Bit of background: The company my friend works for was planning a potluck, the week of the potluck the company starts doing lay-offs. Some people had worked here for 2o years and were gone, leaving teams to scramble and moral plummeting.
Obviously everyone is stressed and multiple employees speak up about postponing or cancelling the potluck, saying it would be in bad taste to have a party amidst lay-offs. Management is outraged at the very suggestion of postponing, claiming that thoose who are still here should feel lucky for having been “choosen to stay” and want to celebrate during the potluck.
More employees begin coming forward and outright asking for the potluck to be cancelled, peoples friends are gone, jobs are still on the line and no-one is thinking about preparing a grand dish when their job could be cut. Management now responds “but we are planning to post this on social media”….so obviously the company doesn't care at all about it's employees well-being but instead about how they look to online strangers.
More people come forward discreetly to someone on the planning committee who then tells management about the large amount of employees who are upset that the potluck is continuing and saying it will feel like a funeral. They tell management that people are planning to not attend, not participate or boycot. Management responds by demanding names to go and “talk” to these individuals. When they don't receive a list they then go and talk to groups of employees at a time. The employees are told “if you don't participate it shows your not a team player, and there may be more lay-offs to come…”. Other members of management corner employees and outright tell them what to bring to the potluck, forcing them to sign-up. Some are even told to bring extra so the bosses can take a portion home. It's important to note that the majority of these employees are making a low pay and groceries are expensive. Some employees were not planning to participate from the beginning due to the personal cost.
In summary, all employees are unhappy, employees are are having jobs threatened for non-participation, and being targeting and harassed by management. All of this for some internet clout, all of this to make it “appear” like they care soooo much about their employees when its all just virtue signalling.
The bosses care more about how they appear to internet strangers on LinkedIn then they do about their actual employees…
It would be a damn shame if internet strangers somehow found their LinkedIn post and called them out on it.