An Australian CEO was roundly criticized recently by, well, everyone for speaking the quiet parts out loud. Tim Gurner, the wealthy head of a real estate company, said that Australia’s 3.7 percent unemployment rate should rise by 40 to 50 percent to reduce “arrogance in the employment market.” By all accounts, he is out of the running for Employer of the Year.
As Mr. Gurner tried to explain, “[t]here’s been a systematic change where employees feel the employer is extremely lucky to have them. We need to see pain in the economy. We need to remind people they work for the employer, not the other way around.” By all accounts, Mr. Gurner is also unlikely to be the keynote speaker at any upcoming recruiter conferences.
Some of you may recall that Mr. Gurner previously made news for thoughts he shared on a “60 Minutes” segment. In the 2017 interview, Mr. Gurner, a home builder, complained that millennials could not afford homes due to their habit of buying avocado toast: “When I was trying to buy my first home I wasn’t buying smashed avocados for 19 bucks and four coffees at $4 each.” By all accounts, Mr. Gurner has not taken to heart Aaron Burr’s lyrical advice to Alexander Hamilton to “smile more and talk less.”
We should all be grateful to Mr. Gurner for giving us insight into a CEO’s soul. When someone tells you who they are, believe them. With Mr. Gurner being one notable exception, businesspersons and politicians rarely let their guard down enough to let us see how their minds work. We learned more in those candid moments than can be gleaned in the years of pablum that proceeded them. What else are we not being told? Do landlords think they should raise rents to let renters know that they should be grateful for shelter?
While tensions between employers and employees have existed as long as the terms have existed, Mr. Gurner’s moment of temporary candor came at a particularly bad time. According to a September 21, 2023 Economic Policy Institute report, CEO compensation has increased 1,209 percent since 1978, compared with a paltry 15.3 percent rise in typical workers’ pay. The report also found that, in 2022, CEOs were paid 344 times as much as a typical worker, in contrast to 1965 when they were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker. So when it comes to arrogance, fair to say Mr. Gurner is pointing in the wrong direction.
In the early 1900s, the country learned from Upton Sinclair about the appalling working conditions in meat-packing plants and was horrified by the nearly 150 (mostly women) workers who were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire due to locked doors and blocked exits. There are too many mining disasters to count. After each disaster, words of utter dismay are spoken, and you begin to think employers and employees have finally reached a moment of shared appreciation until a Mr. Gurner or another needless tragic event shakes us back to reality.
Mr. Gurner has it all wrong. It isn’t the employee who needs a dose of reality; it is the employer. Much like the empirical evidence that happy cows produce more milk, a respectful, happy workplace is far more productive. An Oxford University study found that happy workers are 13 percent more productive. Using my work life as a case study, I can tell you that work environment matters. I worked at one firm for 25 years that provided every tool you thought you needed to succeed: Cupboards were stocked with food; refrigerators were stocked with snacks and drinks; and bagels and donuts were available to your waistline’s expanding dismay. At my next firm, supplies were doled out sparingly and you couldn’t find a saltine if your life depended on it. Do you want to guess which firm produced better work product from more dedicated employees?
As far as I can tell, “quiet quitting” was a term coined only as recently as 2022, but I wonder if it has manifested itself in other ways for years. Herman Melville wrote “Bartleby, the Scrivener” in the 1850s, so maybe not such a new trend? To be sure, every office has its misanthropes, but when you take out the odd ducks, everyone who feels appreciated wants to do more, not less. My old firm paid higher salaries and larger bonuses than market norms, and success followed. The firm that counted Splenda packets? Not so much.
Successful businesses treat employees like family, not tools. Businesses that pay well and provide good working conditions are rewarded for their generosity. I recently toured the amusement park that is Google’s Cambridge office and ate in its cafeteria. The term “cafeteria” does not do the experience or the food justice. Seems to me that Google gets it. Based on that one visit to Google’s office, I am going to go out on a limb here and posit that this Google company may go far.
The minimum wage debate presents a constant friction between employers and employees—with strongly articulated positions on both sides. Employees require a living wage to make ends meet, and employers are concerned that high wages can turn their businesses into non-profit enterprises or lead to bankruptcy because, they state, you can only charge so much for a product. Maybe that is the case for commodities like sandwiches, hamburgers, and coffee, but my money says the smart play is paying far higher than minimum wage.
If we can right the employee-employer relationship, maybe we will be able to make a dent in the housing crisis that plagues so many of our communities. Paying more leads to happier employees, which leads to greater productivity, which leads to higher profits. It is an unusual equation where you can invest $1 and know that you will get a $1.10 return. A fairly compensated employee able to obtain stable housing is a more productive employee. Google gets it. Mr. Gurner does not. So, employers, next time your employees ask for a $1/hr. raise, make it $2/hr. I am sure that is the right answer, but if you don’t believe me, Google it.
