- Coinbase last week rescinded a bunch of job offers after promising candidates it wouldn’t
- Coinbase informed a batch of new hires that a recruitment freeze wouldn’t affect job offers
- It then emailed another group saying their job offers had been rescinded
Coinbase has attracted huge criticism after withdrawing job offers to new hires just weeks after informing them that it would not do so. In a sign of the concern the exchange feels for the changing market conditions, Coinbase rowed back on its job offers, despite some candidates having already handed their notices in at their existing employer. Fortunately, the news has resulted in the crypto community coming together and helping those affected by guiding them towards companies that are hiring and that won’t suddenly change their mind once an offer has been made.
Coinbase Rescinded Job Offers After Saying it Wouldn’t
Coinbase made its feelings very clear in mid-May when its President and Chief Operating Officer, Emilie Choi, stated that the company was revising its expansion plans and only focusing on key areas of the business. An email thread from global employee advocate Blind purported to show that Coinbase was rescinding job offers it had already made, including to those who had already signed contracts:
Coinbase sent a welcome email to new hires 2 weeks ago promising that they won’t rescind offers (1st image).
Yesterday, they sent the rescind emails (2nd image) leaving candidates in frustration.
We have a referral thread going on to help those who were impacted 👇 pic.twitter.com/lIQe0ph4rk
— Blind (@TeamBlind) June 3, 2022
The thread clearly shows Coinbase reneging on job offers the same day as Choi’s blog post, before sending out emails just a few days later to others promising that it would honour all job offers and signed contracts. This is clearly a lie, given that it had done the exact opposite just days earlier, leaving those who had left current positions on the strength of an offer of employment unexpectedly out of work at the worst time financially since the 1970s.
Crypto Space Rallies Round
Fortunately the crypto space rallied round, with other Blind members suggesting where out of work employees could look for similar roles, and the Twitter thread populated by other crypto companies stating that they were hiring and pointing where to go for positions lists.
Coinbase’s shoddy treatment of its future employees is a very bad look for the company, but it seems that at least they didn’t lie directly to those individuals – the first email was sent on the day of the blog post to individuals whose roles were apparently safe, while the others who had their roles rescinded were informed a few days later.
They would appear to have been two separate groups, meaning that Coinbase didn’t technically string them along via the first email, although this is a mere technicality – to make an offer, and potentially to have a future employee sign a contract, and then rescind it, knowing they may well have left their current role, is despicable.
