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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

#841

Post by justAnotherNET »

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.

> My LinkedIn right now is full of professionals

Is it though? I’m lucky to know a lot of brilliant people across many disciplines, and none of the engage in LinkedIn “activism”.

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

#842

Post by someguydave »

a2tech wrote: post #833
TedShiller wrote: post #827

This makes sense. The problem with recent political activism in companies has been that it isn't fair. It has been acceptable to advocate for liberal causes (for example for affirmative action), but not for conservative ones (against affirmative action). It might be ok if both were allowed equally. But if only one viewpoint is allowed, that's not really democracy.

Oh? Do you thinj companies like fox media corp or Raytheon are places where you can push for liberal political activism? Because I can tell you you would be incorrect. Those companies have a clear opinion on those matters and will not be kind to liberal activism.

https://www.raytheon.com/diversity/erg

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

#843

Post by amscanne »

Alex3917 wrote: post #466
koheripbal wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 again…

That's not an entirely accurate picture of Adbusters. They were never exclusively anti-advertising, it was always an anti-consumerism (and anti-capitalism to a large extent) organization. Advertising is just a manifestation of consumer culture.

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

#844

Post by thekashifmalik »

TedShiller wrote: post #827

This makes sense. The problem with recent political activism in companies has been that it isn't fair. It has been acceptable to advocate for liberal causes (for example for affirmative action), but not for conservative ones (against affirmative action). It might be ok if both were allowed equally. But if only one viewpoint is allowed, that's not really democracy.

This is exactly it!

If you spout liberal ideas at a conservative company, you will find disagreement. If you spout conservative ideas at a liberal company (most of SF tech), you will find yourself out of a job.

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

#845

Post by justAnotherNET »

skinkestek wrote: post #485
nrmitchi wrote: post #390

I know that this will greatly help a few who are legitimately disturbed by the recent post and feel they either can't work at, or aren't excited by, Coinbase any more. But at the level of severance discussed in the post (4 (or 6) months, 7-year exercise window), it feels like most employees who know they could soft-land into another position would be silly not to take this offer. Some people may still enjoy working a…

At this point in my life this is a message that would make me want to stay. Not having to deal with activism at work sounds like a nice perk!

I would consider an offer from coinbase over FAANG now based solely on this move by their CEO. I say this as someone who has worked at Apple, and bluntly told multiple Facebook-email bearing recruiters to F off.

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

#846

Post by x3n0ph3n3 »

andrethegiant wrote: post #449

Forbidding the discussion of politics at work sounds a lot like Don't Ask, Don't Tell. I think Coinbase is on the wrong side of history here.

Not quite -- he's rebounding from internal demands that he make particular political speech and seeing employees "walk out" when he didn't. None of the issues are relevant to Coinbase and its mission and he doesn't want that distraction in his company.

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

#847

Post by iak8god »

TedShiller wrote: post #827

This makes sense. The problem with recent political activism in companies has been that it isn't fair. It has been acceptable to advocate for liberal causes (for example for affirmative action), but not for conservative ones (against affirmative action). It might be ok if both were allowed equally. But if only one viewpoint is allowed, that's not really democracy.

Presumably these companies are acting in a way that they believe will maximize their profits. That is what we expect them to do. Corporations are not democracies. Labor unions exist to give workers more of a say in how they are treated by their employers. If they want democracy in the workplace, these workers should organize to advocate for fairer treatment.

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

#848

Post by novok »

spollo wrote: post #678
nemo44x wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s generally a small but vocal group. And I wouldn’t call it politics so much as activism. A sort of religious zeal has made its way into our institutions like schools and universities. Some people have taken to it like a missionary would religion and believe it’s their duty to spread the word everywhere at all times. The Inquisition was no different in this regard. You just have to read what the activism says. It…

I'm curious, in the various responses to this comment people are really getting into this interesting concept of certain political ideologies replacing the church, and resembling a religious fanaticism in their application of these ideologies. My understanding is that we have had secular societies before, eg. the Soviet Union, China, which explicitly try to reduce practicing religion. Did this same kind of "new semi-…

Heh yes it did. The cultural revolution and mao's little red book being spread everywhere are prime examples in China.

Eventually as the new converts temper their zeal as it hits against reality, but if it's a wave it can make a society do crazy things.

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

#849

Post by chii »

commandlinefan wrote: post #385
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.

> You keep your political views private. In nearly every case, the people who are claiming to encourage politics in the workplace are actually demanding allegiance - try supporting the other side and see how they feel.

This is a very salient point.

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

#850

Post by chii »

BoiledCabbage wrote: post #250
username90 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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). If someone just does their job with people no matter who they are then they are not political. Being gay is not political. Being trans is not political. Being black is not political. Saying that gays/trans/black people shouldn't exist or doesn't b…

> If someone just does their job with people no matter who they are then they are not political. And what happens when it's not the case? When people don't just treat people of foo group normally, and it's happening throughout the company? What should foo group do? Ask the company to get to an apolitical state where they can just do their job? Let people in the company know that it's going on? By you definition, that…

> playing the national anthem before a sporting event is an extremely political action to begin with

no that's not a political action, because the intent of the song is not to display some political message, but to display a sign of respect to the nation that has enabled the game to exist.

Is it a political action if the happy birthday song is played at McDonalds for a birthday party? It only becomes political when an action has intent behind it to display a message that furthers a political agenda.

The kneeling at a football game is political, because those people who kneel knows that their kneeling is going to be seen by millions, and thus they can leverage their visibility (due to their position as players or at least is on camera). Therefore, it's highly political - they want to send a message out there to as many people as they could that they support a particular cause (and implicitly want an outsider that also happen to be watching the game to also support). Would you declare that it's OK for the same group of people to perform a nazi salute under the same circumstances? If you're OK with that, then I would be OK with "political" actions in my football game.

The problem in this discussion here is that many are unable to separate their own political leaning with the general idea of political expression in non-political settings (such as a football game or place of business). I keep hearing that apolitical stance is not possible - but then if there are politiking that they do not like, then it's not allowed (aka, if a company "forced" their employees to engage in white-nationalist politics).

That's why I take the stance of apolitical neutrality in public places where politics isn't expected (e.g., in a place of business).

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