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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

#411

Post by jonathanlb »

monoideism wrote: post #377
wahnfrieden wrote: post #369

Let me guess that you are referring to “reverse racism” here

Why use a special term? Just "racism" works very well. The idea that only certain races can "qualify" for racism is Orwellian.

Your comment makes sense only if you're conflating "racism" with "racial discrimination". Per the APA:

Individual racism is a personal belief in the superiority of one’s race over another. It is linked to racial prejudice and discriminatory behaviors, which can be an expression of implicit and explicit bias.

Institutionalized racism is a system of assigning value and allocating opportunity based on skin color. It unfairly privileges some individuals and groups over others and influences social institutions in our legal, educational, and governmental systems. It is reflected in disparities in, but not limited to, wealth, income, justice, employment, housing, medicine, education, and voting. It can be expressed implicitly or explicitly and occurs when a certain group is targeted and discriminated against based on race.

https://www.apa.org/topics/racism-bias-discrimination

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

#414

Post by DenisM »

dmurray wrote: post #131
RangerScience wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any circumstance in which someone is looking at that is a circumstance in which they could also be treating you like a specific individual; aka, if it matters to them, you're there to ask. Ironically / IMHO, the irritant at the center of the pearl that is many of these ('social justice') issues is people treating other people as a member of an imagined group rather than a specific human they can talk to.

Asking specific people about their political views during the hiring process (even general questions like "do you think tech workers should be politically active in the workplace?") is dangerous even if not necessarily illegal. Making hiring decisions based on the applicant's experience and employment history is pretty much best practice.

source?

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

#415

Post by gnopgnip »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #46

I am beyond sick of political activists in the workplace, so I hope this trend catches on.

Where do you draw the line on what is political? Is wearing a mask political? What about calling someone by their preferred pronoun, or recognizing gay marriage?

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

#416

Post by heimatau »

rednerrus wrote: post #330

My company is becoming increasingly political and it's terrible. I'd gladly go work at a company where I didn't have to engage with endless political activism. If I want to hear everyone's opinions on everything, I'd find their facebook page or the HN usernames and follow them.

> My company is becoming increasingly political and it's terrible.

IMHO, this is not the problem. The problem are the managers of the work. One doesn't need to micromanage to stop this from happening. Nor does one need to limit free speech to prevent this.

Companies aren't working enough, that's the problem and managers aren't keeping people focused on the actual challenge at hand.

P.S. I feel this is a white-collar problem. These soft skills are paramount but also come from leadership. Restricting speech doesn't really deal with the people that the decision affects. Instead, one needs to become a better manager/leader to get 'buy-in' from the workers and then work!

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

#417

Post by [deleted] »

mtalantikite wrote: post #235
thedevil wrote: post #11

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.

“I personally am afraid to associate myself too publicly with a political stance, lest I be wrong and/or the environment changes.” I can understand this fear, but generally if you choose a stance based on compassion for all beings you’ll be in the right in the long run. This particular issue was sparked by Coinbase not taking a stance on Black Lives Matter, which they are wrong about. Standing for dismantling racism…

[deleted]

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

#418

Post by petr_tik »

kmonsen wrote: post #255
JPKab wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My wife is mostly liberal from a US political perspective, but happens to be opposed to abortion. I happen to disagree in nuanced ways with her on this topic. My business. According to my coworkers, who discovered this because they saw her bumper sticker when she picked me up one day, this is because she is "ignorant and doesn't know the facts" and "if she knew the facts she wouldn't think that way" and that I "need…

I think it is a bit more nuanced than that, and that the line is really hard to draw. If you wife for example got a manager that thought the females had no place in the workplace and should be a stay at home wife and was open about this, would that be ok? If you are gay, and your manager loudly say that being gay is a sin, would that be ok? I get that it can feel like the other way too, it probably feels hostile to b…

Why is the manager talking about religion and sinfulness of certain private preferences at work? They are unprofessional and I would ask them to stop such conversations. Should they persist, I will raise it and if need be - start thinking about working elsewhere.

If the first manager fires her because of her gender, we can take him to court for unlawful dismissal.

There are many mean individuals out there. That’s because we all have capacity for discrimination and ultimately violence. The call to stop discussing politics at work might result in fewer such frictions and keep us focused on the job at hand. A more productive and socially cohesive outcome in my opinion.

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

#419

Post by 0xy »

lawnchair_larry wrote: post #353
TedShiller wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I think there are only two options for a company: 1) don't allow any activism in the company 2) allow ALL types of activism in the company Right now, it seems most companies only allow liberal activism but not conservative activism. This is a recipe for problems because it's arbitrary and not democratic.

It’s way worse than that. Even centrists and liberals are silenced by the vocal mob for merely questioning the validity of certain policies or initiatives that claim to have some righteous sounding goal, even when there is evidence that the proposed policy is more likely to be harmful than helpful. For example, it should not be controversial to debate the merits of Black Lives Matter, but since the alternate reality…

Not only will you be viciously attacked for questioning BLM, but an open source maintainer at Facebook was publicly attacked by coworkers for politely declining a request to put a BLM banner on the website for an open source project (he stated he wanted to remain apolitical, without giving an opinion).

Social advocacy is a spiritual replacement to religion and supporters are even more fervent.

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