5 ms·

Wayfair CEO tells employees to 'work longer hours' in year-end email

82 points by embit 3y ago

6R1M0R4CL3 3y ago
so he's asking for people to do more hours, for the same money. this is a wage reduction. how dare those slaves ask for money for work. they should just be thrown enough food to reproduce and their offsprint to survive, so as soon they die, their kids can start working in their place. the 19th. things have never been better for rat race slaves heh.
- xkqd 3y ago
  I’m not sure if it’s a lack of shame from the CEO, or a lack of healthy fear. I can tell you that if I ran my mouth the same way he did, I would be worried about someone throwing a fist.
- nh23423fefe 3y ago
  [flagged]
kylecazar 3y ago
'...blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from' Maybe not if you're at the executive level, where what counts as work is much different than the rest of a company. But it's generally hard to fuse say, time spent fixing bugs at a desk alone, with the rest of life.
- winrid 3y ago
  That just makes people perform worse, too. Because then your vacation and fun time sucks. So then you don't get a proper break and suck at work.
- ravenstine 3y ago
  HAHAHA If there was ever a red flag... I'd be running from that company like in a Hana Barbera cartoon.
nielsbot 3y ago
"sure, pay us more"
pylua 3y ago
That’s a really high net loss. He’s going to need to do more than ask people to work more.
nine_zeros 3y ago
I dunno man. Pay them millions in options per quarter like you.
ryandrake 3y ago
I went to look up the CEO's compensation package in order to post a low-effort snarky HN comment but instead found[1][2] very weird compensation data for Wayfair execs. The co-founders (including the CEO) make comparatively modest money, while the generic CxO suits make huge gobs of it (mostly equity). Is this usual? I'd still trade places with the CEO any day, though, of course. 1: https://www1.salary.com/WAYFAIR-INC-Executive-Salaries.html https://www1.salary.com/WAYFAIR-INC-Executive-Salaries.html 2: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1616707/000104746915003380/a2224135zdef14a.htm#dm46301_executive_compensation_discussion_and_analysis https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1616707/000104746915...
- tony_landis 3y ago
  Looks like most of it comes from being awarded stock. Founders don’t get more stock generally.
- rahimnathwani 3y ago
  After the IPO, the founders owned ~30% of the company. If you own that much equity: - you don't need a salary, and - it's already in your best interest to make the company more valuable People who are hired from outside need to be paid a base salary, but should expect to make most of their money from increasing the value of the company, hence the need for equity grants or equity option grants.
- KennyBlanken 3y ago
  Huge piles of equity and relatively low salary is pretty common for c-suites. Something something rewarding them for their leadership
- fatnoah 3y ago
  Correct. In the past, they've pulled the "but I only take $75k out of the company" and "I pay for when I use the company jet for personal business" when discussing compensation in the past. While true, it ignores the >$1B in stock. If I had more courage, I would have asked if the jet was available to anyone willing to pay for it.
erulabs 3y ago
> "As a result, we're reducing team sizes across the organization, as well as reducing seniority in certain roles that we plan to rebuild with modified leveling over the course of this year," > "There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success. Hard work is an essential ingredient in any recipe for success. I embrace this, and the most successful people I know do as well." I can't imagine a single worse strategy as a leader than to choose 'reduce pay' and 'imply laziness'. Did this guy get his management degree from the Roman empire? Just fire people and say you over-hired, holy cow. I'm not part of the "talented executives shouldn't get paid a lot" crowd, but the important part is the talented bit.
- DylanSp 3y ago
  Hey, that's unfair. There were some competent Roman emperors.
  - syspec 3y ago
    It’s not unfair, it’s wayfair
    - tapatio 3y ago
      LOLOLOL
- Tommah 3y ago
  > There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success. A lot of inventions come about because of laziness. Some guy somewhere got tired of carrying his things around, so he invented the wheel. Of course, I don't know whether the inventor of the wheel was properly rewarded.
  - StreetChief 3y ago
    "Necessity is the mother of invention!"
  - cyanydeez 3y ago
jihadjihad 3y ago
The beatings will continue until shareholder value improves
tylerrobinson 3y ago
This type of remark is embarrassing. If it’s meant to inspire employees it’s tone deaf, and if it’s meant to soothe shareholders it’s too little too late. Wayfair was only profitable during the pandemic. Rank-and-file employees working more hours won’t fix the business model.
silisili 3y ago
Was recently furniture shopping, and of course browsed multiple places including Wayfair. Wasn't long before I saw an identical sofa to one I just saw elsewhere. Hey wait a minute! A reverse Google image search on most sofas showed up in multiple places with multiple brand names. And Wayfair was rarely the cheapest. I have no idea if they offer anything useful, but in my short stint it seemed to be a marketplace for marked up white labeled...junk.
anonymouswacker 3y ago
I was head-hunted a while back from Wayfair, and I felt that it was too good to be true: 1. high pay for remote work, 2. small teams, and 3. working on interesting tech (I think it was an AI furniture preview, like Amazon has). I ultimately decided against Wayfair because I had the feeling that helping a company sell predominately low-quality Chinese furniture to unassuming Americans would further enlarge the void in my soul, and I would be working far too much. Perhaps for a year or two, it would have been a dream come true, if I didn't want to have a life outside of work...
JeffSnazz 3y ago
> In the memo, Shah said employees should be prepared to work longer hours and not be afraid to let work impinge on their personal lives. I wonder what executives should prepare for. Presumably continuing to contribute nothing of discernible value. Probably what comes when you treat humans like fungible work units to their face without even the pretense of viewing them as human.
animitronix 3y ago
Anyone still working there needs to start looking for new jobs ASAP. Once you start hearing talk of "free cash flow" find the exits, trust me.
mazingo 3y ago
[dead]

82 points by embit 3y ago

so he's asking for people to do more hours, for the same money. this is a wage reduction. how dare those slaves ask for money for work. they should just be thrown enough food to reproduce and their offsprint to survive, so as soon they die, their kids can start working in their place. the 19th. things have never been better for rat race slaves heh.

xkqd 3y ago
I’m not sure if it’s a lack of shame from the CEO, or a lack of healthy fear. I can tell you that if I ran my mouth the same way he did, I would be worried about someone throwing a fist.
nh23423fefe 3y ago
[flagged]

kylecazar 3y ago

'...blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from' Maybe not if you're at the executive level, where what counts as work is much different than the rest of a company. But it's generally hard to fuse say, time spent fixing bugs at a desk alone, with the rest of life.

winrid 3y ago
That just makes people perform worse, too. Because then your vacation and fun time sucks. So then you don't get a proper break and suck at work.
ravenstine 3y ago
HAHAHA If there was ever a red flag... I'd be running from that company like in a Hana Barbera cartoon.

nielsbot 3y ago

"sure, pay us more"

pylua 3y ago

That’s a really high net loss. He’s going to need to do more than ask people to work more.

nine_zeros 3y ago

I dunno man. Pay them millions in options per quarter like you.

ryandrake 3y ago

I went to look up the CEO's compensation package in order to post a low-effort snarky HN comment but instead found[1][2] very weird compensation data for Wayfair execs. The co-founders (including the CEO) make comparatively modest money, while the generic CxO suits make huge gobs of it (mostly equity). Is this usual? I'd still trade places with the CEO any day, though, of course. 1: https://www1.salary.com/WAYFAIR-INC-Executive-Salaries.html https://www1.salary.com/WAYFAIR-INC-Executive-Salaries.html 2: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1616707/000104746915003380/a2224135zdef14a.htm#dm46301_executive_compensation_discussion_and_analysis https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1616707/000104746915...

tony_landis 3y ago
Looks like most of it comes from being awarded stock. Founders don’t get more stock generally.
rahimnathwani 3y ago
After the IPO, the founders owned ~30% of the company. If you own that much equity: - you don't need a salary, and - it's already in your best interest to make the company more valuable People who are hired from outside need to be paid a base salary, but should expect to make most of their money from increasing the value of the company, hence the need for equity grants or equity option grants.
KennyBlanken 3y ago
Huge piles of equity and relatively low salary is pretty common for c-suites. Something something rewarding them for their leadership
fatnoah 3y ago
Correct. In the past, they've pulled the "but I only take $75k out of the company" and "I pay for when I use the company jet for personal business" when discussing compensation in the past. While true, it ignores the >$1B in stock. If I had more courage, I would have asked if the jet was available to anyone willing to pay for it.

erulabs 3y ago

> "As a result, we're reducing team sizes across the organization, as well as reducing seniority in certain roles that we plan to rebuild with modified leveling over the course of this year," > "There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success. Hard work is an essential ingredient in any recipe for success. I embrace this, and the most successful people I know do as well." I can't imagine a single worse strategy as a leader than to choose 'reduce pay' and 'imply laziness'. Did this guy get his management degree from the Roman empire? Just fire people and say you over-hired, holy cow. I'm not part of the "talented executives shouldn't get paid a lot" crowd, but the important part is the talented bit.

DylanSp 3y ago
Hey, that's unfair. There were some competent Roman emperors.
- syspec 3y ago
  It’s not unfair, it’s wayfair
  - tapatio 3y ago
    LOLOLOL
Tommah 3y ago
> There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success. A lot of inventions come about because of laziness. Some guy somewhere got tired of carrying his things around, so he invented the wheel. Of course, I don't know whether the inventor of the wheel was properly rewarded.
- StreetChief 3y ago
  "Necessity is the mother of invention!"
- cyanydeez 3y ago

jihadjihad 3y ago

The beatings will continue until shareholder value improves

tylerrobinson 3y ago

This type of remark is embarrassing. If it’s meant to inspire employees it’s tone deaf, and if it’s meant to soothe shareholders it’s too little too late. Wayfair was only profitable during the pandemic. Rank-and-file employees working more hours won’t fix the business model.

silisili 3y ago

Was recently furniture shopping, and of course browsed multiple places including Wayfair. Wasn't long before I saw an identical sofa to one I just saw elsewhere. Hey wait a minute! A reverse Google image search on most sofas showed up in multiple places with multiple brand names. And Wayfair was rarely the cheapest. I have no idea if they offer anything useful, but in my short stint it seemed to be a marketplace for marked up white labeled...junk.

anonymouswacker 3y ago

I was head-hunted a while back from Wayfair, and I felt that it was too good to be true: 1. high pay for remote work, 2. small teams, and 3. working on interesting tech (I think it was an AI furniture preview, like Amazon has). I ultimately decided against Wayfair because I had the feeling that helping a company sell predominately low-quality Chinese furniture to unassuming Americans would further enlarge the void in my soul, and I would be working far too much. Perhaps for a year or two, it would have been a dream come true, if I didn't want to have a life outside of work...

JeffSnazz 3y ago

> In the memo, Shah said employees should be prepared to work longer hours and not be afraid to let work impinge on their personal lives. I wonder what executives should prepare for. Presumably continuing to contribute nothing of discernible value. Probably what comes when you treat humans like fungible work units to their face without even the pretense of viewing them as human.

animitronix 3y ago

Anyone still working there needs to start looking for new jobs ASAP. Once you start hearing talk of "free cash flow" find the exits, trust me.

mazingo 3y ago

[dead]