Inside: No Jerks @ Newell, PwC in Lockdown, Emoji No-Nos
Insider Comms for internal comms
š Greetings to our newest subscribers from the Netherlands, Tanzania, and Texas!
šĀ Insider Comms: scroll down to the key emoji to access:
A memo sent by an Apple engineer about a controversial update to their product.
A CEOās cringe-worthy memo to employees who were fired b/c of big data analysis of their activity. Key quote: āā¦we will help you find a good place, where you will earn more and work even less.ā
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1. No Jerks Allowed at Newell Brands
Soon after Ravi Saligram took charge of the company that makes Sharpie markers andĀ GracoĀ strollers, he offered his new workforce a blunt message: āno assholes,ā read a slide shown to about 30,000 employees around the world.
āDonāt treat employees like babies,ā he recalled saying at an early town-hall meeting. āI just said, āLook people, we have a problem, letās just talk about it. If youāve got issues about the company just write to me directly.ā ā
š” And they did. Mr. Saligram gets a regular influx of employee emails, which he aims to answer personally.
Keep reading in The Wall Street Journal.
2. How PwC Employees in Australia Created an Internal Meme During Lockdown
File this under: Engagement Ideas During Lockdowns
The #youknowyoureinlockdownwhen meme/hashtag quickly went viral at PwC Australia when Sydney went into lockdown last month (source).
About 50 photos were submitted every day over the course of two weeks.
Employees submitted photos to an (unnamed) internal comms channel.
Each day one winner was selected and received a little care package.
This week paid subscribers received:
Access to a leaked internal email from a senior leader at Apple.
Itās an example of how a senior leader responds internally to a controversial consumer-facing project.
To receive this kind of insider comms, upgrade your subscription.
3. Industry News
3 Tips to Rethink Your Internal Comms Tech Stack (Ragan)
Sending Smiley Emojis? They Mean Different Things to Different People. (WSJ)
Should Your Boss Be Able to Stop You From Talking Politics at Work? (NYT)
Why Employees Prefer to Be Tracked by Machines Rather Than Humans (WSJ)
Managers Cite Mental Health Issues as the Number One Impact of the Past Year (HR Dive)
4. š Insider Comms
Apple announced a feature that scans for child sexual abuse material. Many consumers and privacy advocates deem the move controversial because it violates Appleās vocal stance on individual privacy.
š Insider Comms: Hereās how a senior leader responded internally to the controversial consumer-facing project. Read the memo.
š The CEO of Xsolla, a Russian payment app, fired 150 employees after using AI to track their activity. Hereās the translation of his cringe-worthy email:
You received this email because my big data team analyzed your activities in Jira, Confluence, Gmail, chats, documents, dashboards and tagged you as unengaged and unproductive employees. In other words, you were not always present at the workplace when you worked remotely.
Many of you might be shocked, but I truly believe that Xsolla is not for you. Nadia and her care team partnered with seven leading HR agencies, as we will help you find a good place, where you will earn more and work even less. Sasha will help you get a recommendation, including the one from myself. And Natalia will read you your rights.
Once again, thank you for your contribution. If you want to stay in contact with me, please write me a long letter about all your observations, injustice, and gratitude.
5. Slack Is the Right Tool for the Wrong Way to Work
Cal Newport argues in The New Yorker that the future of office work wonāt be found in continuing to reduce the friction involved in messaging but, instead, in figuring out how to avoid the need to send so many messages in the first place.
Newportās not the biggest fan of email either.
āļø Youāre all caught up!
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Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I work in employee comms at Splunk. The views in this newsletter are my own.