New York: The CEO of a leading US furniture maker apologised to her employees for a rude remark of hers that she claimed was meant to motivate them.
Andi Owen, the CEO of MillerKnoll, asked her employees not to live in ‘pity city’ when they demanded her of pending bonus.
Urging them to stay motivated, she asked workers on a video conference to ‘focus on the things you can control’ like providing excellent customer service, according to Fortune Magazine.
A footage of Owen’s insensitive comments appeared on social media causing outrage.
In what began as a calm motivation, the CEO turned out to be rude asking them to meet a sale target of $26 million, instead of demanding bonus.
"Don't ask about 'what are we going to do if we don't get a bonus?' Get the damn $26 million," she was quoted as saying.
She urged them to spend their time thinking about the $26 million her company needs, not pondering over ‘what we're going to do if we don't get a bonus’.
Employees however questioned her how she expected them to stay motivated when they didn’t get a bonus.
To which she infamously replied that once an old boss of hers told her that she could visit ‘Pity City’ but never live there.
After the footage of her speech went viral on social media inviting criticism, Andi Owen sent emails to her workers apologising for her comments, VICE reported.
‘What I'd hoped would energize the team to meet a challenge we've met many times before, landed in a way that I did not intend and for that I am sorry,’ her email reportedly read.
Even as the fiscal year closes in May, her company has not yet decided to pay incentive payments to employees, the report said.
However, Owen received $5 million in 2022 which includes a $1.1 million in salary and the remaining in stock options and bonus payments.