The CEO of a Florida company reportedly asked his employees to keep working Hurricane Ian was coming — and even encouraged them by promising their kids and pets that it would be “super fun for the kids!”
Joy Gendusa, CEO of Postcardmania at Clearwater, made shocking remarks on Monday, as she insisted to the media that downplaying hurricane hazards was exacerbating the severity of the monster storm, Vice news reported,
“If you want to leave your house and you’re being asked to leave your house, and you feel like you must go and you have no place to go, PCM [Postcardmania] Probably the safest place to be in Florida,” Gendusa told activists on Zoom, the outlet reported, citing a copy of the minutes from the meeting.
“Anyway, bring your pets, bring your kids, bring everyone to PCM,” she said, referring to the Postcard Marketing organization.
“Obviously it’s extremely important for you to feel safe and comfortable, but I honestly want to continue to deliver and I wish you a good end to the quarter,” the CEO continued.
“and when [the hurricane] Nothing goes, I don’t want it to be like, ‘Great, we all stopped producing because of the media and it was probably going to be terrible,'” she added of Ian, who is locked in the sun. State as a Category 4 hurricane.
A text was also sent to employees asking them to come to the office so that the company could continue to offer services to out-of-state customers.
“PCM was built to withstand CAT”[egory] 5 winds. We would like to continue to serve our national customers if we can. Bring your kids to work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays this week,” the text read.
“There’s always more hype in the media than any storm that’s ever been here… if you think bring your pet [sic] need. I doubt you’ll really need it in the end. We are not closing, we are working. We’ll make it so much fun for the kids!” Gendusa added in earlier messages Reported by Jonah Furman of labor notes.
The company, which has a more than 69,000-square-foot headquarters in Clearwater, later declared a state of emergency as the storm was approaching, Vice News reported.
The outlet said PCM’s vice president of human resources also sent out an email saying that the headquarters reiterated its ability to withstand the storm’s wrath.
“You will be allowed to bring your kids to work in those two days. We will have movies and other fun stuff in the common area to entertain them,” HR Hon’ble had reportedly written.
But after a journalist tweeted the messages, the same VP emailed employees on Tuesday: “We wanted to make sure you know that the Postcardmania offices will be closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays this week,” calling the PCM “hopefully” adding up[s] To reopen our offices on Friday. ,
An employee told the outlet that the company reversed course amid backlash on social media.
The employee told VICE on condition of anonymity, “I was under the impression that we are expected to work, and if you have to work from home or work in an evacuation area, on your laptop.” log in.” “The messaging was ‘production won’t slow down,’ continuously until that post went viral.”
Another employee described the company’s culture as a “mask”.
“They want to give their company a fun atmosphere, but at the end of the day the work/life balance just doesn’t exist,” the employee told the site on condition of anonymity.
The PCM said it was “not right” that Gendusa asked employees to work through the storm.
“Our office is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays,” the company’s PR team told the outlet, “we have some employees volunteering remote working that are safely located in non-evacuation areas. Employees, friends, kids And our building is open as a shelter during hurricanes for pets. We did that during Irma as well.”
VICE said the company did not respond to questions about Gendusa’s reported internal communications.
On Wednesday, the CEO apologized for the earlier missives, according to an email the company shared with Vice News.
“I know this has been a stressful time, and I want to apologize to anyone who received our text message on Monday and felt it was insensitive,” Gendusa wrote.
“That text didn’t accurately reflect how seriously we were taking this storm and everyone’s safety, and I’m sorry it was sent without better judgement,” she continued.
“We never intended to make people feel like they had to come to work when they needed to evacuate or take other storm-related precautions,” Gendusa said.