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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

#461

Post by ffggvv »

kleinsch wrote: post #124
nullc wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coming from the east coast (and maybe a little from an earlier era) I also find the attitude on this stuff a little mystifying. "In my day" -- it was just poor form to bring up that kind of stuff at work. If you did so at all, you usually tried to avoid being "that person". You don't get to choose each person you work with, so it pays if everyone puts in a bit of extra effort to not give anyone else a hard time. I th…

I worked for companies on the east coast, then moved to SF and now work at a big tech company. The companies I worked for on the east coast were mostly B2B, so we were focused on making a good product for businesses so they’d pay us more money. Big tech companies recruited for a long time with the pitch that we’re changing the world. That has brought in a bunch of employees who joined bc they want their employment to…

i think its also frankly because they recruit from elite universities that push social activism and safe spaces constantly

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

#462

Post by secondcoming »

I don't see why he's offering them any sort of package to leave, it's not like they're being made redundant. It's very generous but sets an odd precedent. It's like it's a compensation payment for not being allowed to make the workplace toxic.

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

#463

Post by specialp »

baron_harkonnen wrote: post #289
chii wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

The view you just described is active support for the status quo. One fairly non-controversial part of the status quo right now is our dependence on fossil fuels and co2 emissions to keep our economy running. Saying "I'll keep my views private" means I'm giving an okay to what's happening now. If every individual shares the thinking at every company then it is impossible to even imagine how the most catastrophic clim…

Perhaps I want the status quo at my job. If I worked somewhere truly objectionable I would quit working there and rally against it in my own time. I get paid to produce services that we sell. I don't get paid to change the world as powerful as we'd like to think we are. Also I don't expect my employer to pay me to be an activist unless they really wanted to. I have every other hour than the 40 I work to do whatever I want.

I admire people that are willing to put in the time to advocate what they believe is right and just. And they are free to do that whether I agree with them or disagree with them. I just don't want to be at work where just coming in and wanting to do your job is considered insufficient and you have to be saving the world somehow. That doesn't mean that I disagree with the cause or won't contribute in my own time. I just want us working on the goal for our company. It could work both ways. Like what if an oil company gave you days off to counter protest at climate change events? If you did not attend, it would be questionable and perhaps ruin your career. So I think as a whole we support activism because it is the activism we like but it might not always be that way.

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

#464

Post by smooth_remmy »

CarelessExpert wrote: post #456
kkhire wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s there to admire? This is common sense and he should have set these expectations from the start. why are people discussing politics at work?

> why are people discussing politics at work? Probably because the work these companies do is frequently political. Let's be clear: What Coinbase is saying is, we the founders, who set the company's mission, and are doing so with a clear political view (rooted in libertarianism and so forth), are allowed to use the company to further our political ends. But the staff? Sorry, you have no voice. Maybe that's fine. The…

There's a group you forgot to consider: the investors.

What do the investors think? They are free to usurp the founders if they feel that Coinbase is not paying proper homage to social justice.

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

#465

Post by subsubzero »

I may want to apply to coinbase. I am really fed up with 'activist' employees and the toxic environment they bring. All I want is to just focus on engineering and ship features/improvements. Bringing politics to the office(thanks Google!) has been one of the worst things to happen in the 21st century for tech companies. Interestingly enough google has been going through absolute hell with these cancerous employees and other companies will have the same issues by embracing their failed strategy. Lets leave politics at home or outside the office where it belongs.

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

#466

Post by Alex3917 »

koheripbal wrote: post #346
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #3

I agreed with what Brian Armstrong said in his blog post and thought it was admirable to publicly take that position, but now I have even more respect for his dedication. I don't know if the severance package is good or not, but it seems generous and it gives employees who aren't aligned with the company an easy way out.

There is a lot of value in removing political activists from your company, and so it's worth paying them to leave. Aside from the combative toxic environment they generate, they are also often the source of disgruntled rogue employees that will generally behave improperly, misrepresent coworkers, leak documents, raise alarms about operations they don't understand, and generally draw the company into litigation. In a…

> There is a lot of value in removing political activists from your company, and so it's worth paying them to leave.

Your company should be 100% political activists, but (at least during work hours) they should be focused on advancing the mission of your organization.

Even within activist groups you have the exact same problem that Joe is talking about, e.g. at some point in the 90s Adbusters went from lobbying against advertising to just generally supporting any leftist cause. And that's why every highway (except in Vermont, Alaska, Hawaii, and Maine) is still lined with billboards 25+ years later. The only way for an organization to accomplish its mission is to actually focus on solving the specific problem they're trying to solve, not to get distracted by trying to fix every random problem that exists in the world.

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

#467

Post by tehjoker »

moduspol wrote: post #138
demygale wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?" A…

Avoiding lawsuits is not at all the same as attempting to deal with the issue honestly as opposed to framing it in the same light as some new kind of competitive marketplace.

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

#468

Post by [deleted] »

krapp wrote: post #13
howlgarnish wrote: post #11

As a non-American, I find it truly bizarre (and sad) that's it's now controversial to publicly state that you're not taking sides.

It isn't possible to not take sides. It's only possible to support the status quo, either explicitly or implicitly, or else oppose it.

[deleted]

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

#469

Post by thelock85 »

skybrian wrote: post #435
thelock85 wrote: post #342

This won’t end well. The moment Coinbase articulates anything remotely related to an underlying set of values or business ethics, the accusations of politicization (and hypocrisy) will come flying. I believe that corporations are not governed or regulated to support activism writ large, but there has to be room for dissent (even if it ends in separation). How else do you arrive at a shared definition of “economic fre…

It’s not about being apolitical. The question is whether they can draw a line between mission-related politics (related to cryptocurrency, employment, or just how to do business) and all other politics. There is no clear line to be drawn, so it’s a judgement call, and it will be debated.

> draw a line between mission-related politics and all other politics

Agreed. I wonder if they will take some word smithing to the mission statement. Even with the clarification and interpretation presented in the blog post, "economic freedom" encompasses a lot of "other politics". It is a helluva juggling act to want a diverse, thriving team, and a singular shared definition of economic freedom across that team.

More practically, I wonder how it will be debated. Who within the organization has confidence to debate where the line is drawn beyond what the CEO has shared? Is it the board?

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

#470

Post by flyinglizard »

vmception wrote: post #375
ZephyrBlu wrote: post #3

I agreed with what Brian Armstrong said in his blog post and thought it was admirable to publicly take that position, but now I have even more respect for his dedication. I don't know if the severance package is good or not, but it seems generous and it gives employees who aren't aligned with the company an easy way out.

My LinkedIn right now is full of professionals writing about how Coinbase is wrong and unsupportable. That is surprising to me. I would like to see more mission focused companies. They can help the societies they are in with some unilateral initiatives like Netflix did with helping capitalize banks in certain communities, without discussing it or changing the focus.

The guys who’d go on public platform to denounce Coinbase probably intersect with the type of people Coinbase wants to rid itself of.

I fully support what Coinbase is doing. It seems very fair to all sides.

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