I don’t care about the initial trigger much, mostly that the CEO’s first response to a possible employee problem was that it was dumb and to threaten his employees over it. Not a great look regardless of whether it was one employee, zero, or several hundred. Leaders should have much more compassion than this.
I guess I'm just frustrated at these "tech writers" for re-posting unverified information from Blind and then needing to walk it back later. It's unprofessional and risky.
Too bad Mr. Armstrong didn't choose to keep his mouth shut for a bit longer, to verify if the claims were from actual employees. Alternatively, he could have made a single tweet:
"I am aware of the open letter published today that was claimed to be from Coinbase empoyees. We will do our best to verify this and also respond to those employees internally to try and solve any issues they have with the direction of our company. I appreciate all feedback from Coinbase employees, positive or negative."
