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A Tech Company CEO Said He Doesn’t Want Politics In The Workplace And People Are Upset
Hotair ^
| 10/01/2020
| John Sexton
Posted on 10/01/2020 7:44:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Bitcoin is a company whose goal is to make it easy for people around the world to buy, sell and manage various cryptocurrency accounts. As such you might assume it would be a pretty progressive place. But recently there has been some discontent at the company. Back in June when large tech companies were posting black squares on Facebook to show their solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong refused to jump on the bandwagon. And that led to a walkout at the company. Many of his engineers just refused to work because the CEO wouldnt issue a statement of support for BLM. Eventually, Armstrong did issue a series of tweets on the topic starting with this one:
But this week Armstrong issued a memo on the divide between political activism and work. You can read the whole thing here but the gist is that he sees it as a distraction from the mission of his for-profit business.
It has become common for Silicon Valley companies to engage in a wide variety of social activism, even those unrelated to what the company does, and there are certainly employees who really want this in the company they work for. So why have we decided to take a different approach?
The reason is that while I think these efforts are well intentioned, they have the potential to destroy a lot of value at most companies, both by being a distraction, and by creating internal division. Weve seen what internal strife at companies like Google and Facebook can do to productivity, and there are many smaller companies who have had their own challenges here. I believe most employees dont want to work in these divisive environments. They want to work on a winning team that is united and making progress toward an important mission. They want to be respected at work, have a welcoming environment where they can contribute, and have growth opportunities. They want the workplace to be a refuge from the division that is increasingly present in the world
We have people with many different backgrounds and viewpoints at Coinbase, and even if we all agree that something is a problem, we may not agree on how to actually go solve it. This is where there is a blurry line between moral statements and politics. We could use our work day debating what to do about various unrelated challenges in the world, but that would not be in service of the company or our own interests as employees and shareholders.
As I read it, Armstrong isnt trying to discourage people from being activists on their own time. What hes saying is that coinbase isnt the place for that. At work, he wants people focused on their jobs and the companys mission, not debating other issues. Some people, including UK programmer and venture capitalist Paul Graham responded positively:
But needless to say, there are many woke progressives who are not happy at being told they cant take over someones company with their activism any time they feel like it. And so you get coverage like this at the Verge, There are many issues on which I can easily accept that a cryptocurrency exchange, or really any company, has no opinions. But during an election year in which democracy itself is at stake, and state-backed violence against protesters continues unchecked, racial justice cant be one of them.
Or this lecture from the San Francisco Chronicles business editor: The problem, as countless people pointed out, is that this philosophy works well for people who come from the dominant culture. If youre not white or male in tech, you start off with a disadvantage, as the industrys continuously dismal diversity reports show.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also offered his criticism saying that acknowledging societal issues impacting customers was the least coinbase should do.
Jessica Alter runs a tech company that supports progressive campaigns and she wasnt happy about it either:
This kind of grand unified theory of progressive activism is the gist of most of the criticism I see on Twitter and elsewhere. The idea being that you cant take a stand on one issue and not be willing to take a stand on every other issue because all oppression is connected. That genuinely is the view of a lot of far-left activists these days which is why I think Armstrongs refusal to go along with it irks so many people. But again, hes not saying employees cant spend all their free hours supporting whatever causes they feel the need to support. Hes saying that work time wont be used to make statements or respond to whatever is in the news that week, it will be focused on the companys already ambitious goals in one particular area that is their real focus.
One of the things mentioned in Armstrongs memo was that people who didnt feel comfortable working at Coinbase because of his views on limiting activism at work should think about finding a job someplace else. Toward that end, Armstrong sent an internal email offering a severance package to anyone who wanted to go. Hes literally willing to pay the woke activists to leave.
There are plenty of other tech companies in Silicon Valley that would welcome woke engineers. Better to have those people go where they are wanted than to have them stick around and badmouth the company where they work.
As the demands of woke employees on company time and resources become greater and the internal disruptions they cause become more costly (which seems inevitable), more companies may take a second look at this approach.
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bidenvoters; ceo; company; hotgas; politic; workplace
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To: All
Glad for a few things in my life: Glad I’m no longer running a multi-million dollar company and no longer dealing with all of this BS from employees that lean to the left...and beyond! Glad I’m no longer raising teenage boys! Glad I’ve found True Love! Glad I’m RETIRED. Glad for home grown tomatoes. :)
How DOES one keep a company running when half your staff are a bunch of SJW losers? Not to mention the Pajama Boys and Snowflakes you need to coddle. Yikes!
Does anyone actually WORK, these days? I mean, other than in the Flyover States? ;)
2
posted on
10/01/2020 7:55:58 PM PDT
by
Diana in Wisconsin
(I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust post-Apocalyptic skill set.)
To: SeekAndFind
This seems to be the start of a trend, hopefully it will gain some steam. If I owned a business, I would avoid hiring millennials since that generation is responsible for a great deal of this SJW crap. The generations before and after that one are much easier to deal with, overall.
3
posted on
10/01/2020 7:57:33 PM PDT
by
Major Matt Mason
(America has a DemocRat and RINO problem.)
To: SeekAndFind
“#Bitcoin (aka crypto) is direct activism against an unverifiable and exclusionary financial system which negatively affects so much of our society.”
Yikes. People have been killed for less. I’m thinking that Bitcoin isn’t really a threat to the system, because they haven’t been shut down yet. Shark bumps, yes, but no overt attacks ... Yet.
4
posted on
10/01/2020 8:00:17 PM PDT
by
cdcdawg
(Biden has dementia.)
To: Diana in Wisconsin
“Does anyone actually WORK, these days? I mean, other than in the Flyover States? ;)”
Yes, we’re called “White men”.
5
posted on
10/01/2020 8:00:19 PM PDT
by
EEGator
To: SeekAndFind
6
posted on
10/01/2020 8:00:27 PM PDT
by
MrBambaLaMamba
("It's a lie. It's all lies.")
To: SeekAndFind
BITCOIN is EXTREMELY vulnerable to threats of public regulation. From a financial point of view, it would make sense to keep your yap shut and hire lobbyists for both sides.
7
posted on
10/01/2020 8:00:31 PM PDT
by
Dr. Sivana
(There is no salvation in politics)
To: SeekAndFind
I hope that those woke engineers who refused to work are Permanently fired.
Unfortunately the CEO did cave with a statement supporting Marxist ‘Black Lives Matter’.
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you ?.
8
posted on
10/01/2020 8:02:47 PM PDT
by
A strike
(If you die we will report it as Covid unless you prove otherwise.)
To: Diana in Wisconsin
My friend once told me,he had no trouble running a large scale bank...It was the employees that kept him awake at night...He retired at 55,so he could enjoy people once again....
9
posted on
10/01/2020 8:03:43 PM PDT
by
Hambone 1934
(WE all know President)
To: EEGator
Well, my ‘White Guy’ used to put in 14 hour days 365...and run a farm in his spare time. ;)
We’re both retired now - thank goodness! In less than 5 years for both of us, it would be very, VERY hard for either of us to go back into our fields and put up with the BS it would require these days. And we both really enjoyed our professions!
The cancerous Socialist Creep is destroying everything. Everything. :(
10
posted on
10/01/2020 8:06:04 PM PDT
by
Diana in Wisconsin
(I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust post-Apocalyptic skill set.)
To: SeekAndFind
I posted this the other day:
In my entire working career, of all the things in the workplace that have angered and infuriated me, the compulsion of an employer to press upon me their political and social views has angered and infuriated me the most.
Especially now. My employer did an “eight minutes of silence, because that is how long George Floyd had his neck kneeled on” and also encouraged people to congregate and take a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter.
I was so angry that my employer, who I have always respected and given my all for, would subject me as an individual to that.
I am, and always have been my entire life, beholden to the principle that for my employer to pay me, I should provide value to my employer. They are not employing me as a social benefit. They are employing me because they want a organization that can pay its own way and be self-sustaining in the ability to meet a payroll, pay taxes, and make a profit.
They aren’t hiring me out of some charitable motive.
In that light, if I give them what I need, I don’t expect them to subject me to social justice or any other kind of societal garbage. It is a simple contract-they pay me, and I give them what they need.
In accepting this as the terms of a bargain, I have more freedom and liberty than the greatest mass of humanity that ever existed before me in history. And the Left despises that bargain.
11
posted on
10/01/2020 8:06:11 PM PDT
by
rlmorel
("Leftism is the plaything of a society with too much time on its hands." - Candace Owens)
To: Hambone 1934
12
posted on
10/01/2020 8:06:43 PM PDT
by
Diana in Wisconsin
(I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust post-Apocalyptic skill set.)
To: SeekAndFind
I texted this story to a buddy at Apple yesterday. He doesn’t understand why this is even remotely controversial to some, is really tired of political stuff getting pushed in his face in the workplace. “We basically have purity tests.”
It’s a really screwed up thing.
13
posted on
10/01/2020 8:07:46 PM PDT
by
FreedomPoster
(Islam delenda est)
To: SeekAndFind
The children who were raised with no discipline and coddling parents, participation trophies, told they're special morning, noon and night, and treated like their opinion was always entitled to be heard are now America's employees and employers.
Embrace the suck.
To: FreedomPoster
RE: I texted this story to a buddy at Apple yesterday. He doesnt understand why this is even remotely controversial to some, is really tired of political stuff getting pushed in his face in the workplace. We basically have purity tests.
_____________________________________________
Yes we have. Remember Brendan Eich? He is the famed Software Engineer who created and developed the famous and still popular web scripting language JavaScript and was also responsible for the design and development of Mozilla’s FireFox Browser.
Eventually, Mozilla Corp. made the decision to appoint Eich as CEO of Mozilla Corporation. In 2008, Eich donated $1,000 to California Proposition 8, which called for the banning of same-sex marriage in California, and also gave donations in the amount of $2,100 to Proposition 8 supporter Tom McClintock between 2008 and 2010. He did not make a big deal out of it and never made his donations public.
Guess what??.... this donation was discovered by someone !! Some company was able to collect 50,000 signatures to force Eich to quit.
Eich resigned on April 3, 2014, and left Mozilla over his personal opposition to same-sex marriage. In his personal blog, he posted, “under the present circumstances, I cannot be an effective leader”.
Mozilla made a press release saying that board members tried to get Eich to stay in the company in a different role, but that he had chosen to sever ties for the time being.
All this brouhaha over a simple political donation which he never made public that was HIS RIGHT to make.
If this can happen to a famous CEO like Eich, it can happen to ANYONE, unless there’s a law SPECIFICALLY protecting people who exercise their right of free expression.
To: SeekAndFind
Bitcoin???
I'd forgotten all about that stuff. A stepson talked me into buying a 100 of those a long time ago. I wonder if they are worth more than the 27 ¢ each I paid.
He had me put them into something he called a crypto vault. Anyone here know what that is?
16
posted on
10/01/2020 9:13:57 PM PDT
by
ASA Vet
(Make American Intelligence Great Again. Bring back ASA.)
To: ASA Vet
RE: I wonder if they are worth more than the 27 ¢ each I paid.
Did you really buy a bitcoin for only 27 cents?
1 bit coin is now worth $10,800 ( or close to that figure ) today !!
To: All
Bitcoin is a company whose goal is to make it easy for people around the world to buy, sell and manage various cryptocurrency accounts.
The writer surely meant ‘Coinbase’ not ‘bitcoin’. Still, such an error doesn’t instill confidence in the wrier’s acumen. Sigh.
18
posted on
10/01/2020 9:41:33 PM PDT
by
pluvmantelo
(All modern progressive and revolutionary movements are at bottom attacks on private property-Shaw)
To: ASA Vet
You joke I jest. I mine crypto. It is Bout 10.5K today.
19
posted on
10/02/2020 6:03:37 AM PDT
by
Jumper
To: SeekAndFind
And Brandon Eich’s open commenting tool was purged from the internet because Big Tech is against freedom of speech.
20
posted on
10/02/2020 4:30:18 PM PDT
by
tbw2
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