Have you heard the story about the boss who told her worried employees to leave ‘pity city’?
Leaked footage of the company meeting has received millions of views and resulted in countless headlines.
Andi Owen, the CEO of furniture company MillerKnoll, made the now infamous remarks during a recent virtual town hall meeting (a US term for a full company meeting), where she addressed concerns among the sales team about their bonuses.
Don't have time to read this blog? You can listen to it here:
She said: “Don’t ask about, ‘What are we going to do if we don’t get a bonus?’ Get the damn $26 million dollars.
“Spend your time and your effort thinking about the $26 million we need and not thinking about what you’re going to do if you don’t get a bonus, all right? Can I get some commitment for that?”
And she added: “I had an old boss who said to me one time, ‘You can visit pity city, but you can’t live there’. So, people, leave pity city. Let’s get it done.”
Just to make matters worse, the rant ended with Ms Owen miming a mic drop.
MillerKnoll CEO, Andi Owen, tells employees to focus on what they control and leave “pity city” as they complain about their bonuses being cancelled while she keeps her $6.4M bonus.pic.twitter.com/pUd8SUQBu2
— Dare Obasanjo🐀 (@Carnage4Life) April 18, 2023
It’s a pep talk that has put the company - a result of a merger between Herman Miller and Knoll in 2021 – in crisis media management mode.
Here are a few of the damaging headlines it has faced:
Staff who are worried about bonuses should ‘leave Pity City,’ boss says CNN
MillerKnoll boss BERATES workers for complaining about bonusses being cut – as she took home $5m MailOnline
MillerKnoll CEO scolds workers complaining about bonuses — although she made $1.2M in extra compensation last year New York Post
The company responded by wheeling out the “taken out of context” explanation. A company spokesperson said: “Andi fiercely believes in this team and all we can accomplish together, and will not be dissuaded by a 90-second clip taken out of context and posted on social media.”
The circulated clip may not tell the whole story. But what we can see is clearly not a good look. A boss who reportedly earned more than $5 million last year chiding employees on a median salary of $44,810 seems clumsy, tone-deaf and insensitive. Maybe even heartless.
And the story rumbles on.
The company has also found itself denying reports employees who spoke out about the video would be sacked.
A worker told The Holland Sentinel: 'We have a meeting at the beginning of every shift. Last night the comments were brought up in the meeting and they said if anybody spoke out it wouldn't be good for them and they could be terminated.'
Ms Owen, for her part, seems to have kept a relatively low profile since the video emerged. But she did eventually email an apology to staff.
She wrote: “As a leader, I try to always pick the right words and tone to inspire and motivate this incredible team. I want to be transparent and empathetic, and as I continue to reflect on this instance, I feel terrible that my rallying cry seemed insensitive.
“What I’d hoped would energise the team to meet a challenge we’ve met many times before landed in a way that I did not intend and for that I am sorry.”
Perhaps the longer-term personal reputation challenge is how she avoids forever being known as the “Pity City” boss, in the same way Gerald Ratner continues to be associated with the “total crap” description of his company’s products. Or how Tony Hayward, the former BP boss, wanted his “life back” during the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
And that could make it harder for the company to retain existing talent and recruit new people. The corporate façade has cracked – would you want to work for the leaked version of Ms Owen?
What crisis communication lessons can others learn from this latest corporate catastrophe?
Senior leaders
How senior leaders behave and what they say poses huge reputational risks.
We’ve already mentioned Gerald Ratner and Tony Hayward.
More recent examples include James Clarke, the boss of tech marketing firm, Clearlink, who has been at the centre of a backlash after telling employees he had run out of patience with them complaining about a new return to the office policy. During a virtual meeting, he also celebrated a worker who was forced to sell the family dog to return to the office.
Barbara Corcoran has also faced heavy criticism after telling a podcast she “loves firing people on a Friday”.
The founder of the real estate company The Corcoran Group made the comments on Steve Bartlett’s The Diary of a CEO podcast in December, and they resurfaced last month on TikTok.
“What I would love to do is call someone into my office on Friday,” she said.
“I love firing people on Friday. I would stop by someone’s desk on a Wednesday and say, "Hey, would you have any time, sometime on Friday?"
“They should have heard about the rumours. I couldn’t wait till they came in to fire them.”
Sean Ryan, one of our expert tutors, listed comments made by senior leaders as one of the 14 types of crises organisations could face during his series of crisis communication masterclasses for members of The Media Team Academy.
Video conference meetings
Many of the recent crises that centre on CEO comments come from virtual meetings, particularly those that appear to show bosses being out of touch and insensitive.
As well as this MillerKnoll and James Clarke examples, you can add Vishal Garg, the boss of digital marketing company Better.com, who took to Zoom to sack 900 people.
In footage shared widely, he said: “I come to you with not great news. If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.”
You may also remember KPMG’s UK boss Bill Michael stood down following a backlash over comments he made during a staff Zoom meeting.
He told consultants to "stop moaning" about the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on people's lives, and to stop "playing the victim card".
He also said the concept of unconscious bias was “total crap”.
So, while virtual meetings offer many benefits, the fact they can be recorded and shared is a risk.
We shouldn’t need to say it, but don’t say anything in a meeting you wouldn’t want to go further.
Practise
If your senior leaders are planning on holding meetings with large numbers of employees, speaking to podcasts or at external events, they should first practice what they will say with their comms team - or a suitably trained colleague.
It can help identify anything that could be controversial – or create the wrong impression - and potentially difficult questions that could be asked and put the speaker under pressure. If difficult questions are anticipated, plan how to answer them.
Act quickly
If potentially damaging comments get leaked to the media, organisations must start communicating quickly.
Any period of silence will only make the situation worse and allow what others say to control the narrative.
Does your crisis plan enable you to respond quickly?
Invest in leadership communication training
Words matter.
And organisations and their leaders need to show empathy, kindness and an appreciation of the different challenges their people face. And their concerns about the future.
A wealthy boss criticising people for worrying about their bonus when it could be the difference between going on holiday or paying the mortgage, suggests leaders are out-of-touch with the plight of their workforce.
Leaders must understand what matters to their employees and be able to discuss those issues effectively.
Employees are crucial stakeholders.
Alienate them like MillerKnoll, and you could find yourself with a few more empty office seats.
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