Kraken CEO To Offer Severance To 'Triggered' Employees

Enough is enough for Jesse Powell, and the bear market becomes a reason to bring up some internal problems at the Kraken exchange, which have been affecting a small number of employees, in particular among those who have more recently become part of the company.

The cause of the controversy seems to be an attitude not consistent with the company spirit, an approach that is too touchy to which Powell would have had enough, to the point of encouraging everyone to get busy or to leave if they do not feel in line with company values. This is what will certainly raise some public debate.

It was natural to expect a showdown, and it probably was just postponed by the bull market that definitely seems to be over now that there is nervousness in the global market. This is time for builders to build, but for someone, it is also a time for a change.

It doesn’t matter how calm the tone of the series of Tweets posted by one of the world’s most prominent exchanges might seem, in fact they are clearly peremptory, and they will undoubtedly change the direction of the company or rather, bring it back to its historical culture.

2/ 60% have been with the company for < 6 months. So, no biggie, except 20 unhappy people can sap the productivity out of another 400 with little effort.

It basically works like a SYN flood DoS. People want to be helpful but it’s draining and resentment is often misplaced. pic.twitter.com/1v2utwn2b0

— Jesse Powell (@jespow) June 15, 2022

In his recent Twitter thread, Powell said:
“We recently attempted to summarize what the@krakenfx culture has been over the past 11 years, and what we hope it continues to be. We had a few heated debates and it turns out we have about 20 people out of 3200 who are totally not on board. 60% have been with the company for < 6 months. So, no biggie, except 20 unhappy people can sap the productivity out of another 400 with little effort. It basically works like a SYN flood DoS. People want to be helpful but it’s draining and resentment is often misplaced.”

He then continued with an equally lucid and peremptory examination of what would happen inside the company.
“How did this happen? Lots of hiring, fast, without enough emphasis on culture + mission fit, and at a time when crypto was super hot. Tons of amazingly talented people were looking for a seat on the next rocket ship, not realizing that crypto’s more of a rollercoaster”.

A few elements might make furious the handful of people, such as inclusivity, equality, the use of offensive language, questions about the existence of sexual genders, offenses, and the use of “violent” language. But Jesse Powell pushes back on the accusations of intolerance.

These accusations in fact have already been analyzed by the exchange’s CEO.

He added:
“We’ve got people in 70 countries, speaking 50 languages in the company, trying to build products for people in 190. Differing perspectives will be shared. That’s DIVERSITY. It’s not always easy. You’ve gotta be resilient, humble, open, and highly tolerant of differing norms”.

This is Jesse Powell’s conclusion to all the recent accusations against him

“Then it’s about “silencing” people. Funny thing is the biggest activists have the most myopic view of the world. They don’t realize how discriminatory they are to others. You want to be “inclusive” by asking an ESL Saudi candidate his pronouns/gender in a job interview?

The solution proposed by Jesse Powell is a paper outlining the company culture with three options: accept it and get busy, disagree and still get busy, or simply get out of the way.