally thousands upon thousands of companies hiring software engineers today.

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

#185

Post by MattGaiser »

easton wrote: post #77

Of course, it's impossible to know now, but I wonder how many people would've still left if there was no exit package. It's possible some decided they wanted to work somewhere else and saw a way out.

6 months of pay as severance. I could find another job in a couple weeks and I am not that skilled or experienced a software engineer. It would be quite tempting.

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

#186

Post by arnvald »

easton wrote: post #77

Of course, it's impossible to know now, but I wonder how many people would've still left if there was no exit package. It's possible some decided they wanted to work somewhere else and saw a way out.

I think this is also true from the other side - probably more people would leave if we weren't in a recession.

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

#187

Post by baggy_trough »

ketzo wrote: post #152
redm wrote: post #82

I feel like this is the start of a rising tide. I think Brian's stance is great, companies have missions, they should focus on those missions. Everything has become so political that your work, which occupies a large portion of your life, should not be divisive.

> ...your work, which occupies a large portion of your life, should not be divisive. I get that desire, I really do, but I think it's so important to recognize that your work is not apolitical. It doesn't matter what you're building. What you build does not exist in a vacuum, and the decisions you make around politics at work are themselves political decisions.

This is really a noxious idea. It's like saying that because we all breathe the same air, everything I do affects you. No, not in the vast majority of cases.

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

#188

Post by yokaze »

redm wrote: post #82

I feel like this is the start of a rising tide. I think Brian's stance is great, companies have missions, they should focus on those missions. Everything has become so political that your work, which occupies a large portion of your life, should not be divisive.

I see it the other way around. (Almost) everything is political. The mission of the company is not disjoint from the society it is embedded in. Things have become divisive by being able to ignore and blend out the opposing views. By not talking and listening to one another.

This is just one more step in that direction.

Funnily enough, I think it has been extrapolated by Neal Stephenson in Diamond Age. We will end up having parallel societies which define themselves not by geographic boundaries, but by affiliation. A North Korean community could be your neighbour.

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

#189

Post by Pils »

twmahna wrote: post #104
blck wrote: 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 don't think it can be understated how much saying 'no politics' is a political statement. I disagree, and I think you're grossly overstating it. I can see how you could characterize their stance as "supporting the status quo". But, there are varying degrees of "support", and this is pretty much the lowest degree of "support" imaginable. Put another way, you're painting this as "with us or against us" when in real…

> The vast majority of employees prefer a work environment that is stripped of political conversation

While I generally agree, I think there is a tacit assumption that Armstrong's actions will work exactly as intended. 5-8% of workforce is...honestly I don't know if it's high or low, but is certainly non-trivial. These weren't strategic layoffs or restructurings, so certain business-critical projects might be delayed due to headcount issues/loss of senior staff. If we hear about another walkout at Coinbase 6 months from now, this might just look like a catastrophic management blunder.

Literally firing the walkout organizers would probably have led to a worse media cycle, but likely fewer staff quitting in protest (Google firing the walkout organizers seemed to have little to no effect).

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

#190

Post by mnd999 »

heavyset_go wrote: post #25

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/?...

That's what didn't sit right with me about the Coinbase stance. It seems somewhat elitist to suggest that the board are allowed to hire lobbyists and make donations to campaigns but the rank and file are not to discuss politics in the office.
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