A follow up to Coinbase being a mission focused company • Hacker News Board

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

#661

Post by xyzzyz » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 4:55 PM UTC

bennysonething wrote: post #618

christophilus wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you underestimate how many people are fed up with overly politicized workplaces. I’ve quit a couple of jobs due to it. I’d definitely stay somewhere where I can just work without having to listen to unrelated BS constantly, even if it meant passing on a sweet severance package.

I haven't worked anywhere that ordinary politics was discussed. I'm in uk though. I'd find it rude for someone to shove their political views in my face. It's fine for friends to discuss as I choose my friends not my colleagues. What kinda of things are people talking about?

Imagine if you had lunch with your coworkers, and one of them started complaining about Boris Johnson trying to kill the minorities with his fascist COVID policies. You personally don't like Johnson, and think his policies are far from optimal, but you think calling his policies "fascist", or implying he wants to kill anyone, is clearly over the top. However, instead of protesting, you nod your head and keep quiet, because defending Johnson's policies means that you're a fan of Johnson, and so basically a fascist, and you fear the general opprobrium among your colleagues, and would prefer to avoid anonymous HR complaints of your person.

This is the reality of working for large tech companies in the US, just with Trump instead of Johnson.

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

#662

Post by ponker » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 5:03 PM UTC

damnyou wrote: post #542

ponker wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep — this is Exhibit A as to why this is something I say only anonymously. Any other forum and she’s stunning and brave.

Good. People experiencing the social consequences of expressing bigoted views, and being a little more afraid as a result, is how the world moves forward. A term sometimes used for it is the "democratization of discomfort". The First Amendment cuts both ways.

You’re not wrong... but remember that the voting booth is another anonymous forum.

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

#663

Post by notSupplied » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

randmeerkat wrote: post #555

notSupplied wrote: post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I certainly agree that the mission of a company can (and preferably) be more than just for profit. However, "to be political" is still a pretty wide range of possible missions. Who calls the shots about what you're going to be political about, and which side you take? And when a group of employees disagree with the shots being called, what kinds of reactions are appropriate or not? I'll take a shot: - I think compell…

I’ll take a shot at responding: I would argue that the board wouldn’t exist without the people that make up the company. I would also argue that with monied interests and lobbyists in Washington, one of the last places that people can really effect societal change is at the work place. Companies have become the power center in American politics, so of course activism is going to rise up there. As far as compelled act…

I am operating on an underlying principle that others may not share, but this could help elucidate why I disagree with many fellow liberals on this front:

I'm trying to solve for how decision making power is allocated without making assumptions about which side is right or wrong. In other words, the argument that "The company must do XYZ because this political cause is simply on the RIGHT side of history!" is not acceptable to me, even though I often personally agree that the cause really _is_ right.

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

#664

Post by webmaven » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 5:17 PM UTC

ponker wrote: post #166

danaris wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your life may not be political. My life may not be political. But the life of a black trans woman? That's political by its very nature, in today's climate. One party doesn't want her to be allowed to exist, the other does. Believing it's possible to be "apolitical" in any time of polarization is a privilege of those who benefit from the status quo.

I think there are definitely people who don’t want her to exist but there are also ones like me, who get called Nazis for it, but whose perspective is largely 1) OK 2) please pay for your own costs related to your choices and 3) I’m not being an asshole to you because you’re a black trans woman, I’m being an asshole to you because I am an asshole and my white male friends say “oh Xxx is such as asshole.” So don’t tak…

> whose perspective is largely 1) OK 2) please pay for your own costs related to your choices

In your example, the black trans woman has no choice about being black and no choice about their cisgender.

Technically, they have a choice about whether they transition, but the alternative is living with the emotional pain of extreme gender dysphoria.

Would you deny someone medical care for a physically painful but not life threatening medical condition (say arthritis, or psoriasis), or tell them that treating it is their choice and responsibility?

How about mental conditions such as clinical depression, or bipolar disorder?

Would you relax the requirements on businesses to provide reasonable accommodation for wheelchair access to parking and restrooms? After all, it is their choice to go out in public.

Would you allow discrimination for employment or a mortgage based on these conditions?

This isn't really that complicated. Gender dysphoria is a real thing, and while the choice to transition (with or without gender reassignment surgery) is a personal one, and likely never an easy one to make, it should be an option that society supports and simply does not allow discrimination against.

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

#665

Post by barmstrong » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 5:18 PM UTC

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #10

For reference, the severance package was 4 months of salary for employees with =3 years of tenure at Coinbase. The severance also included 6 months of health insurance. (Source: https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-severance-apolitical-missi... ) What percentage of employees at Coinbase are actively interviewing for other jobs at any given time? 5%? If someone has one foot out the door already, taking a bonus equivalent…

We tried to make it clear to employees that the package was only intended for folks who weren't aligned with this new direction. If folks were interviewing elsewhere, or just feeling burned out, and wanted to take it, but they were still aligned with the direction of mission focused, then we discouraged them from taking it. Of course, people can always lie about their intentions, but we're counting on the honor system preventing most of that.

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

#666

Post by scottlocklin » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 5:38 PM UTC

tshaddox wrote: post #647

scottlocklin wrote: post #608

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>and asking that question is clearly not equivalent to saying that the government ought to be involved in all interactions. Yes, actually it absolutely is. Putting everything up for grabs for state (or in modern day; the mob) control is literally totalitarianism. People who "don't understand" this are either abysmally stupid or are power mad imbeciles who are pretending not to understand for Machiavellian reasons.

I didn’t say “putting everything up for grabs for state control.”

Saying "everything is political" is putting everything up for grabs for state (or mob) control whether you said it aloud or not. Doesn't matter if it's a tyranny by some generalissimo or amorphous mob of twitter gibbering nitwits or tiki torch bearing numskulls.

If "everything is political" there is no room for private life, which is the only life that matters.

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

#667

Post by pinewurst » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 5:39 PM UTC

throwaway894345 wrote: post #531

pinewurst wrote: post #466

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What buzzwords do you have in your profile that so attract recruiters? I’m not having anything like that happen to me.

DevOps and AWS are probably two big ones. I don’t even have a profile picture though. Not doing anything special to attract them.

Thanks! I'm trying that now as an experiment. :)

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

#668

Post by mandelbrotwurst » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

ZhIPh3zW5R wrote: post #496

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, that's exactly much what I was thinking, that when you take a look at their activities, it's clear that the definition of what's considered political here is fairly narrow.

Re: your hypothesis, after learning about 501c4s from Jeff in this thread and reading about for 10 seconds on Wikipedia, it seems that those actually serve that purpose quite well ("super PACs" are apparently 501c4), so I don't think the 501c3s are highly likely to get used in that way.

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

#669

Post by thoughtstheseus » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

The broader trend here is that power is becoming more concentrated in companies and institutions and away from individuals and local groupings. These differences in beliefs, ethics, morals, etc. are difficult to work through in any large grouping of people. The array of approaches to government is an example of trying to solve this coordination problem.

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

#670

Post by tupputuppu » Fri, Oct 09, 2020, 5:42 PM UTC

yokaze wrote: post #188

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…

Do you have an example where in a political company both views were heard?

Typically the whole discussion around overly political workplaces revolves around west coast tech companies, which are a monoculture of liberalism. Republican views are definitely not heard or dealt with.