What Happened at Mastercard?
At the beginning of February 2023, Satvik Sethi, a former Mastercard employee in charge of its NFT-related project, shared on his Twitter account that he had resigned from his position and will no longer be working at Mastercard.
Photo illustration: Freepik
In this Twitter thread, Sethi explained the reasoning behind this decision to leave this industry giant. According to his tweets, the decision wasn’t easy but had to be made, and he’s contributing it to workplace neglect and harassment.
At Mastercard, I was a victim of harassment and emotional distress caused by a series of mismanaged processes, miscommunication, internal inefficiency. There were months at a time when I wouldn’t receive my salary until I begged across the hierarchy for it, among many other issues.
Sethi shared it with his Twitter followers.
The Twitter thread further showcases that Mastercard cut his salary by 40% after he moved from New York to London. Nevertheless, that didn’t stop the company from putting more weight on his shoulder and increasing his workload by 200%. These are, of course, his words, and serious accusations against the industry giant.
But, according to him, that wasn’t the end of his experience. When he tried to fight injustice caused by a poorly managed system that, apparently, doesn’t do any good for the people working there, Mastercard locked him out of his work-related accounts. Being locked out of the system, Sethi couldn’t say a proper goodbye to his teammates or access ideas and projects he had been working on for several months.
As a product lead for NFTs, Sethi was a big, integral part of Mastercard’s NFT sector, and this blow was devastating to him. Now, after he is no longer employed in the UK, he will lose his work visa and move to India until he figures out his next move and recovers from this unpleasant experience.
We contacted Mastercard to see what they have to say about these tweets and explain why their employees are receiving such horrible treatment. However, after a week of no response, we decided to publish the article anyway.
Of course, we can’t say whether their emails are flooded with similar media inquiries or that they simply don’t know how to justify these actions. Still, if we get any updates regarding this matter, you will find them in the section below.
Photo illustration: Freepik
CoinDeck, on the other hand, got a response from a Mastercard spokesperson, claiming that the company was well aware of the concerns Sethi had during his time at Mastercard in London: “We take them seriously and they will be looked into.”
So, if Mastercard was aware of Sethi’s concerns, why didn’t they react immediately?
Unfortunately, we won’t find out until they decide to shine more light on this topic.
Mastercard’s Former Employee Minted His Resignation Letter Into an NFT
After resigning from his position at Mastercard, Satvik Sethi decided to mint his resignation letter into an NFT. Anyone wanting to support Mastercard’s former employee can do so by minting his NFT, which costs 0.023 ETH. As Satvik Sethi said in his Twitter post, all of the profits would go strictly to his survival, as the time he spent with Mastercard had a tremendous toll on his mental and emotional health, and he needs time to rest and recharge.
Source: LinkedIn
This is the first time someone has minted their resignation letter into an NFT after leaving an industry giant such as Mastercard. Hopefully, Sethi will manage to sell his NFTs and recharge in the upcoming period.
Luckily, this Twitter thread reached a significant number of Twitter users, and he’s been getting lots of support from people in the Web 3.0 community. Not only are people buying his “resignation NFT,” but users and companies are reaching out and asking to help him with visa issues or offering other types of support.
But not all Twitter users were this supportive. After all, Sethi’s accusations are serious and controversial, and some are wondering if he’s blowing it out of proportion. And, as we don’t have any other information neither from Sethi or Mastercard, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take this Twitter thread with a grain of salt.
That doesn’t mean his story isn’t true, but I can see why some people aren’t as open and trustworthy as others in the community and don’t buy this story at all. Still, even if the entire thread seems fishy to you, consider remaining neutral until both parties elaborate further on the recent events.
