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Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

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Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He ends his whole thread with: >If you're unhappy about something, work as part of the team to raise it along with proposed solutions (it's easy to be a critic, harder to be a part of the solution). Yet all his thread does is criticize this petition without trying to understand and work with the person who wrote it. I understand that a CEO would be very unhappy at something like this and I can't fault him for feeling…

The petitioners publicly called for the ousting of senior executives, while airing confidential dirty laundry. The idea that this deserves to be met with a receptive and empathetic response is absurd. If you want collaboration, approach collaboratively. You might not get what you want, but at the end of the day, a company needs to be led by somebody, and I would much rather be led by a designated leader than by publi…

Do you have backchannel information to suggest that the collaborative approach wasn't tried first? In my experience, going public never is the first step people take.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#432

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You can't just leak anything you want and claim you're a whistleblower. Whistleblower protection is for leaking illegal actions, not for posting a petition that you don't like some executives.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#433
I love you guys to death and if anyone can explain this to me I would love you even more: "On April 02, 2022, you attempted a transfer of $615.00 USD. Unfortunately, the transfer failed and we still have not received payment." Okay because number one there was never anything taken out of my bank and my Bank never reversed anything-The whole scan is BS. Especially considering I had a dispute with a merchant at the time and now have over 1200 cash that they got back from the merchant but yet they want me to pay them $615 even though it never happened in order to get my $1,200 what the hell is going on here and my entire account is Frozen can anyone explain this because they won't talk to me ...help and WTF? Oh and PS when I look at the logins on the coinbase site there was not one login at all from me or anyone else for that matter on the date they state that I supposedly did this what kind of crap show is going on here

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#434
post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The petitioners publicly called for the ousting of senior executives, while airing confidential dirty laundry. The idea that this deserves to be met with a receptive and empathetic response is absurd. If you want collaboration, approach collaboratively. You might not get what you want, but at the end of the day, a company needs to be led by somebody, and I would much rather be led by a designated leader than by publi…

Do you have backchannel information to suggest that the collaborative approach wasn't tried first? In my experience, going public never is the first step people take.

I have no inside info about this, but it wouldn't change my opinion if there had been an internal ask first. It's a fact of life that sometimes you will lose the argument, and fail to convince others of your ideas, even when you care deeply. I have been there, and it sucks. At that point, you can chose to stay and live with it, or decide it's a dealbreaker for you and move on.

The third option -- to escalate the argument to the public square and enlist the public as allies -- is available, but think what would happen if everybody did this. In a company of thousands of people there will always be passionate disagreement. If companies tolerated this kind of public escalation, it would erode the trust that is necessary for any organization to operate. It would be its own kind of toxic culture.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#435

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

>Second, if you have no confidence in the execs or CEO of a company then why are you working at that company? Quit and find a company to work at that you believe in! This comment is really, really tone-deaf. People can believe strongly in the vision and mission of a company while also feeling strongly that upper leadership is steering it in the wrong direction and/or making decisions that negatively impact the compan…

Doesn’t this go both ways? If executives no longer believe in their employees, the executives can leave?

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#436

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.

That email about bankruptcy seemed to be a call to action to move funds off platform. Not sure why it was framed that way or sent to account holders — was it supposed to be a shakedown (“support us, or else…”)? Either way, Ledger just got a new customer.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#437

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

The initial petition alleged problems at exec level. Brian's response confirmed it. And he wonders why the employees wouldn't bring this up internally..

Aside from the fact that his response is likely illegal according to California labor code, threatening to fire employee for discussing workplace conditions, it blows my mind how ignorant and illiterate he is when it comes to understanding power dynamics, and even the basic history of labor.

How do you go from being a startup founder to a public company CEO without deeply reflecting about workplaces, employee happiness, dysfunction, power dynamics and history of all of that?!

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#438
FWIW, Surojit the CPO has a long colorful history of being a horrible person to work with. Just in the last couple of months, I think Blind had atleast a few threads on him. Here are a couple I could find:

https://www.teamblind.com/post/Coinbase-product-team-culture...

https://www.teamblind.com/post/Coinbase-JusVVFXW

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#439
post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The petitioners publicly called for the ousting of senior executives, while airing confidential dirty laundry. The idea that this deserves to be met with a receptive and empathetic response is absurd. If you want collaboration, approach collaboratively. You might not get what you want, but at the end of the day, a company needs to be led by somebody, and I would much rather be led by a designated leader than by publi…

> while airing confidential dirty laundry I mean, being silent about company dirty laundry is not exactly virtue.

Nope.

If you're leaking about something that's genuinely concerning (criminal, or just very bad and immoral), by all means, leak it.

But this seems more of a leak to make some noise, to win an argument by public opinion. Nothing but a political stunt. Not very virtuous.

Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Coinbase does not have a fiduciary duty to its shareholders that trumps its obligations to its customers. Or to put it this way: if Coinbase goes bankrupt, customers have priority for Coinbase's assets over its shareholders.

Nope. > But wait, you bluster, the custodial agreement clearly says that I am the owner, that it’s my property, that I retain title to it. Yup, but that’s not how the law actually works. Just because they wrote that doesn’t mean it’s true. > In fact, the exchanges are lulling the consumers with language claiming that the consumer "owns" the coins, when in fact the legal treatment is quite likely to be different in ba…

Nope.

Your citation refers to the status of customers with respect to other creditors.

It says diddly squat about shareholders, who are below creditors in the event of a bankruptcy. Because, in a corporate bankruptcy, shareholders generally lose their investment.

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