It was bound to happen. Just unusual during these days of COVID-19 and racial unrest, particularly in the tech arena. The CEO of Coinbase, a digital currency exchange headquartered in San Francisco, declared in a recent post that employee activism and political discussions are not encouraged at Coinbase: “We don’t engage here when [broad social] issues are unrelated to our core mission, because we believe impact only comes with focus.” CEO Brian Armstong adds: “While I think these efforts are well-intentioned, they have the potential to destroy a lot of value at most companies, both by being a distraction, and by creating internal division.”

The CEO is drawing a line between his company and those of his Silicon Valley peers’ Facebook and Google. To underscore his position where the business of business is business and that’s about it, he wrote in an internal email that he is offering employees a generous severance package to those uncomfortable with this new direction. Employees who do not buy into this non-sociopolitical stance would receive 4 to 6 months of severance, 6 months of COBRA insurance, and an extended options window. In a similarly dispassionate tone, Armstrong writes that life is too short to work for a company that you are not 100% committed to. Leave the personal at home.

This profit-focused mission goes against the mainstream corporate belief that companies should regard societal issues as core to their business values today and companies need to align themselves with employee concerns in order to attract and retain the best of them. With a positioning like this, Coinbase will undoubtedly attract employees who prefer to work for a company that downplays humanitarian issues and freedom to discuss the brewing issues of the day. Coinbase’s workforce is likely to be more homogenous than its tech peers by attracting people who simply want to focus on the bottom line and less so on building a diverse workplace where internal dissent is encouraged and permissible.

Armstrong already had his employee pushback moment last Spring when employees staged a walkout after the CEO did not immediately voice support for Black Lives Matter after the murder of George Floyd. He eventually did speak out in support of BLM but it clearly did not leave a good taste in his mouth for employees mobilizing on social issues and making their opinions known. His new edict has received a multiple of criticism and remains to be seen whether it will be followed by others or whether it can keep the firm successful.

It remains to be seen.