Kraken Forcefully Aims to Restore Desired Company Culture With Pointed Communication to Employees
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell
Another CEO is not having it when it comes to some his people complaining about company values and decisions, no matter how much employees might resent him and the company response to their anger.
Jesse Powell, the CEO of Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange and bank, doesn’t want distraction, turmoil and selfishness (in his mind) poisoning the company culture and mission.
Could this be another sign that more founders and CEOs might be losing patience with — and exhibit less tolerance for — employee’s self interests outside of their job descriptions?
Powell and Netflix leadership before him, seem to be communicating 'enough is enough. Be professional and on board, or leave.'
Kraken’s offer to employees is that it will pay those 4 months’ of wages to depart the company if they disagree with the company’s decisions and expectations.
Reportedly, according to a New York Times report, some employees are upset about Kraken leadership communications about “… preferred pronouns and demeaning statements toward women, among other incendiary remarks, made by CEO Jesse Powell.”
“Jet Ski,” is the name Powell and Kraken gave to the program designed to rid the organization of what it deemed complainers and obstructions to the mission. The objective was and is to encourage dissatisfied or angry employees to depart the company if it disagreed with libertarian principles.
Kraken communicated what it wanted from its people in a 31-page document and gave employees a June 20 deadline to accept the money before leaving. The program was called “Jet Ski” for a reason.
“If you want to leave Kraken, we want it to feel like you are hopping on a jet ski and heading happily to your next adventure!”
Kraken clearly doesn’t want to be held hostage to a segment of employee’s demands, with executive Christina Yee communicating this bluntly.
“C.E.O, company, and culture are not going to change in a meaningful way,” she said, while encouraging upset employees to find an employer and culture, “somewhere that doesn't disgust you,” the New York Times reported.
As to specifically how Powell feels about this initiative, he explained on Twitter.
“…most people don't care and just want to work, but they can't be productive while triggered people keep dragging them in to debates and therapy sessions. The answer for us was to just lay out the culture doc and say: agree and commit, disagree and commit, or take the cash.”
The result, at least initially?
“20 people out of 3200” employees didn’t like the company’s values, which include, per the Times reporting, Kraken’s bold comments such as, “we don't forbid offensiveness,” and insisting on “tolerance for diverse thinking,” and said maybe most controversial, “law-abiding citizens should be able to arm themselves.”
Are Powell and his company acting reasonably and merely trying to put an end to an abuse of self-absorbed employee rebellions in an effort to restore sanity and balance to human interactions in workplaces? Or is this a display of arrogance, shortsighted organizational thinking and reckless muscling and alienation of some, or many of the people you need and rely on to do the mission’s work and achieve and surpass the goals in the marketplace?
Maybe it’s both.
