So since this whole thing began, team members have been forced to sit down and write a letter about their feelings. They felt like they could be identified through their handwriting, so I’m not sure how constructive this has been.
One thing that I find most disturbing is Stephens actions regarding people. Instead of asking people the time, casually grabbing someone by the wrist to look at their watch? Physically grabbing someone’s arm and walking them to where he wants them whilst they are addressing and presenting to the team. Telling people they cannot drink whilst he talks so he has their full attention, I guess this is fine unless the office is in California in the heat, oh wait. There are currently no questions allowed from the team however he will take people for individual walks to tell them to ask questions to him.
All of the above is subjective and you can take of it what you will, however telling someone to go and get you car washed and fill it with gas, and then not offering to pay them any money back for doing so it something you will only do if your truly on your own planet. Telling people to order you Ubers at conventions and insisting they order an Uber black. We have heard this before though, a total disregard for other people’s finances although it would take an Armageddon to make him lose his millionaire status whilst others struggle, people not getting paid for bounties, team members not being paid in the past, not paying 20 governors myself included for 7 months of work. Given that to settle with these 20 people would have cost around 13k, whilst other decisions to fly the team out to the HQ cost nearly 100k. Everyone give up hope a lot sooner than I did, because I saw the kindness is Stephens eyes in the past, I thought that everything I had experiences or heard was just a big misunderstanding, and surely it would be sorted over time. Maybe it just wasn’t a priority.
From someone that came from such humble beginnings, and someone that once claimed in an interview that ‘’My learning is really more from the emotional aspect, the self-reflection and what can be the day to day kindness and hard work that my parent showed to the business people around them’’. I would ask Stephen to remember this and consider that self-reflection, the emotional aspect. Some people may say that quoting Stephen when he mentions his family is wrong, and in normal circumstances I would agree, but many people’s families are being affected here. For the core team members, people unpaid for their work, and investors. And this pain will increase over time.
What most of us haven’t realised that although the current initiative is NFT for Q3, the team have been told that ‘’if you’re not onboard with NFT for Q3 then they shouldn’t be here’’. Now I won’t sit hear and demand to know why NFTs are the main point of focus, given that NFTs have never worked on Harmony, and given that the success on other blockchain NFT markets work from demand due to profit and to mass exposure which we do not currently have. In my eyes bearing in mind, I’m just a community member that really isn’t an expert, NFTs should be the last thing being focussed on here, and now, given a trustless bridge is vital after the hack, given the RPC issues are far from over with a desperate need for cross sharding, given our validators are struggling more than ever. What is going on.
This all sounds fine to you I’m sure, it’s not the first time we have heard Harmony are going heavy on a buzzword. But this time is different, before when we had a new phase a few team members where allocated, people went crazy about DAOs during a time when it was just Sam, then some additional team members assisting him with this focus, whist all the important stuff carried on. But this time, it’s drastically different, nearly everyone has been told to focus on NFT’s. Core engineers that are normally focussed on RPC, Bridges, and Cross Sharding are now, you guessed in, working on the NFT initiative. The team don’t know what’s going on, they do not understand why during such a vital time that they’re being taken away from the most vital thing that needs to be worked on, maintained and improved……The Tech.
So the bigger picture here and the reason why I’m talking about how a company owner treats people around them, is due to the fact that these people are absolutely imperative to the success of Harmony, they are the backbone of your success on your journey with Harmony. And sadly, these developers and engineers are now actively looking for other positions within the blockchain space, and not just 1 or two of them, enough of them to be a serious, serious problem. And mark my words, given time someone else will see how talented they are, someone will know how to truly nurture and care for that talent and let them innovate and make them feel appreciated elsewhere unless big changes happen, and fast.
If you want to know what’s happening, and if you truly care about what’s going on, ignore all the above smoke, demand to know the answers to some of the biggest questions right now.
How is the teams time being dispersed? Who is working on what? Are they solely working on that initiative and if not, how much of there time allocated to each initiative?
Again, I have given you my peace of mind, at the same time as writing all this, each time I have taken to the keyboard I’ve felt sick to my stomach, my conscience is now clear and no matter what happens from here on. I won’t feel like I didn’t do what I could, even if that was just to cause a little self-reflection and for changes to possibly happen with a strike of lightening which I doubt but which I hope, I seriously hope.