CEO says many of his remote workers didn't open their laptops for a month

[Hestia]

CEO says many of his remote workers didn't open their laptops for a month, and 'only the rarest of full-time caregivers' can be productive employees

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ceo-says-many-of-his-remote-workers-didn-t-open-their-laptops-for-a-month-and-only-the-rarest-of-full-time-caregivers-can-be-productive-employees/ar-AA1a711c

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"In one month, this year alone, I got data that about 30 of you didn't even open or crack open laptops," he said in the video. "And those were all remote employees, including their manager — for a whole month."

At one point, he also appeared to question whether employees with caregiving responsibilities could be as committed to their jobs, addressing arguments about the subject.

"Many of you have tried to tend your own children, and, doing so, also manage your demanding work schedules and responsibilities," he said in the video.

"And while I know you're doing your best — some would say they've even mastered this art — but one could also argue that generally, this path is neither fair to your employer, nor fair to those children," he added.

"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 said.

A company representative declined to comment on Clarke's comments, saying it was a matter of "internal Clearlink business," but offered a general statement.

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CEO Celebrates Worker Who Sold Family Dog After He Demanded They Return to Office
“You have misinterpreted my kindness for weakness," said Clearlink CEO James Clarke in a bizarre video call in which he expressed skepticism of his own employees' motives and capacity to juggle work and parenthood.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxj574/ceo-celebrates-worker-who-sold-family-dog-after-he-demanded-they-return-to-office

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[Ray Bruns]

1. Add this to the list of things that never happened

[musette_sf]

7. Agreed

[Hortensis]

13. Yup. No doubt some do poorly without

supervision, but many others do just fine. I worked at home as an employee, subcontractor and self-employed, and knew a bunch of others who did too.

A bigger sift from those who do well remotely is those who just for various reasons need frequent instruction and interactive attention of various types.

[jimfields33]

2. Not opening your laptop for a month is negligence and theft of pay

Question is why was this allowed to go for so long? Time for some firing.

[emulatorloo]

6. That's why I don't believe a single word he says.

If it were true, no true business person would allow it to happen for a month.

Seems like yet another bullshit artist.

[woodsprite]

8. I can't imagine that being ignored for a month.

Hubby and I are in IT and have been working at home since Mar 13 2020. We're engaged and active with our coworkers and bosses at any time during the day (from 8-5pm).

We're expected to run MS Teams and Zoom all day when working, be available for impromptu meetings where we have our cameras on, and be logged in through VPN to access our workspace. If we don't have interactions with our keyboard or mouse after a certain length of time (8 min by my experiments), we go on idle status which is visible to system admins. That 8 min window should be enough time to grab a cup of coffee, run to the bathroom, etc. If someone is taking their dog out, taking an exercise break, or taking a late lunch - any time that falls outside of the swing lunch break of 12 and 2:00 - we message the team to let them know.

It seems to be working for our group. Our old offices have turned into "hotelling" space so if we want to go back into the office, we have to book a time. That may change with a new director coming on board, but chances are we'll stay with some hybrid model.

[jimfields33]

17. I'm glad your group is so successful.

I’m thinking this group in the article is very rare.

[ZonkerHarris]

16. Hilarious how you automatically believe him. Just Hilarious.

[jimfields33]

18. He looked at the activity log. Hard to lie about what's in front of you.

[ruet]

20. He Claims To Have looked At The "Activity Logs".

Also, what software is doing this "activity logging"? Is it accurate? Is it fit for purpose? Has it been audited and can we see those results? The days of taking laissez-faire capitalists at their word are just about over.

r/antiwork

[jimfields33]

21. I guess. At least show the 30 involved.

[ZonkerHarris]

24. just more CEO urban legends like how people don't wanna work anymore

which he basically said, along with how people are quite quitting on him and they can't be good workers if they're also caregivers
it's like a greatest hits of CEO grievances.
you know why I don't believe him?
It's because he's addressing all his employees
And if he actually had proof of that there would be 30 EX employees
why would the CEO tolerate that?
Why?
Because it didn't happen
Not the first CEO to lie to his employees in order to "keep them in line"

[Ace Rothstein]

23. It likely didn't happen and definitely not on the claimed scale of 30 people.

[Ray Bruns]

3. but I do believe that only the rarest of full-time caregivers can also be productive and full-time

Employees”

What a psychopath.

[Quixote1818]

4. Sounds hard to believe. So he's lumping 30 people together and sending this out to

the entire company but just saying "30 of you". If it were legitimate they would have just contacted the 30 of them directly. Sounds like they are just trying to make it sound like remote workers are lazy but not hitting anyone directly just to bloviate.

[uponit7771]

11. Yep, and who knows if these people weren't out sick etc... It was a human killing pandemic

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. OK but...did the work get done tho

[uponit7771]

9. "many" means more than 2 in this context. When I see that word my BS meter pegs

[Demsrule86]

10. That is bullshit...My daughter's company tried to go back for a five day in office week...

so they rescinded it almost immediately

[ZonkerHarris]

12. CEO Fan Fiction

[Indykatie]

14. This CEO is a Lying Bastard

Any remote worker knows their log on time is being recorded. Who would go an entire week let alone a month without bothering to log on?

[carpetbagger]

15. Give a CEO some BS data and he'll rage for a week...

30 out of 10,000 or whatever. I bet when you take out the mismatched inventory, employees who left the company and took a month to turn in the laptop or didn't get removed from a database right away, sick/maternity leave, you're down to 5. And three of them have weird jobs that aren't like the others.

But he seems to have a fixed opinion about working, so never mind. And eat the rich.

[DBoon]

19. I used to do IT audits

One of my favorite things was getting a list of currently active users from IT and comparing it to a list of terminated employees from HR.

If this guy only has 30 terminated employees that still have network access, he is actually not doing too bad.

Of course, blaming terminated employees for not working is its own brand of stupid.

[LuckyCharms]

22. CEO is full of shit.

30 people not opening their laptops for a month means 30 people are not getting any work done for a month.

If 30 people are not getting any work done for a month, and he has to look at "activity logs" to figure that out, then his company has problems that have nothing to do with the work-at-home employees.

CEO is either lying, embellishing, or he's stupid.

[Chainfire]

25. My thoughts exactly.

Even if it were true, it would be management's fault for letting it go for a month. The big problem with employees working from home is that it is harder to lord over them. It takes all of the fun out of management.

[LuckyCharms]

26. +1