The way companies treat their employees says a lot about the company’s leadership, standards and even its overarching goals. Sometimes disputes between employees and management go public, exposing the underlying relationship – or lack thereof. Trends in the field of employee relations have changed over time and they may change even more in the near future. Certainly, the issues of paid leave and wage equality have gotten a lot of attention in the current election season. With the uncertainties that have befallen the private sector as of late, even some of the most cutting edge companies are being forced to change their tactics.
Many professionals in the tech field are saying the startup “hangover” has begun. More startups today are valued below their IPO price. Whether the hangover will last is yet to be determined, but one thing is for certain: many startups that were known for an eclectic, fun work environment are beginning to cut back on these activities. Companies like job-recruiting site Glassdoor are axing workplace culture initiatives that many employees previously took for granted.
An incident this week between a Yelp employee who worked for the company’s Eat24 food delivery outfit and CEO Jeremy Stoppelman may serve as a precedent for how far employees can go in advocating for fair treatment. The employee directed a handful of tweets at Stoppelman and posted an open letter to him on the blogging platform Medium. She was fired hours later. The complaints highlighted her constant struggle to feed herself thanks to the high cost of living in San Francisco. Stoppelman did not make the specific reason for her firing immediately clear, though he did say it was not because of the Medium letter directed at him.
Did you know the phrase “black lives matter” traces its origin to a conversation on Facebook during the Trayvon Martin case? This could explain why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has chastised employees recently for crossing out the phrase on signature walls at the company’s headquarters. But Zuckerberg’s displeasure may go beyond any claims on ownership rights to the original phrase, or an agenda for racial justice. Facebook is currently trying to turn into a more diverse workplace. The company released a report earlier this month with explicit goals to hire more women and minorities.
What do you think about how the companies above are handling these challenges? What could they be doing differently? Leave us a comment below!
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Sam Bojarski is an associate at WordWrite Communications. He can be reached at sam.bojarski@wordwritepr.com.
