Google “Word Mangles” Shared Office Space

A message to Google cloud employees illustrates challenges with communicating bad news with integrity. The gist of the message is this: “Most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler.” Employees within departments will be organized into “neighborhoods“ and will negotiate their space: “Through the matching process, they will agree on a basic desk setup and establish norms with their desk partner and teams to ensure a positive experience in the new shared environment.”

The announcement would be unwelcome news at any time but has an extra sting after the 11,000 layoffs in January. Employees also expressed frustration with the “corpspeak.” The CNBC article reports one example:

Internally, leadership has given the new seating arrangement a title: ‘Cloud Office Evolution” or “CLOE,” which it describes as “combining the best of pre-pandemic collaboration with the flexibility” from hybrid work.

In one meme, an employee wrote, “Not every cost-cutting measure needs to be word mangled into sounding good for employees. A simple ‘We are cutting office space to reduce costs’ would make leadership sound more believable.”

For students, this example illustrates the value of straight talk and integrity. Particularly when the business purpose of the decision is obvious, transparency is a better approach for messages that impact people negatively.

Image source.

Fetterman Admits Depression

Newly elected Senator John Fetterman went public about his depression, and his wife is contributing to the messaging. Months after his stroke and a tight run-off election, Fetterman’s health may be a more prominent news topic than he would like. His decision illustrates character dimensions of vulnerability and courage—and offers opportunities for compassion. According to news reports, reactions are favorable, overall.

John Fetterman’s wife, Gisele, tweeted this note and the official statement from the senator’s office. The message is short and, despite the unfortunate line spacing error, says what it needs to say.

Gisele Fetterman also tweeted, “Thank you for sharing your personal challenges and being so vulnerable with us over the past couple of days. This one felt really important to pass on.” She posted the anonymous note:

I just wanted to say this: today I went to therapy for the first time in my life. It’s been over a decade since I was diagnosed with depression, but I never wanted to ask anyone for help with it. But seeing that one of the toughest people I’ve ever talked to did the same thing today reassured me that I was making the right choice.

Students might see positive results from being vulnerable despite the risks. In a pinned tweet, Giselle Fetterman wrote, “Pennsylvania, the spouse of your new senator is a formerly undocumented immigrant. Thank you.”

Campus Communications About a Shooting

In the most recent gun violence tragedy, a man shot and killed three Michigan State University students, injured five more, and then shot himself. Although this may be a difficult class discussion, students can learn about crisis communications from the incident.

MSU Communications

The day after the shooting, Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff posted a video to the “Spartan” community. In some ways, her presentation is classic crisis communication with the typical sympathy to the families and friends; gratitude to locals, colleagues, and President Biden; encouragement for everyone to feel and to heal; and information about classes, counseling, and events. The presentation is also classic academic with metaphors and a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow quote. Woodruff sounds formal and scripted, starting with “Dear Spartans and Friends.” She plays it safe, giving no comment about the political controversy about guns.

A Chronicle article is titled, “‘We Have a National Crisis’: How Michigan State Responded to a Mass Shooting,” but it’s misleading. The article quotes an associate professor of education; the quote is not an official university stance and illustrates the problem with individuals speaking to the press. Students can debate whether the university should take a stand and whether now is the appropriate or effective time.

From at least Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. until Wednesday at 9 a.m. ET, the entire MSU home page is an “alert” shown here.

On the "emergency” page, we see a series of messages from the “Shelter-in-place order” to “Property assistance information.”

Other University Communications

Emails like this one from Cornell University central administration and this one from a dean are typical. In these types of situations, universities tend to reach out to their own students. Students may have friends at MSU and, even if they don’t know someone affected, a shooting incident, understandably, makes people in similar situations feel unsafe. Campus security is always questioned. Perhaps students can compare Cornell’s message to ones they may have received.

Press Conference

Local leaders and police officials held a press conference, which serves as an example of crisis communication and handling public questions. Of course, students will have comments about delivery, style, and other aspects of presentations skills.

Boeing CEO Explains Quarterly Results

In a message to employees posted on the company website, Boeing CEO David Calhoun wrote, “We delivered a solid fourth quarter,” but the numbers say something different. According to a Wall Street Journal article, “The aerospace company’s fourth-quarter profit and sales both fell short of analysts’ expectations,” although they improved from the third quarter.

Calhoun is doing what any good CEO would do: spin the news, convey confidence, and keep employees motivated. Focusing on the future, the subtitle sums up the message, “Steadily building momentum.” Calhoun starts by thanking employees, and a short video shows fourth quarter achievements. The message doesn’t mention the $663 million quarterly loss or the $5.01 billion loss in 2022 but instead focuses on “more than $3 billion in free cash flow.”

Calhoun acknowledges, “we have more work ahead to drive stability in our operations and within the supply chain.” But, overall, the bad-news message sounds positive. And maybe it is good news, considering the 737 Max history and that the stock lost nearly 39% in the past 5 years.

The full message is below. Side note: The Wall Street Journal reports, at some point in his communications, Calhoun said he expects operating margins to be “bouncy” this year, an odd term for a plane manufacturer. Will they be turbulent?

Boeing CEO Updates Employees on 4th-Quarter Results

• Steadily building momentum

CHICAGO, Jan. 25, 2023 —Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun shared the following message with employees today addressing the company’s fourth-quarter results:

Team,

We delivered a solid fourth quarter. As we report our financial results today, I want to start by saying thank you. Together, we’re making important strides and steadily improving performance. Your resilience and hard work are building momentum, and we’re well on our way to restoring the operational strength we expect of ourselves at Boeing.

We generated more than $3 billion in free cash flow in the fourth quarter, driven by progress in our performance and strong demand. This helped us generate positive full-year free cash flow for the first time since 2018, an important metric in our recovery.

Our teams across the enterprise delivered on several key milestones and I encourage you to watch some of our fourth-quarter highlights in the video below. [omitted]

While we have made meaningful progress, challenges remain and we have more work ahead to drive stability in our operations and within the supply chain.

This will be another important year for us as we look to steadily increase our production rates, further improve performance, progress in our development programs and deliver on our commitments. Through it all, we will keep safety, quality and transparency at the forefront.

We’re proud of how we closed out 2022, and despite the hurdles in front of us, we’re confident in our path ahead. Demand is strong and our portfolio is well positioned. We have a robust pipeline of development programs, we’re innovating for the future and we’re increasing investments to prepare for our next generation of products.

Thank you for all you do to support our customers, our company and each other. I am proud of our team and excited about our future.

Dave

Microsoft Layoff Email

In step with other tech companies, Microsoft is laying off 10,000 employees, and CEO Satya Nadella’s email is posted publicly. I’m surprised that Nadella didn’t learn more lessons from the 2014 Microsoft layoff email a NY Magazine writer called “hilariously bad.”

Nadella starts with the vague subject line, “Focusing on our short- and long-term opportunity,” and then writes two paragraphs about challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Mercifully, he gets to the news in the first sentence of the third paragraph. This is an improvement over the 2014 memo in which former exec Stephen Elop announced layoffs in the eleventh paragraph.

In Chapter 8 of Business Communication and Character, I write extensively about the value of putting bad news up front and the lack of research support for the “indirect style”—giving explanations first and then the bad news. In this case, I’m quite sure that employees knew what was coming, so a more direct style is more appropriate.

In these sentences, Nadella puts the 10,000 in perspective, as we teach in crisis communication. However, employees will wonder whether they are affected and when they will hear the news. Based on the industry and his first paragraphs, employees working on AI likely feel safe, but a clearer timeline for those who aren’t is always a good idea.

Today, we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3. This represents less than 5 percent of our total employee base, with some notifications happening today. It’s important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas.

Twice, with a paragraph in between, Nadella promises transparency:

. . . we will do so in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible.

. . . we will treat our people with dignity and respect, and act transparently.

Employees might prefer actual transparency to hearing about it.

Nadella does express compassion and explain benefits, which is useful for employees, but clearly designed for public viewing. Overall, the email reads like one always intended for a public blog.

Update: A Wall Street Journal article reported a concert Microsoft sponsored at Davos with Sting performing for about 50 people the night before layoffs were announced. The author describes it as a “bad look.” We could call it “bad optics”—or just insensitive, lacking integrity and compassion.

Image source.

Messages About FAA Outage

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) outage delayed flights Wednesday morning. As we might expect, the agency posted minimal web communication. With the heading FAA NOTAM Statement, we see a series of updates that apparently only I read: they don’t seem to have any particular audience. But the last message addresses the main concern—that the outage was not caused by a cyberattack.

For his part, Pete Buttigieg went public. In an MSNBC interview, he reassured the public that systems were back online. He also said, "When there's an issue on the government side of the house, when there's an issue with FAA, we're gonna own it, we're gonna understand it, and we're gonna make very clear what's needed in order to fix it and go after that plan." In case you were wondering, he said, “Our number 1 priority is safety.” I was hoping for something a bit more original.

Airlines were left to communicate with their customers. Students could compare airline messages to see how they handle the bad news and how easily customers can find information about flights.

United: I found this message under the tab “Travel Issue” at the top of the page. The following paragraph began that page, with more links and resources following.

“The FAA has lifted their nationwide ground stop and United has resumed operations. Customers may continue to see some delays and cancellations as we work to restore our schedule and should check the United app or united.com for the latest information about their individual flight. United has activated a travel waiver for any customers who need to change their plans, including offering refunds for customers who no longer want to travel. Customers who would like to receive a refund can visit united.com/refund to submit their request.”

American: I clicked on “Travel Information” and scrolled half-way down the page to find this “Travel Alerts” tab. But the link led to issues other than the FAA outage.

Delta: I see no information about the outage. Maybe if I searched for a scheduled flight, I would get a targeted message, but nothing is apparent on the website. However, I do see this generic message at the top of the homepage, which might be an established part of the site.

For how long should airlines keep issue-specific information prominently on their site? Why did United choose to call out the FAA? These and other topics about airline flight communications would make good class discussions.

Southwest Communications

This week’s debacle will make a great case study. As other airlines recovered from the storms, Southwest lagged. Here are a few communications for students to analyze and compare. For an assignment, students could act as consultants advising the company on their messaging or assessing the ethics and character issues demonstrated throughout this time.

CEO Bob Jordan’s video message. Students have a lot to analyze in this example: the apology, explanation of what went wrong, audience perspective, communication objectives, plans for the future, delivery style, etc. The persuasive video raises questions of accountability, compassion, humility, vulnerability, and other character dimensions. Students can identify which Jordan demonstrates and which are lacking.

Southwest webpage. A link to this page is prominent on the Southwest homepage. Customer can find “Travel disruption information,” including how to request a refund and locate baggage. Students can analyze how well the site is organized and how easily users can find what they need.

Employee interview on Democracy Now! What are the character and ethical issues associated with an employee defending staff yet speaking out against the company? The interviewed employee blames Southwest’s technology and says union employees have been asking for changes for years. This raises integrity issues for airline management.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg interview. Buttigieg gave several interviews distinguishing Southwest’s performance from other airlines that struggled but recovered. He defended the Department of Transportation’s recent push for airlines to do right by customers. Critics say the secretary is using the moment for political gain.

Snap Memo Delivers Bad News

Snap employees who avoided the 20% layoff in August just got bad news: they need to spend at least 80% of their time back in the office. The timing makes sense for the company to capitalize on employees’ gratitude for having a job. Tech downsizing might not give Snap employees who want to leave a lot of options.

I don’t see the full memo online, but here’s the bottom line from CEO Evan Spiegel:

"I believe that spending more time together in person will help us to achieve our full potential. What each of us may sacrifice in terms of our individual convenience, I believe we will reap in terms of our collective success."

Spiegel also wrote:

"We've been working this way for so long that I'm afraid we've forgotten what we've lost—and what we could gain—by spending more time together. I believe that 'default together,' while retaining flexibility for our team members, will help us to accelerate our growth and deliver on our strategic priorities of growing our community, reaccelerating our revenue growth, and leading in AR."

Business communication faculty often teach students to avoid qualifiers like “I believe” and “I think” for persuasive communication. In this case, Spiegel writes “I believe,” and it fits. This is bad news, and the qualifier softens the tone. Company leaders can’t say with full confidence that working in the office will have these certain outcomes. Without “I believe” or “we believe,” they might sound like jerks, which they might be, anyway. I don’t see a lot of compassion, at least in these excerpts.

Also, writing “I believe” three times in four sentences is a bit excessive. A spokesperson repeated the phrase when responding to CNET about the story:

“After working remotely for so long we're excited to get everyone back together next year with our new 80/20 hybrid model. We believe that being together in person, while retaining flexibility for our team members, will enhance our ability to deliver on our strategic priorities of growing our community, driving revenue growth, and leading in AR."

In case you missed it, The New York Times ran an article about young employees “romanticizing” working in an office. Their employers are lucky that these TikTok videos are so popular.

Image source.

Public Talk of Layoffs

I remember when people where ashamed of being laid off. Old movies show men leaving for “work” months after they no longer had a job.

Today, people find community in discussing their fate, and they use their favorite platform—sometimes their former employer—to share their stories. Partly, the shame is lifted because of the numbers: 11,000 at Meta; 10,000 at Amazon; 3,700 at Twitter; 950 at Salesforce; and many others. In a colorful, but mostly unreadable chart, TrueUp logged 192,997 so far in 2022. (Maybe the logos could be scalable?)

The unfortunately named Blind app connects employees in several industries, particularly tech (95% of Twitter employees signed up). Students can review comments for an inside scoop just as they do on Glassdoor.

I feel encouraged by the public postings. In addition to the obvious compassion and vulnerability, the stories—good and bad about the layoff process and communication—keeps employers on their toes. Also, people are finding new jobs, and this will get easier as the market, once again, opens up.

Meta's Well-Timed Layoff Message

How clever for Meta to announce 11,000 layoffs as we watch the news for election results. Still, the news ranked highly, with a big headline on the WSJ home page.

Unlike Elon Musk’s curt email to Twitter employees last week, Mark Zuckerberg’s note is longer and posted publicly, which is smart since it would likely hit the press anyway. He follows business communication guidelines by placing the main point up front, and he demonstrates accountability and compassion in the introduction:

I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here. I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted.

His explanation of what went wrong also demonstrates accountability—and humility: “I got this wrong, and I take responsibility for that.”

Zuckerberg describes severance and other benefits in bullets, and he expresses optimism in the future. Employees will question whether they’re affected, but I’m not sure he can say anything differently in the message because cuts are across the board. Still, people might appreciate a bit more information about how decisions were made.

People must be on edge. Zuckerberg wrote, “Everyone will get an email soon letting you know what this layoff means for you.” How soon? He also offers the chance to “speak with someone to get their questions answered and join information sessions.” The goal seems to be communication by email and mass meetings. In-person meetings are best for delivering bad news, but given remote work and scale, this method is probably the only practical way to go

Twitter Layoff Messages

Perhaps the best example of a bad-news message is a layoff memo (below), and Elon Musk’s Twitter email doesn’t disappoint. Just days after the purchase went through and after a deafening silence, the new CEO sent a short message confirming what employees expected.

The email is classic Musk: direct and decisive, without a lot of compassion. He makes the news extra painful by expressing his distrust: cutting people off from offices and systems and reminding people not to share confidential information (which at least one person did by sharing the internal email).

Layoff messages are typically softer, with more specific reasons for the decision, a rationale for who goes and who stays, more gratitude to those leaving, more information about what people can expect, and more optimism about the future of the company. They are also a chance for leaders to demonstrate their own humility and vulnerability. But that’s not Elon Musk. (That describes Brian Chesky, whose Airbnb layoff message—posted publicly—is still one of my favorites.)

The actual layoffs the next day didn’t go much better. “Confusion” prevailed as 50% were laid off, some losing access in the middle of meetings. Now Musk is left with what he called a “massive drop in revenue” and class-action lawsuits from employees.

---

Team,

In an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path, we will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday. We recognize that this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward.

Given the nature of our distributed workforce and our desire to inform impacted individuals as quickly as possible, communications for this process will take place via email. By 9AM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, everyone will receive an individual email with the subject line: Your Role at Twitter. Please check your email, including your spam folder.

If your employment is not impacted, you will receive a notification via your Twitter email. 

If your employment is impacted, you will receive a notification with next steps via your personal email.

If you do not receive an email from twitter-hr@ by 5PM PST on Friday Nov. 4th, please email xxxxxxxx.

To help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data, our offices will be temporarily closed and all badge access will be suspended. If you are in an office or on your way to an office, please return home.

We acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging experience to go through, whether or not you are impacted. Thank you for continuing to adhere to Twitter policies that prohibit you from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere.

We are grateful for your contributions to Twitter and for your patience as we move through this process.

Thank you.

Image source.

Trevor Noah Announces Leaving The Daily Show

At the end of the show and the middle of a bunch of jokes, Trevor Noah announced that he’s leaving The Daily Show after seven-years. The video is an example of bad news, although I’m surprised at how he delivered the message (and I missed it last month).

His decision seemed to surprise his boss, who had lunch with him the day before and thought he would stay for at least the 2023-24 season. Even more surprising is that people at the media company would admit this to The Hollywood Reporter, which quoted a “high-ranking insider” (debatable?) as saying, “We were completely shocked.”

Noah’s five-minute video started with his gratitude for the seven-year experience. About two minutes in, he said, “My time is up. Yeah, but in the most beautiful way, honestly.” Then he described what he enjoyed about the show and what he misses, including traveling. All of it sounded unscripted, which of course, is consistent with his style and sounded authentic.

His approach is understandable partly because he didn’t have a set departure date at the time. He joked, “I’m not disappearing. Don’t worry. If I still owe you money. I’ll still pay you.”

Otherwise, it felt awkward. He did say, “I’ve never been good at, uh, goodbyes.” That much is clear.

Comparing Company Statements About Kanye West

Since his anti-semitic posts and after pressure from consumers and industry leaders, companies are dropping ties with Kanye West. Here are several statements for students to compare. These messages could be considered positive or bad news, but they are all persuasive. Which demonstrate more courage and compassion?

MRC Entertainment: Company leaders wrote a personal note about their decision to stop distribution of a Kanye West documentary. They explain his flawed logic about Jewish people and call out others for being silent.

Balenciaga: The fashion company gave only a short statement to WWD: “Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist.”

CAA: Similarly, CAA Talent Agency reportedly dropped West as a client but gave no statement.

United: This talent agency’s CEO, Jeremy Zimmer, was more vocal. In an email, he encouraged staff to boycott Kanye West.

Adidas: After much pressure, including a dropping share price and a tweet and petition from the Anti-Defamation League, Adidas finally announced an end to their partnership. The Adidas statement identified what Kanye (“Ye”) did: “[H]is recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.” But the rest of the statement focuses on the financial impact. Fun fact: Adi Dassler, the founder of Adidas, was a member of the Nazi party.

Gap: In as short statement, Gap announced the end of its Yeezy partnership. Posted the same day as Adidas’s announcement, the message doesn’t mention that West ended the relationship in September for breach of contract. The current decision is to stop selling products that were in the pipeline.

Communications About Fast Company Breach

Fast Company is suffering embarrassment because of a data breach during which hackers sent racist messages through Apple News on iPhones. The offensive comments reflect poorly on Apple as well, which a Washington Post article describes as an otherwise “walled garden.”

In addition to posting the message shown here on its website homepage, Fast Company sent this message by email:

Fast Company’s Apple News account was hacked on Tuesday evening. Two obscene and racist push notifications were sent about a minute apart. The messages are vile and are not in line with the content of Fast Company. We are investigating the situation and have suspended the feed and shut down FastCompany.com until we are certain the situation has been resolved.”

A similar white-text-on-black-background message plasters Inc.’s home page: “As a result of the FastCompany.com breach, Mansueto Ventures (which also owns Inc.) is temporarily shutting down Inc.com out of an abundance of caution while the investigation is underway.”

Without further comment to news organizations, Apple posted this tweet: “An incredibly offensive alert was sent by Fast Company, which has been hacked. Apple News has disabled their channel.” Apple is doing its best to stay out of the fray, letting Fast Company take the blame.

AT&T Missing "You"

AT&T customer communication about Hurricane Ian is missing the customer—particularly “you.” Students could rewrite these bad-news (and persuasive) messages to address customers directly. The “you attitude,” or focus on the audience, would convey more empathy, give residents more confidence in the company, and make reading easier.

AT&T’s Hurricane Ian webpage is odd. The beginning doesn’t have a defined audience, so it’s likely written for anyone who might be interested in the company’s work to restore power. Most sentences start with “we,” “our,” or “FirstNet.” Company leaders also seem proud of their vehicles: four photos in the middle of the page include a link to “download” each.

The next section, with black text on a blue background, is titled, “Supporting Our Customers.” Updates include fees waived and other customer benefits. But students can easily revise paragraphs like this one to make them more audience-focused:

As Hurricane Ian moves through additional states, we are assisting our wireless customers who may be impacted by the storm. To do this, we’re waiving talk, text and data overage charges for AT&T Postpaid & PREPAID customers with billing addresses in zip codes* across areas in Georgia and South Carolina from September 29, 2022 through October 8, 2022.

Uber's Response to Hack

What sounds like a major security breach is getting minimal response from Uber so far. A hacker, possibly 18 years old, apparently posed as a colleague to get IT access through an employee. An embarrassment to the company, the breach could include “full access to the cloud-based systems where Uber stores sensitive customer and financial data.” But Uber communications are trying to minimize the impact.

Three days after the breach, the only message I can find is a “Security Update,” copied below, on Uber’s Newsroom page. Company leaders are likely scrambling to lock down and protect information, but more communication is important. Criticism is harsh because of how easily the hacker appears to have duped an employee through social engineering and because of the unfortunate timing: Uber’s former chief security officer is currently on trial for paying hackers $100,000 to avoid disclosing a breach back in 2016.

The communication and situation are challenging, but people are watching and waiting, as we see in these tweets. This situation raises issues of several character dimensions, for example, accountability, humility, integrity, and courage. With more transparency, the company might be less vulnerable now, not more, as the leaders might fear.

---

September 16, 10:30am PT

While our investigation and response efforts are ongoing, here is a further update on yesterday’s incident:

• We have no evidence that the incident involved access to sensitive user data (like trip history).

• All of our services including Uber, Uber Eats, Uber Freight, and the Uber Driver app are operational.

• As we shared yesterday, we have notified law enforcement.

• Internal software tools that we took down as a precaution yesterday are coming back online this morning.

September 15, 6:25pm PT

We are currently responding to a cybersecurity incident. We are in touch with law enforcement and will post additional updates here as they become available.

Bed Bath & Beyond Statement About CFO Suicide

A leader’s death by suicide is particularly difficult to communicate. Bed Bath & Beyond, with an interim CEO and already suffering from declining sales, profits, and stock price (despite a temporary run-up by Reddit), faced news of the CFO’s dramatic death. Sadly, Gustavo Arnal jumped from his apartment building in Manhattan two days after an investor presentation about the company’s strategy to further cut jobs and close stores. Hired two years ago, Arnal was recently accused, with another executive, of artificially inflating the stock price before selling about $1.4 million worth of shares, which was pre-planned.

What is appropriate to say in such a situation? News articles took one sentence from the company’s statement: “The entire Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. organization is profoundly saddened by this shocking loss.” The entire statement is below and does what it needs to do: express condolences and respect to his family and recognize his career and his value to the company.

As a bad-news message, the main point is right up front. Appropriately, the writers demonstrate compassion and integrity: the statement does not mention the cause of death or the pending litigation.

UPDATE: A Wall Street Journal article describes the incredible stress that Arnal was under, working 18-hour days. Before the long weekend, he had requested a break, which was in discussion.

Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Mourns the Loss of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Gustavo Arnal

UNION, N.J., Sept. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. (NASDAQ: BBBY) today announced that Gustavo Arnal, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Company, passed away on September 2, 2022. The entire Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. organization is profoundly saddened by this shocking loss.

"I wish to extend our sincerest condolences to Gustavo's family. Gustavo will be remembered by all he worked with for his leadership, talent and stewardship of our Company. I am proud to have been his colleague, and he will be truly missed by all of us at Bed Bath & Beyond and everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him," said Harriet Edelman, Independent Chair of the Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. Board of Directors. "Our focus is on supporting his family and his team and our thoughts are with them during this sad and difficult time. Please join us in respecting the family's privacy."

Mr. Arnal joined Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. in May 2020 following a distinguished global career in finance at Avon, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Procter & Gamble. At Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., Mr. Arnal was instrumental in guiding the organization throughout the coronavirus pandemic, transforming the Company's financial foundation and building a strong and talented team. He was also an esteemed colleague in the financial community.

Image source.

Calm App Layoff Email

Even meditation apps get bad news. Although the Calm app grew quickly during the COVID lockdowns, the company is now laying off 90 of its 400 employees—more than 20%.

I can’t find the full email online, but the Wall Street Journal posted these quotes:

Regrettably, today we are reducing our overall workforce by 20%. While some of you will be impacted, all of you will be affected. I can assure you that this was not an easy decision, but it is especially difficult for a company like ours whose mission is focused on workplace mental health and wellness.

“We did not come to this decision lightly, but are confident that these changes will help us prioritize the future, focus on growth and become a more efficient organization.”

The article also describe what’s missing:

Mr. Ko’s memo didn’t elaborate on the reasons for the layoffs but promised employees “a more in-depth discussion on the future of the business” at an all-hands meeting scheduled for Friday. A Calm spokeswoman declined to make Mr. Ko available for an interview.

Typically, layoff memos explain reasons, which we know helps employees understand and accept bad news, as I describe in Chapter 8 of Business Communication and Character. More transparency and accountability might be useful.

Maybe Ko doesn’t want the reasons publicized, knowing that the email would be circulated. I also wonder whether the reasons are dire, and despite having a $2billion valuation, the company doesn’t yet have a solid plan for regrowth.

CEOs’ Direct Talk

A Wall Street Journal article this week, “CEOs Ditch the Warm Talk as Economy Shows Signs That ‘Winter’s Coming,’” provides several examples of leaders’ direct communication. When we analyze bad-news messages in business communication, we consider the organizational strategy and, more important. tone and content choices. The current wave is for CEOs to warn employees about layoffs and prepare them for tough times ahead.

Some CEOs use this direct strategy to manipulate employees to return to offices, but others are demonstrating integrity. A CEO who asks employees to “do more with less” is being transparent. Employees may be motivated by this type of talk—either to work harder and cut costs or to leave the company. If employees leave, the CEO might be OK with that, hoping to reduce headcount or hire new workers who are more productive and have different skills.

Although the article title refers to declining “warm talk,” I would argue that the talk is compassionate—honestly preparing employees so they can make decisions about how and whether they want to continue working for the company.

Images source.

Robinhood Layoff Message

Robinhood attracted retail investors during the pandemic but is facing losses as users leave the platform. In Business Communication and Character, I criticized Robinhood’s aggressive marketing tactics to lure inexperienced investors. Now, the company is doing its second round of layoffs: 9% of staff in April and another 23% in August. Lucky for us, the message to staff is posted on the Robinhood blog—a smart move because notes like are typically leaked, anyway.

Overall, CEO Vlad Tenev’s message meets criteria for bad-news communications. The main point is upfront, as I suggest for layoff messages because employees should know the news already. According to this message, they do: Tenev refers to All-Hands meetings before and after the written message. We get the sense that internal communication has been ongoing and that decisions have been transparent.

The message tells employees what’s next and that they will hear the news quickly: “Everyone will receive an email and a Slack message with your status—with resources and support if you are leaving. We’re sending everyone a message immediately after this meeting so you don’t have to wait for clarity.” The better approach would be individual, in-person (or Zoom) meetings, but this isn’t always practical.

Tenev described part of the reasons for the reductions but omitted a recent $30 million fine and increased regulatory pressure. Yet he demonstrated accountability and humility by admitting bad decisions. He wrote, “As CEO, I approved and took responsibility for our ambitious staffing trajectory—this is on me.” In addition, on a press call, Tenev admitted, “The reality is that we over-hired, in particular in some of our support functions.”

Tenev also demonstrated compassion. He sounds human, saying goodbye to people who will leave and encouraging people who will stay, without being too positive, which could be off-putting.

In sum, this isn’t the best layoff message example we have, but it’s certainly not the worst. I would share this with students as a positive example.