Obviously Jesse Powell isn't right for the CEO position but I do have a tiny bit of sympathy because I refuse to put my preferred pronouns in my profile. I think it's an invasion of privacy to force me to announce to the whole world my gender identity. Friends and coworkers know on a need-to-know basis.
I don't think anyone is being forced to add their gender identity to any profile. Powell seems to have questioned the inclusion of the option to add them at all.
"The conflict at Kraken began this spring after Mr. Powell questioned employees’ use of preferred pronouns and engaged in a lengthy discussion about whether women are inherently less intelligent than men.
Some employees voiced complaints, and Mr. Powell released a company culture document outlining what he described as Kraken’s libertarian values. He told employees that if they disagreed with the document, they should quit."
Sounds pretty reasonable to me. If you don't like it that our company allows freely talking about anything, you can leave to find a coddling safe space you are seeking.
>Kraken laid out a vision of its corporate culture that includes prohibiting employees from calling speech “racist,”
There goes "freely talking about anything".
It seems that racists at Kraken needed a safe space... Kinda cute! Maybe if they don't like their speech being labelled "racist" they could work somewhere else?
Not saying this with regard to this situation specifically, but personally I'd be fine with banning one word criticisms. They tend to be imprecisely used, which is a major problem when talking about hot button issues. Most arguments are a matter of degree as opposed to absolute, so precision is the point of the conversation.
You should hear the part where he said he could use the n-word on the company chat, because if people can just identify as other genders willy-nilly, he can identify as black
Didn't seem that similar to me. Coinbase said we're not going to discuss politics at work unless it's related to crypto. Kraken said let's debate politics and gender and identity with the CEO in the company Slack.
> Kraken’s libertarian values. He told employees that if they disagreed with the document, they should quit."
Isn't this an oxymoron. "I believe in an ideology based around self-determination, if you deviate from my directions by asserting your right to self-determination, like the literal definition of your own name, you should quit".
Sometimes the announcement of libertarian values just seems like a dog-whistle.