Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah tells employees to ‘work longer hours’ in year-end email::Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah sent a year-end note to employees, suggesting they work longer hours and do better at mixing work with their personal lives.
I’m going to be honest. I’ve met quite a few ex Wayfair employes. Working longer isn’t going to solve their problems.
- Wayfare throws so much fucking inventory into the trash, just ask anyone who’s ordered from them. Seriously, everyone who has ordered from Wayfare has a “they fucked up and then sent me 3 couches for free” story.
- The decision making at Wayfare is stupid. I’ve met quite a few ex wayfare or current workers looking to leave, some stuff sounds cool but it’s never really helping the business get better.
Wayfare’s reputation at this point is “shittier than IKEA, and you’ll get the wrong thing”
Last two times I’ve ordered from them, I’ve wound up with extra stuff. I ordered a set of 8 patio cushions and received 12. Ordered a patio set and coffee table and received a whole extra coffee table.
Quality, as you said, isn’t great. IKEA can be a pain to get to (for me), but you know their stuff is designed well.
When my order is correct but there’s extra – I assume the person packing it knew exactly what they were doing, just didn’t get a raise or bonus this year.
I often wonder how much loss companies suffer due to disgruntled employees doing stuff like that.
It’s a lot. General “disappearance” of goods from any source is referred to as “shrinkage” or just shrink. It’s fairly easy to look up once you know the name.
Off the top of my head, shrinkage typically ranges from 3-10% of inventory. Feel free to find sources and correct me.
Yes, but I’d be willing to bet that most shrinkage isn’t due to disgruntled employees; it also covers non-employee theft, accidental spoilage, non-malicious misplacement, etc. It also varies wildly by industry.
I think there’s some ability to distinguish as anything intentionally discarded due to spillage or damage should be accounted for directly, as opposed to only showing up at inventory
Obviously it is impossible to separate out honest mistakes, intentional theft, and disgruntled employee semi-intentional shrink. If you ask the company, 500% of shrink is theft by organized crime rings and the general public should definitely be spending taxpayer dollars on police enforcement and jail time for pretty thieves. So I would assume most of it is actually accidental check out mistakes and employees “accidentally” checking things out wrong.
As a software engineer myself, I am pretty confident that this is not going to have the effect that Shah thinks it will
Work harder work faster!
Work deez nutz
Yea nah
Hold on: this might look bad, but consider the importance of the mission.
This is Wayfair we’re talking about! People jump at the chance to change the world by going to work for Wayfair!
I know that if I worked there, I’d wake up every day knowing that people are counting on me. Counting on me to buy brik-a-brak that they may not remember ordering when it arrives. Counting on me to buy a kids desk that they find is actually smaller than they realized, and then throw out. Counting on me to buy a wedding gift that will get sold for $10 on Craigslist unopened.
That’s the kind of purpose that everyone goes to Wayfair with, right? In a world of runaway climate change and empires in decline, who wouldn’t work longer hours for THE Wayfair?? /S
Even if you take the cuntish language away, if I were a shareholder I would be spooked by a leak like this.
Anyone, even VC’s and middle-management types that share memes on LinkedIn can tell you that “working smarter” is better than putting in long hours. The latter is a desperation move, usually kept for when goals aren’t being met, or when you want to mask the problem of poor planning, over-promising, or under-delivering.
If the CEO is coming out with rhetoric like this, it shows that things aren’t going well, and that any plans to correct course are probably misguided. It also likely points to future dissent in the ranks, as any good VP or SVP that isn’t in their position through ass-kissing would likely laugh this off and do their job properly, against the CEO’s direct call - the kind of person the shareholders would actively want in the main leadership role.
Sadly, COVID and a weakened economy have pointed out just how poorly many top companies are run. Whether it’s continuous layoffs, misguided RTO demands, calls to “do more work” from employees, or belittling your own IC’s, it’s probably a sign that the “old ways” of management are showing their flaws in a modern economy, and that new ideas will likely be what rules the market for the next 10+ years.
Sadly, COVID and a weakened economy have pointed out just how poorly many top companies are run.
I’m going to take a shot in the dark here and clarify the sad part is that our top companies are poorly run (often showing us that the capitalism doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to as per ideology). And it’s sad that it took a tragedy like the COVID-19 epidemic to put it in sharp bas relief.
It’s not sad that high-level mismanagement of companies became visible, except maybe to those managers are going to see consequences for failures they couldn’t have prevented.
100%. It’s not a good sign even if judged from a totally heartless position, but like you said, CEOs like this are backed by investors who think similarly.
It’s such a myth that these attitudes are “just business”. It’s become so obvious that many investors and executives will go to war against the people who generate wealth for them out of habit and ideology even when every business school lesson tells them that they’re gonna kill a golden goose. Oh well.
Uh oh, Shah. This is a textbook 3 ghosts scenario.
I would consider working longer hours if I had a shit load of equity. Consider it. No promises. Otherwise, nah. There’s only ever going to be one 12/22/2023 5:00pm, and I’d rather spend that hanging out with family than making money for someone else.
Sounds a wee bit out of touch with reality. Sure, HE can spend as many hours as he wishes because it basically becomes almost a hobby to ‘work’ at whatever insane amount he gets paid. There’s really no incentive at the lower levels of any company unless there’s true equity and a return on someone’s sweat and diligence.
We ordered a bookcase and it was trashed, because the seller didn’t package it properly. Never bought from them again. Another company that raced to the bottom.
Employees: lol no (opens new tab, starts looking for a new job)
The more my employer asks me to do more then my contract says, the more I will stick exactly to what my contract says and eventually just leave.
Part of my employers year end message was that they’re giving us even more time off starting next year so we can disconnect more! Sure glad I got a good one compared to this tool. (we all get 5 weeks now)
Reminder that Wayfair supplied beds to ICE and harassed and fired employees who protested.
How about freaking nooo.
Nirajisms
Ew.
Big Michael Scott vibes
This guy comes off like a jerk. Terrible sounding person.