The CEO of a technology company is no longer bending to the “woke” staffers working for his company.
Kraken CEO Jesse Powell Fox News that he reached his limit with ‘woke’ employees and decided to do something about it.
He told the network that “triggered” employees who were being a ‘distraction’ to go find something else to do and offered to give them four months’ severance pay.
He said around 30 employees took the offer out of more than 3,000 staff members.
“There was a huge amount of support for this move, a huge amount of support for the company’s culture and mission and the reinforcement of those,” Powell said.
“And, I think everyone’s just ready to get back to work and stop being distracted,” Powell “Fox & Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt before going on to note that only a tiny minority of employees were “creating distractions for the whole company.”
“We’ve got people from more than 70 countries in the company, that speak more than 50 languages. We’re incredibly diverse in many ways,” Powell said of his cryptocurrency company.
“I think that the problem that some people have is this diversity of thought,” he noted.
He also said that he recently rewrote the company’s mission statement so that the woke need not apply:
With the recent market downturn, a lot of candidates and Krakenites have been asking, “What does this mean!?” Our response: “First time?”
What it means is it’s once again time to build. It’s time to remember why we’re doing this: The Mission of bringing financial freedom and inclusion to the billions of people suffering from financial exclusion, hyperinflation, and a broken system that disproportionately leaves the poor out in the cold. It’s time to think about taking more of your paycheck in bitcoin because the fundamentals have only improved. It’s time to ask, is there anything else we can do?
We have not adjusted our hiring plan, and we do not intend to make any layoffs. We have over 500 roles to fill during the remainder of the year, and believe bear markets are fantastic at weeding out the applicants chasing hype from the true believers in our mission.
That’s why, despite a steep decline in crypto prices and an uncertain macro environment, we’ve taken this opportunity to align our internal culture around a set of shared values we feel will keep us agile, focused, and competitive as we execute on our mission in the years ahead.
Make no mistake, at Kraken, we believe cryptocurrency is a once-in-a-generation technology, one that will improve the lives of billions around the globe living without adequate financial services or equal economic opportunity.
“We will never ask that our employees adopt any specific political ideology as a requirement for our workplace. That said, we ask that our employees respect the individual rights, privacy, and freedoms of others. Crypto is a freedom movement, and Kraken will remain a freedom company,” the statement continued.
It adds:
If nobody is ever offended, we either don’t have enough diversity of thought or we don’t have enough transparency in communication. We recognize that hurt feelings are inevitable in a global organization that is optimizing for team outcomes above individual sentiment. The ideal Krakenite is thick-skinned and well intentioned.
In commitment to these values, we also expanded our permanent benefits program to make moving on a bit easier for anyone who feels it’s time for the next chapter in their career.
Whether they feel they cannot align with our culture and values, or for other reasons, we want everyone to be happy in their work. The transition program will always be available, and will allow people to have the time and resources needed to pursue the next chapter of their career.
In addition to the hundreds of roles we have open, we’ll also be rehiring for positions that become vacant as a result of the transition program.
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