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Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

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Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#131

Post by ZephyrBlu »

nilkn wrote: post #109
objclxt wrote: post #23

Brian Armstrong wants to have it both ways. He wants employees to focus “on the mission”, and not bring societal politics and activism into the workplace. Fair enough. For better or for worse, we live in a capitalist system, and companies are not first and foremost social justice organisations. I am not unsympathetic to the problems he is trying to solve. But he also wants to influence politics and laws to benefit hi…

I have to say most companies I’ve worked for have subscribed to the policies in Armstrong’s blog post, and it has worked very well. But these companies were mostly outside the Bay Area. I suspect the Bay Area is extremely nondiverse and homogeneous, and folks there aren’t actually used to having to work with and get along with people who strongly disagree with them on politics. In that kind of monoculture, it’s easy…

> I suspect the Bay Area is extremely nondiverse and homogeneous, and folks there aren’t actually used to having to work with and get along with people who strongly disagree with them on politics

This is extremely ironic given the hiring practices of Bay Area companies.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#134

Post by vaccinator »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #120

Why is a company wanting to be apolitical is controversial? That should be the default, is this an American thing like how masks and healthcare are controversial? I would expect a government to have proper separation from church and state, so why is it weird to want a company to separate politics and mission? I can't see any good coming from being in a work environment where the company supports a political issue I'm…

https://us.123rf.com/450wm/robson309/robson3092002/robson309...

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#135

Post by norswap »

pornel wrote: post #56

This is going to work great for Coinbase. It's very helpful for employers to select for conformists who can be told to shut up, and not stand up for what they believe (unless they believe in the status quo and the company, which is called non-political). Selecting for groupthink^W mission is pretty important in the business of cryptocurrencies. Reduces chances of anyone having a different moral stance that would push…

Maybe. Or maybe they just want energy dissipating in political activism at work, it's fairly fashionable these days. The future will tell.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#136

Post by jpdb »

Zenbit_UX wrote: post #120

Why is a company wanting to be apolitical is controversial? That should be the default, is this an American thing like how masks and healthcare are controversial? I would expect a government to have proper separation from church and state, so why is it weird to want a company to separate politics and mission? I can't see any good coming from being in a work environment where the company supports a political issue I'm…

> Why is a company wanting to be apolitical is controversial?

Because there's really no such thing as, "apolitical."

If you offer web-hosting to a group of white nationalists, this is a political action.

"Apolitical" is what people who are ok with the status quo use as a dog-whistle to avoid responsibility.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#137

Post by paulgb »

jiofih wrote: post #12

This must feel harsh for those on the receiving end, but is the right thing to do. It is not effective to try and turn every company into a rights activism group just because it is a group of people. This may be a sign that it’s become increasingly hard to organize or take part in such activism outside of work. What happened?

> What happened?

I'm partial to Aaron Levie's take on this[1]:

> An alternative take on the importance of companies taking a stand on critical social issues that impact our employees and communities: when there's a vacuum of leadership from the government in dealing with these topics, businesses often need to lead more than ever.

When we have had presidents who were willing to condemn white supremacy, we tended not to call on CEOs to.

1. https://mobile.twitter.com/levie/status/1311007294033854464

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#138

Post by moduspol »

demygale wrote: post #104
moduspol wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virtually every meaningful task humans have accomplished has been a result of groups of us putting aside our differences to unite and focus on solving the problem at hand.

What if the problem at hand is ending structural racism in the workplace?

"Structural racism" is a coded term. We have laws against discrimination and HR departments across the country bending over backwards to avoid lawsuits... but you're not asking about the problems those are intended to solve.

When you ask a question like that, what you're really asking is, "why don't workplaces have the outcomes I expect along racial lines when it comes to hiring, compensation, promotion, and more?" And implicitly, "why can't workplaces be forced (or force themselves) toward meeting the outcomes I expect?"

Those are different questions, but they're encoded in yours. And they don't really apply to the topic at hand.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#139

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

woah wrote: post #78
choppaface wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No leverage through the offer or blog post itself, but if they have evidence of harassment or other misconduct, and screenshots from Slack, then it's more likely for a potential claim to result in additional severance versus any sort of litigation, especially since Coinbase is now inviting departures and inevitable conflict. Being an adversarial employee when working on an exit package certainly is FAR from necessary…

Is there any evidence of harassment or people being put out of a job?

There won't be if everyone takes the exit package.

Re: Coinbase offers exit package for employees not comfortable with its mission

#140

Post by chii »

wwright wrote: post #127
Zenbit_UX wrote: post #120

Why is a company wanting to be apolitical is controversial? That should be the default, is this an American thing like how masks and healthcare are controversial? I would expect a government to have proper separation from church and state, so why is it weird to want a company to separate politics and mission? I can't see any good coming from being in a work environment where the company supports a political issue I'm…

I (and many others) are of the opinion that you can’t truly be apolitical; claiming to be so is its own form of politics (and generally one that supports the status quo). Politics is ultimately about how we engage and collaborate with each other as a society, not just which “party” you like. The very act of being a company is very relative to the laws and regulations your country has, which are of course determined b…

> you can’t truly be apolitical;

that's one of those "you're either with us or against us" type of deal - which is not the right way to deal with anything imho.

You _can_ be apolitical - as in, you do not let your political views affect what you do. You keep your political views private. You do not try to change anyone else's political views as part of your job.

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