- Satvik Sethi left his position as "NFT Product Lead" with Mastercard
- In a thread on Twitter, he describes many work-related abuses like withheld salary, HR nightmares and much more.
- To help him get back on his feet, Sethi minted his resignation letter as an OE NFT on Manifold
Satvik Sethi has resigned from his position with Mastercard. The global payment platform’s former “NFT Product Lead” had a LOT to say about his experience. His relatable account paints Mastercard in a harsh light. To be fair, it isn’t hard to imagine Mastercard as a giant, dehumanizing, bureaucratically-burdened megacorp!
In a thread posted Thursday afternoon, Sethi described numerous shocking abuses that he suffered at the hands of his employer. A lot of that abuse had to do with Sethi’s vulnerable status as an immigrant, “When I moved from NYC to London because of visa issues, my salary was cut by 40% with my workload increasing 200%.” You’d think Mastercard could afford to pay Sethi a living wage; but apparently, he “had to work side jobs this past year to make ends meet.” Unfortunately, resigning is an ‘out of the frying pan, into the fryer’ situation for Sethi, “Quitting Mastercard means losing my work visa in London… I’m heartbroken to leave all my friends in London behind, this is hard.”
I have resigned from @Mastercard.
— Satvik Sethi (@sxtvik) February 2, 2023
For the past year, I served as the ‘NFT Product Lead.’ I evangelized Web3 for Mastercard leadership & regional teams, as well as all our Fortune 500 clients & partners.
This wasn’t easy but read on for why it was necessary, and what’s next 🧵: pic.twitter.com/kqiavsSIW7
Sethi will return to India for the time being. He points out that “Being an immigrant is difficult and not many people understand that. I’ve been separated from friends, family, & been at the behest of my employer for how to live my life, twice now. I can’t go on like this. My mental health was really struggling, panic attacks & depression.”
Perhaps the most damning accusation against Mastercard is the claim that, “there were months at a time when I wouldn’t receive my salary until I begged across the hierarchy for it.” How ironic is it that a company which prides itself in making quick global payments wouldn’t pay one of its employees in a timely fashion?
Instead of being supported by his company’s HR Department, Satvik detailed manipulation that kept him unhappily tied to his job for many months. “Despite his contract,” the Product Lead had to serve a three month resignation period… only to find out “when I resigned, I was told I’ll only receive 1 month pay and no benefits, & pressured into accepting it quickly or… lose [the] bonus.” Then, when Sethi “tried to fight back and informed [HR] that [he] had records of [their] conversations, they locked and disabled all [his] accounts,” preventing him “from accessing ideas [he] spent months designing and not even giving [him] a chance to say goodbye to [his] team, clients, & peers.”
Despite the travails that he faced, Sethi is optimistic about his future. He is the CEO of JoinCircle. The web3 social platform has “90,000+ sign ups, 35+ partner communities, 300,000+ potential users waiting for the ultimate social platform.”
Lastly, as a nice parting shot to his former employer, Satvik minted his resignation letter on Manifold. He promised holders a future airdrop as thanks, and solemnly promised, “100% of this [mint money] goes to survival. This isn’t gambling money.”
How fitting would it be if his OE resignation letter bested his Mastercard salary?!? Or how about this for karma: future scaling systems could allow Sethi to laugh darkly as Mastercard’s business model becomes obsolete! Web2 payments will wither in the face of a blockchain-enabled global transaction layer. 🤞
