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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

#491

Post by nilkn »

sprt wrote: post #138
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatively, if you see a resume with Coinbase through 2020-2021, that person probably prefers the opposite, which may also be seen in a positive or negative light, depending on your stance.

Which, as your parent seems to not realize, is also a political stance. This dichotomy is exactly what MLK refers to in the Letter from a Bermingham Jail (i.e. positive vs negative peace).

I think this is a very simplistic take. The reason we’re seeing a crackdown on this is not because companies are making a political move to support the status quo. It’s because they’re trying to weed out and get rid of legitimately problematic and toxic people who abused the previous culture.

For instance, there was an instance not too long ago at Facebook where one engineer publicly attacked another completely peaceful coworker on Twitter because the latter declined to put a BLM statement on the landing page of an open source project they maintained. The former employee was eventually fired. These kinds of antics are deeply divisive and destructive to the workplace.

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

#492

Post by CameronNemo »

creato wrote: post #482
Pfhreak wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Apolitical" is the default. It's another way of saying, "The way things are is fine". The problem is that this is, in itself, a political stance. An example could be climate change. If Coinbase is doing nothing to make energy more green (even if that's just writing amicus briefs or blog posts), then they are effectively saying, "The way things are is fine."

> An example could be climate change. If Coinbase is doing nothing to make energy more green (even if that's just writing amicus briefs or blog posts), then they are effectively saying, "The way things are is fine." You think every single company that isn't writing amicus briefs or blog posts about climate change is taking a political stance against fighting climate change?

No, but coinbase is a company that thrives on carbon intensive technology. If they are not doing what they can to shift the scales of cryptocurrency toward more sustainable proofs, while at the same time promoting cryptocurrency, they are accelerating carbon pollution.

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

#493

Post by thaeli »

heimatau wrote: post #451
toomuchtodo wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But if you have time to browse Social Media or enough time to get into extended hostile discussions (about ANYTHING), then your manager isn't doing their job. Full-stop. What you describe is a sweat shop, not knowledge work. You can have downtime while still getting your work done and acting like an adult with colleagues. If you don’t have this skill set, make the effort to cultivate some tact and decorum.

> You can have downtime This is where you might be misunderstanding. Downtime shouldn't be to engage in more stressful mental activity. Think about it. Go to the gym. Study for a big exam. Are you really engaged on the goals of a gym? Are you really engaged in getting a good grade on an exam? If you are, you are finite and I highly suspect that the high performers aren't going to try and add more stress on their live…

I think you're underestimating how much _fun_ some people find this sort of recreational trolling.

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

#494

Post by heimatau »

thaeli wrote: post #493
heimatau wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can have downtime This is where you might be misunderstanding. Downtime shouldn't be to engage in more stressful mental activity. Think about it. Go to the gym. Study for a big exam. Are you really engaged on the goals of a gym? Are you really engaged in getting a good grade on an exam? If you are, you are finite and I highly suspect that the high performers aren't going to try and add more stress on their live…

I think you're underestimating how much _fun_ some people find this sort of recreational trolling.

> I think you're underestimating how much _fun_ some people find this sort of recreational trolling.

It doesn't matter if it's fun. It doesn't matter if someone paid them money to sabotage another company. The blame for allowing this excessive behavior in a business environment, lays with the leadership, full stop. Management is typically to blame and since CB is tiny, then it lays with the CEO.

One could look at even the positive aspect of it. Say a group of coworkers are very close friends (either through work or prior) then they are excessively talking about something. Well, then that situation is the responsibility of their bosses.

P.S. I've said my peace. If y'all still don't get it. Go read a few leadership or business management books.

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

#495

Post by davorak »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #458
joshuamorton wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While that's true now, it wasn't true 10 (or even 5 in some places) years ago. It's arguably not even true in some places today. Just this week , the Supreme Court denied cert on a lawsuit about same sex marriage (Kim Davis).

You’re confusing “controversial” with “political”. Someone’s marriage may be controversial to someone, but talking about it isn’t political (at least not in the sense we’re discussing here). It becomes political when someone is arguing for or against gay marriage.

Seems like a reasonable interpretation in my experience. I have definitely seen people told not to talk about what you might call controversial because it is political.

Don't talk about your abortion and how it made your life better or worse.

Don't talk about your birth control.

Don't talk about how you were explicitly told by an authority figure you were not worthy of a job because of your sex/gender.

Easy for me to imagine someone being told not to talk about their gay marriage under similar circumstances.

I think commonly used phrases are "its not for polite company", "keep politics out of it", "don't bring your politics here", etc.

It is obviously selective enforcement of the rules, but that is a common and unfortunately often effective shield.

Luckily I have heard/see less of the above over the last 10 years than the 10 years before that.

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

#496

Post by ZhIPh3zW5R »

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #441
celdon25 wrote: post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could consider working for a 501(c)(3) charity, where employees are forbidden by law to make most types of political statements (including in private) using company equipment or channels. The actual laws around this are nuanced and don't cover all types of political speech, but it covers enough to where the average employee will be wise to think twice before saying just about anything political at work. The IRS h…

Wait, really? Dont many (most?) 501c3s have highly political missions? E.g. EFF, ACLU, NRA?

I am with you on this one. The definition of a having a non-political mission must mean all but mentioning a candidate's name.

You can transparently see that some 501(c)(3)s are mostly political groups. As this becomes more common I expect politicians will use them to bypass campaign finance election laws. They will create charities that 'educate' voters about how bad their opponent is without naming that opponent.

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

#497

Post by rdiddly »

titanomachy wrote: post #338
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.

Do companies have an obligation to be democratic? Are democratic companies common? Protected classes aside, if I start a company I can choose to hire or exclude whomever I choose. I could start a company that only hires registered Republicans, or only people who can't stand the taste of bananas. If this turns out to be a bad business decision (which it probably is), the market will punish me and I'll eventually lose…

You can't discriminate against certain protected classes, but yes, it boggles my mind a little bit that someone could think "a corporation" is anything other than one of the most authoritarian, top-down governance structures ever devised.

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

#498

Post by dd36 »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #465
jariel wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intersectional view is that 'real racism' requires a power imbalance - which is actually a fair point. It would be unfair not to recognize that some groups have considerably more power than others. That said - it's still racism one way or another, discriminatory etc. and in 2020 it's getting really hard to talk about individuals as being a function of their race. So while it's worth reminding ourselves of the int…

> The intersectional view is that 'real racism' requires a power imbalance - which is actually a fair point. It would be unfair not to recognize that some groups have considerably more power than others. I could get down with this if whites behaved as a class, working for their own mutual interests; however, such whites are few and far between and generally powerless.

You’re not down with the current iteration of the Republican Party?

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

#499

Post by tomp »

tshaddox wrote: post #395
tuna-piano wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, I don't see anyone complaining that Fruit Gushers hasn't taken a stand on child pornography? I will disagree somewhat with the people who say that companies never have a place for political stuff. If you are any company involved in South Africa during apartheid you should choose a side on apartheid and voice that position. If BLM means just the simple definition of what the words imply (that black lives matter…

> Funny, I don't see anyone complaining that Fruit Gushers hasn't taken a stand on child pornography? Child pornography, from what I can tell, is not a controversial issue. Most companies haven't made statements about their views on murder, theft, and slavery either. But if the nation were prominently split over whether murder, theft, slavery, or child pornography are good things, I would hope some companies would ma…

Actually child pornography is a controversial issue, because it’s often use as a “think of the children” excuse to censor the internet or ban cryptography.

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

#500

Post by peteretep »

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.

Dunno, I’m not sure I’ve ever loved a company enough that I wouldn’t take a six month windfall not to leave?
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