The CEO sent a long diatribe about how the election of Donald Trump would be the end of democracy as we know it, and it is imperative that Joe Biden is elected.
I will never give this company a single cent after that stunt.
Following that those receiving the message can decide to continue to support the business or not. But I’d rather have that than the weasel word non answers approach that many execs take.
They are free to do whatever they want, but the CEO is a representative of the company, not the company itself. I don't care one wink about what the guy handling my business expenses thinks of the POTUS. His opinion on such matters has zero value to me. It was an odd thing to do for any company which is storing sensitive data of its customers.
That being said, I don't buy that you (or anyone, I am not pointing fingers) _don't care one wink_. Maybe you don't care on this very topic because you disagree or simply have no interest in politics. But I'm willing to bet that on another topic closer to your heart (pick your favourite), that could reflect on your views and relationship with the company.
And actually, because the voice of a CEO is globally impactful on the brand of the company, CEOs tend to be publicly rather quiet. Exceptions apply.
Actually, they could not - this is the crux of the issue. They didn't just send emails to their customers, but to their customer's employees. As an employee, I do not get to pick whether I use Expensify or not. My employer does.
Imagine your company decides to use MS services for email (e.g. Outlook Exchange). Is it OK for you to have to receive Satya's views on politics and not have a choice not to receive them (other than quitting your job)?
People really do seem to forget how crazy the natural social separation is between the red and blue tribes is in the US. The CEO didn't really have to send an email for me to who they were voting for.
If you're okay with companies really obviously announcing their political affiliations in literally everything they do but not okay with companies being explicit about what everyone already knows then I think that says more about you than the company. Expensify is straight up not at all politically neutral, never has been, and doesn't really even pretend to. This wasn't a rogue CEO -- the employees voted on and helped write the email.
What you're ignoring is that 99% of our employees don't have the ability to cease doing business with these holier than thou assholes. They're forced to get these emails they don't want and they all spent time being being mad, annoyed, confused or upset, many spent hours crafting internal emails and following the very public discussion, many were annoyed by the eventual decision to stick with them. Many still bring this up when related issues arise. It's a collective waste of time and it isn't ok.
Would you be happy about a company that sent religious recruitment emails to all your employees?
Would you be happy about a company that distracted over half your employees for the better part of a day in some cases for no fucking reason other than to push their own personal agenda?
I watched the discussion, people were obviously distracted and upset. Reading a 5 minute email wasn't the issue, the fallout was.
Random recruiters aren't causing confusion many wide outrage and distraction.
If you’re not persuaded by democracy then how about free markets? Trump has gone after multiple companies for political reasons. I mean, the guy told everyone to boycott Goodyear Tire while he was President ffs. It is absolutely reasonable to assume your company is better off when they dont have to kiss the ass of a despot in order to keep your comapny’s stock price level.
It’s so incredibly sad how quickly we normalized that man’s politics.
I am like: what are you saying? You would load all customer emails in order to push your political belief? I didn't say that out loud. But that was what I was thinking.
And we work at a financial company where personal data, arguably, is the most important thing.
- Encourage those that agree with it - Inform those who disagree or are uncertain/unfamiliar - Provide honest, clear message on what they stand for and priorities
Assuming they aren't surprised / are willing to bear consequences for their actions (both positive and negative), that's great. That's small-business mentality - openness with clients, making a stance, standing for more than just profit. Compare that with typical corporate communication which has such low informational density content it's worse than useless, and I miss it. And again, I say that on any given side of an issue (whether I disagree or disagree; and hopefully there's more than such a limited binary choice). If you CARE about it, don't hide it and pretend otherwise - Just makes discussions and decisions and life more onerous/hypocritical/annoying.
So many people vowed to boycott them but it never really came to anything and they made a nice profit off of trolling Trump supporters.
For example: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-corporate-go...
Is it because you disagree with the political leanings of the CEO?
Is it because you don't think that corporations should express political biases?
If so, do you maintain a list of companies that you won't do business with based on corporate donations?
Is it because you disagree with a founder or CEO using the platform that their company provides them to amplify their voice?
Your comment is a condemnation of the action of the CEO without any specific concern raised about the action taken, and leaves one to conclude that you are a Trump supporter. That is also fine - the whole point of democracy is to allow people to choose who they vote for.
Political advocacy can complicate business relations, and its best for everybody to realize that. Which isn't to say that one should avoid political advocacy, just that the costs should be evaluated before deciding to do it or to not do it.
It is pretty clear that the decision to write the email was written with business impacts in mind. Two of the longer paragraphs are essentially business justifications for why he wrote the email.
This is a good example of "I cannot understand why you do X, therefore I'm sure the reason is Y."