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Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

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Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#391

Post by ryanmather »

barmstrong wrote: post #271

Responded here https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/15353049437284147...

Employees took a massive risk to organize (which you confirmed by threatening to fire them in this tweet) to try to help the company. I believe this should be rewarded, and you should apologize for creating an environment where the only workable solution for employees to make their voices heard is to stage something like this.

Or, you could hope that people will stop having emotions and acting irrationally based on those emotions. I seriously doubt that will pan out well.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#392

Post by milespj »

rideontime wrote: post #367
sangnoir wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was Coinbase the company that paid-off employees to leave when it implemented the "no politics at work" policy? I had my suspicions that this would result in chilling /suppression of dissent as "politics".

nah that was DHH's company. I honestly forget what it was called. yo?

Basecamp

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#393

Post by hackernewds »

barmstrong wrote: post #271

Responded here https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/15353049437284147...

Not a great look for the cofounder to be berating small groups of employees externally - the irony of the power dynamics at play seems to be lost.

Coinbase seems like a dumpster fire. Heed the warnings of the recent announcements that your assets can be considered the company's in bankruptcy proceedings - and move your assets into hardware wallets.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#394

Post by hackernewds »

jannotti wrote: post #363
throw172643 wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yikes. Insulting your employees is not a good look. > We praise in public and criticize in private But you’re criticizing employees in public right now? As the CEO and founder I think you need to be receptive to criticism and take it on the chin. This tweet reads as if it was written in a frustrated, spontaneous episode. That’s also not a really inspiring look for outsiders or investors. Best of luck, I’m moving over…

I get where you're coming from - this response seemed overly harsh. But I do think there's an important difference - this petition is anonymous and criticizes three people by name. Armstrong's response criticizes nobody by name (he couldn't!)

The power dynamics of criticizing 3 public executives is far different than berating some employees who will most likely be fired.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#395

Post by hackernewds »

quadrifoliate wrote: post #323
barmstrong wrote: post #271

Responded here https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/15353049437284147...

This will probably never be read, but I'll say it anyway. Not an employee or shareholder, but a Coinbase user here. The CEO responding to petitions like this on Twitter in a childish and heated manner is reducing my confidence in Coinbase as a company. The same might be true for other users who are watching. You are the CEO of a public company, and will have to see many such petitions over the course of your career i…

Imagining how other founders such as Jack Dorsey or Reed Hastings would have reacted to these with tact. If the company has a transparent culture, they isn't much harm or fear for non MNPI to be discussed publicly.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#396

Post by hackernewds »

FFRefresh wrote: post #362
quadrifoliate wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This will probably never be read, but I'll say it anyway. Not an employee or shareholder, but a Coinbase user here. The CEO responding to petitions like this on Twitter in a childish and heated manner is reducing my confidence in Coinbase as a company. The same might be true for other users who are watching. You are the CEO of a public company, and will have to see many such petitions over the course of your career i…

Also not an employee or shareholder, but a Coinbase user. I don't know that Brian's set of tweets does anything to my confidence in Coinbase as a company. These tweets are trivial. The biggest threat to my confidence about Coinbase is the structural parts of it, the fact that they are a growing centralized for-profit company responsible for a large amount of assets. On this trivial (to me, maybe not to Coinbase) Twit…

> Employees are airing their dirty laundry publicly.

For a reason that is not "a small group of employees suck" or "working from home sucks". It would have been important to address and embrace that.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#397

Post by hackernewds »

rahimiali wrote: post #353
jjulius wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Brian, you have legitimate points. Here are my edits to your tweets to help people receive them better (i've tried to not change the message, just the tone): >5/ Fourth, our culture is to retaliate against whistleblowers. Instead of negotiating with you, if you get caught you will be fired. That's just terrible advice - whistleblower retaliation is illegal, and you're suggesting he retaliate publicly? I'd argue that…

I’m not suggesting it. I’m merely clarifying what he wrote. Did I misunderstand what he’d written in his tweet?

You didn't. Brian is publicly declaring he will retaliate against whistleblowers.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#398

Post by hackernewds »

blocked_again wrote: post #228
ameister14 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sheryl Sandberg - Facebook COO - Harvard MBA // David Wehner - Meta CFO - Former investment banker // Zachary Kirkhorn - Tesla CFO - Engineer, but also Harvard MBA // Brian Olavsky - Amazon CFO - Carnegie Mellon MBA // Ruth Porat - Alphabet CFO - Wharton MBA

I think the fact that these companies are successful inspite of this shows how good their initial product market fit and founders(CEOs) were. Even after having non builders in key leadership position these companies survived and continue to thrive. Just think about it. Business school admissions are not given on the basis on how well you can run a company long term. I think companies like coinbase can't afford to hav…

Addendums to fix the initial assessment? It's overrated that engineers and entrepreneurs can self manage. Look at any team of engineers without a good EM or PM

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#399

Post by skinnymuch »

native_samples wrote: post #364
antonvs wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of company was this? I do contracting and have worked a lot of places, big and small, but have never seen anything remotely like this. Perhaps it's a matter of perspective? Would you say e.g. James Damore was "cancelled", rather than being fired for discriminatory statements that an NLRB lawyer described as "so harmful, discriminatory, and disruptive as to be unprotected"?

Damore was cancelled and a woke NLRB lawyer making things up to ensure his cancellation stuck doesn't mean anything beyond the NLRB being just one more corrupted organization on top of so many others. Obviously, if you think Damore is actually a terrible person then you're a part of the problem, and not going to perceive anything as woke regardless of how many other people find it crazy.

Is this satire? The over usage of woke is funny.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#400

Post by mateo411 »

ok_dad wrote: post #331
Solvitieg wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair. I guess I'm just frustrated at these "tech writers" for re-posting unverified information from Blind and then needing to walk it back later. It's unprofessional and risky.

Too bad Mr. Armstrong didn't choose to keep his mouth shut for a bit longer, to verify if the claims were from actual employees. Alternatively, he could have made a single tweet: "I am aware of the open letter published today that was claimed to be from Coinbase empoyees. We will do our best to verify this and also respond to those employees internally to try and solve any issues they have with the direction of our c…

Yes, that seems like a better approach. This is where a marketing or a PR person is helpful.
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