Re:The ‘Pity City’ CEO Is Sorry Now
by neilv on Thursday April 20, 2023 @02:15AM
(#35636959)
This is an established company. Calling for people to focus on the mission is fine, so long as the company is taking care of them reasonably.
But if the situation is that the company doesn't know whether it can take care of people, but CEO still wants people to focus on the mission... One gesture would be for the CEO to have the kind of skin in the game that the employees do -- which isn't a huge equity and bonus package, and golden parachute clauses -- but to drop CEO total comp. down to the level of the workers, until the company is sure it can cover responsibilities to its people.
That said, I'm skeptical of clickbait-type calls to pitchforks/canceling. Don't apologize because content consumers are angry in general, and itching to act out like a mob, and other people are itching to incite and monetize that mob.
Instead, please rethink the dynamic with employees, and whether you're keeping up your end of the bargain, and fix that if necessary. If employees believe in you -- even if times are rough, but you're in it with them, and have their backs -- the employees should stand up and tell the random Internet mob to get lost.
(Connection of MillerKnoll to "tech" industry, for anyone who doesn't remember the start of dotcoms: when money started being thrown around wildly... the Herman-Miller Aeron chair was an icon of dotcoms. A dotcom startup would get investment, acquire office space and likely Aeron chairs, write some code, throw a launch party, and hope for an IPO.)
But if the situation is that the company doesn't know whether it can take care of people, but CEO still wants people to focus on the mission... One gesture would be for the CEO to have the kind of skin in the game that the employees do -- which isn't a huge equity and bonus package, and golden parachute clauses -- but to drop CEO total comp. down to the level of the workers, until the company is sure it can cover responsibilities to its people.
That said, I'm skeptical of clickbait-type calls to pitchforks/canceling. Don't apologize because content consumers are angry in general, and itching to act out like a mob, and other people are itching to incite and monetize that mob.
Instead, please rethink the dynamic with employees, and whether you're keeping up your end of the bargain, and fix that if necessary. If employees believe in you -- even if times are rough, but you're in it with them, and have their backs -- the employees should stand up and tell the random Internet mob to get lost.
(Connection of MillerKnoll to "tech" industry, for anyone who doesn't remember the start of dotcoms: when money started being thrown around wildly... the Herman-Miller Aeron chair was an icon of dotcoms. A dotcom startup would get investment, acquire office space and likely Aeron chairs, write some code, throw a launch party, and hope for an IPO.)