MillerKnoll CEO Andi Owen in all probability didn’t anticipate to get up on Monday to seek out out she had gone viral—and never in a great way.
A quick outburst caught on tape is all that it took for the supervisor, who joined the furnishings firm in 2018 after a protracted profession at Hole Inc., to finish up within the headlines.
In what seems to be a pep speak encouraging workers to hit a gross sales goal earlier than MillerKnoll’s fiscal yr concludes on the finish of Could, Owen was recorded addressing worker issues over the potential lack of their bonus.
“Don’t ask about ‘what are we going to do if we don’t get a bonus?’. Get the rattling $26 million,” she replied within the undated video of the interior workers assembly. “Spend your time and your effort desirous about the $26 million we want, and never desirous about what you’re going to do when you don’t get a bonus, alright?”
Owen, who describes herself as a ‘defender of fairness and inclusion’ in her personal Instagram account, receives the majority of her pay package deal in incentive-based compensation like most CEOs. For the fiscal yr to Could 2022, this amounted to $3.9 million which got here on high of Owen’s $1.1 million in fastened wage.
In a press release to Fortune, the corporate behind the Herman Miller line of design workplace furnishings stated worker bonuses haven’t but been decided, nor will they be till its books are closed subsequent month.
That is Andi Owen, CEO of MillerKnoll. She obtained a bonus of practically $4,000,000. That is her response to staff irritated that they received’t be receiving one. pic.twitter.com/NLIIoppJJA
— Fuck You I Stop (@fuckyouiquit) April 17, 2023
Nevertheless, the edited clip shared broadly on social media means that MillerKnoll staff have purpose to fret.
After many members of workers had apparently requested how Owen anticipated them to stay adequately motivated in the event that they don’t obtain a bonus, the CEO—who admitted among the feedback she obtained on the topic had been “not so good”—made no effort to disclaim the dangers.
“I had an previous boss who stated to me one time ‘you possibly can go to Pity Metropolis, however ya can’t stay there’,” she stated, “so folks—depart Pity Metropolis.”
The occasion follows latest examples of seemingly entitled CEOs performing callously to workers.
Vishal Garg turned the poster boy for self-absorbed executives after the Higher.com founder was lampooned for telling 900 workers that he hoped to develop “stronger” as an individual by firing them then and there—proper earlier than Christmas.
“The final time I did it, I cried,” Garg stated within the now notorious Zoom name from December 2021.
Ought to Owen finally determine to cancel her workers’s bonuses for the yr that’s ending, the query then could also be whether or not her championing office fairness extends to voluntarily forfeiting her personal bonus in solidarity along with her workers.
Within the video, the MillerKnoll CEO did urge her workforce to “lead by instance”.
