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‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

nytimes.com

71–80 of 717 posts

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#71
post #64
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What context would exonerate Coinbase of fostering an environment that results in 75% of its Black employees feeling discriminated against? And if that context existed, why didn't Coinbase mention it in their preemptive rebuttal?

I can think of contexts, especially when n=15(if this was a statistical study on insulin response to artificial sweeteners, people would be saying the sample size is too small to draw conclusions), but I don't know if developing hypothetical scenarios is useful. Learning the true context is most important. This could be done by corroborating allegations for example.

>I can think of contexts, especially when n=15(if this was a statistical study on insulin response to artificial sweeteners, people would be saying the sample size is too small to draw conclusions), but I don't know if developing hypothetical scenarios is useful.

N = 15 while p ≈ 20. It has been a while since I have taken a stats class, but that sample seems plenty large enough to me.

>Learning the true context is most important. This could be done by corroborating allegations for example.

Corroborating is exactly what journalists do. From the article:

>five people with knowledge of the situation said.

>But according to 23 current and former Coinbase employees, five of whom spoke on the record, as well as internal documents and recordings of conversations

>according to a recording of the session shared with The New York Times

>In a company email he sent later, which was also shared with The Times

>wrote in a Slack message that was viewed by The Times.

>three people briefed on the situation said

>according to a recording of the event

>according to a copy of the message seen by The Times

>according to a copy reviewed by The Times.

>two people with knowledge of the situation said

The NYT talked to dozens of people, watched/listened to multiple recordings, and viewed numerous emails and Slack messages. This story is corroborated.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#72
post #53

this seems like it’s also a struggle between different teams at the same company. Customer Service teams are very often looked down upon as “less than” other teams like engineering, and this article states that a disproportionate number of the black employees were on that team.

Customer Service is often regarded in companies like insurance is regarded by most people—you gotta have it, in a perfect world you’d never need it, and very few people brag about how much they pay for it.

That’s why Customer Service isn’t treated like the Rock Stars that Sales or Engineering is treated like in a company.

It also tends to have the most natural turnover, and tends to be the lesser skilled positions in a software company (not often requiring specializations, like developers).

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#73

I was willing to support the general message Brian Armstrong put out, but with the added context and chronology I cannot. I would say that this kind of mission statement can only work if done at the beginning, as reacting in response to the work environment described by their employees was doomed for failure. I know many people like Brian Armstrong, and the investors. They are all cut from a similar cloth and they ho…

From Coinbase's "About us"[1] > They don't know how to get women on a panel 2 out of 7 members of the exec team are women. > they don't know hot to get qualified people of color in positions to change things 4 out of 7 members of the exec team have last names of Choi, Chatterjee, Grewal, Gupta. It's almost as if you have strong biases (or delusions) and didn't even do a basic fact check before making bold claims agai…

Yeah my point was about empathizing with people being expected to make statement after statement, instead of vilifying them when they stop jumping when people say jump. Aside from the topic sentence of that paragraph it was no longer about Coinbase.

I’m saying we can all address this better.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#75
post #69
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The NYT are not the police/FBI. They do not have access to those things, unless employees are able to exfiltrate said info at significant personal risk.

Seems a bit incongruous to suggest that people willing and able to accuse Coinbase of racism in the NYTimes are not willing or able to exfiltrate evidence of those accusations.

These are right in the article:

wrote in a Slack message that was viewed by The Times.

according to a copy of the message seen by The Times

according to a copy reviewed by The Times.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#77

11 of then ~20 Black employees by early 2019* had complained to HR about racism. That's over half! And that's only the people with the fortitude or optimism to talk to HR (HR is notoriously useless at many companies). That's a complete disaster. 15 of that 20 quit! Why wasn't that treated as an emergency? *At the end the article says at the end of 2019 there's 31 Black employees of 1000. At the beginning of the artic…

It was treated as a disaster - they labeled the leavers as “political” and announced they instituted policies to prevent future “political” employees.

[deleted]

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#78
post #7

> I know it’s frustrating and distracting. Let’s keep focused on building an amazing company together. One would hope an amazing company that doesn't cover it's ass when it turns out the executive couldn't give a hoot about the treatment of black people and now everyone knows

One could argue that it would be unethical to use your investors’ money as a political (or even idealogical) bullhorn.

Notwithstanding, such a position places zero restrictions on doing the same with your own money..but corporations make for more interesting headlines than the individuals that run them.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#79
post #58
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What context would exonerate Coinbase of fostering an environment that results in 75% of its Black employees feeling discriminated against? And if that context existed, why didn't Coinbase mention it in their preemptive rebuttal?

How about the CEO refusing to align with far left politics? Whether you think that is good or bad, that could well be the reason for them leaving, but it doesn't actually mean that there was overt racism.

Can you expand on what you mean by "far left politics"? Reminder, this happened in late 2018 and early 2019. It was before this year's round of Black Lives Matter protests. It was also before Coinbase issued its no politics edict. I am really struggling to think of what "far left politics" you are referring to here that would be important enough to the Black employees of Coinbase that it results in 75% of them leaving.

Re: ‘Tokenized’: Black Workers’ Struggles at Coinbase

#80
post #37

11 of then ~20 Black employees by early 2019* had complained to HR about racism. That's over half! And that's only the people with the fortitude or optimism to talk to HR (HR is notoriously useless at many companies). That's a complete disaster. 15 of that 20 quit! Why wasn't that treated as an emergency? *At the end the article says at the end of 2019 there's 31 Black employees of 1000. At the beginning of the artic…

> Why wasn't that treated as an emergency? Companies can be incredibly callous about retention issues, especially if fixing them involves noticing which managers are responsible for behaving badly towards their staff.

"Callous" would mean it's about you, but think about it from the viewpoint of the company. If the aggrieved employee leaves, the problem is solved.
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