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By Anviksha Patel
The chief executive of a Utah-based digital marketing and technology company praised a worker who gave up his dog and offered workers bonuses to quit if they didn’t like his return-to-office policy.
In a virtual all-hands meeting at Utah-based Clearlink last week, CEO James Clarke said he was asking staff to give their “blood, sweat, and tears” to the company after a recent round of layoffs and a pivot to mostly in-person office work, first reported by Vice on Wednesday. MarketWatch also viewed a recording of the meeting.
Bringing up past town halls where has been criticized, he told his staff: “You have misinterpreted my kindness for weakness.”
Clarke later offered salaried staff $5,000 as a bonus to quit if they weren’t happy with the back-to-office policy.
“If the prospect of returning to an office or the structure of what’s offered for the minority of you that it affects negatively, again if it is too much to bear we understand that,” Clarke said on the town hall. “I cannot change your level of happiness and I’m sure you find great happiness and opportunities elsewhere and be $5,000 better in the process.”
Read: Employees asked about their canceled bonuses. So the CEO warned them against living in ‘Pity City.’
He acknowledged efforts from one employee who had sold their family dog upon hearing the back to office plans, adding that it “breaks my heart as someone who’s been at the head of the humanization of pets movement in other businesses that we’ve built.”
Clarke has a separate business, Clarke Capital Partners, that includes a pet-insurance and petcare company in its portfolio.
Clarke appeared to offer an explanation for the new policy, by suggesting that some remotely-working employees had all but left the company.
“Some have already quietly quit their positions but are taking a paycheck and one month this year alone, I got data that about 30 of you didn’t even open or crack open laptops and those are all remote employees including their manager.”
Also: Forget ‘quiet quitting.’ Some workers are all about ‘bare-minimum Monday.’
Clarke also called out developers he alluded were working multiple jobs and content writers who he said were using artificial intelligence to complete their work. “I can do that in about 30 minutes of an eight-hour work day,” he said.
He also indicated that parents trying to juggle working at home and care for children may not be optimal for the company. “Many of you have tried to tend your own children and doing so and also manage your demanding work schedules,” he said.
But he then added that this path was “neither fair to your employer nor fair to those children.”
“Now, I don’t necessarily believe that, but I do believe that only the rarest of full-time caregivers can also be productive and full-time employees at the same time,” he added.
A Clearlink spokesman said in a statement that the four day office week for Utah-based employees was implemented to “achieve our collective goals.”
“We look forward to having these team members join us at our new world-class Global Headquarters in Draper, Utah and appreciate the efforts of all of our committed team members–which includes those who work in office and those who will continue to work remotely–as we accomplish our best work together,” he added.
More: Workers are disengaged — but don’t blame remote work. The real cause lies elsewhere
-Anviksha Patel
This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-22-23 1254ET
Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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