based exchange in June – the so-called “ Tentaclemandments,” aptly named for the nautical-themed company – Kraken’s leadership laid out in detail the behavior it expects from its employees. In a corporate culture manifesto published by the U.S. Yet for companies building services on top of these protocols, politics – including the uber-polarizing politics of the U.S. Bitcoin and its various clones and competitors are apolitical, value-neutral stores of value and mediums of exchange, indifferent to the ideologies of those using them. Perhaps providing some support for this view, although not an apples-to-apples comparison: When crypto markets were booming, a slightly higher percentage – 5% to 6% – of unhappy, politically minded employees at rival exchange Coinbase (COIN) took a similar buyout offer.Īs employers take advantage of the new power shift, diversity advocates worry industry leaders could set a precedent that will kneecap the largely male-dominated industry’s future strides toward recruiting and retaining women and people of color for years to come.Įither way, Kraken’s emergence as a bulwark against workplace "wokeness" underscores one of the paradoxes of running a crypto business. In this view, as the economy weakens and the market enters another crypto winter, the leverage to shape workplace cultures has fallen back into employers’ hands. “The pendulum is starting to swing back the other way,” Powell said on the Unherd podcast.Īnother interpretation is that the paucity of takers for the four-month severance package Kraken calls the “Jet Ski Program” signals a power shift in the job market, particularly for crypto jobs. Kraken, from this perspective, represented a rare refuge from what Powell later described as “this contingent of people who basically if you don’t agree with them you’re evil, you’re a Nazi, and you must be destroyed at all costs.” At least one workplace remained where coders could just code, leaving politics at the door – and such an oasis had proven beneficial for recruitment and retention. One is that it revealed the true preferences of a majority of workers at the exchange, and perhaps those of people in the broader crypto industry.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |