>> Questions came through about how can we stay motivated if we're not
gonna get a bonus?
What can we do?
Some of them were nice and some of them were not so nice.
So I'm gonna address this head-on.
The most important thing we can do right now is focus on the things that
we can control.
None of us could have predicted COVID.
None of us could have predicted supply chain.
None of us could have predicted bank failures.
But what we can do is stay in front of our customers,
provide the best customer service we can, get our orders out our door.
Treat each other well.
Be kind, be respectful.
Focus on the future, because it will be bright.
>> You just heard from Andy Owen,
who happens to be the CEO of a posh furniture company known as Miller Knoll.
She was speaking to her employees in a zoom call just last month, and
the employees were expressing concern that they wouldn't get bonuses this year,
that bonuses would be withheld.
Now, that first part of her response to them didn't seem too terrible, right?
Seemed pretty okay.
Well, she quickly goes from trying to motivate the workers to be kind to just
work hard, everything's gonna be all right.
To deriding them over wanting a bonus in the first place, let's watch.
>> It's not good to be in a situation we're in today, but
we're not gonna be here forever.
It is going to get better.
So lead, lead by example.
Treat people well, talk to them, be kind and get after it.
Don't ask about what are we gonna do if we don't get a bonus?
Get the damn $26 million.
Spend your time and your effort thinking about the $26 million we need and
not thinking about what you're gonna do if we don't get a bonus, all right?
Can I get some commitment for that?
I would appreciate that.
I had an old boss who said to me one time, you can visit Pity City, but
you can't live there.
So people leave Pity City.
Let's get it done.
Thank you, have a great day.
>> All right, so just to clarify a few things, she references $26 million, but
doesn't clarify what she's referring to there.
So it's reportedly the operating expenses that the company
had in the third quarter of the year, and so their operating
expenses increased to $26 million in the third quarter.
Sales at the company dipped 4.4% in the most recent quarter that ended on March 4,
while orders slumped 19% with a slower economy and
higher borrowing costs, reducing demand for expensive office furniture.
So regardless of the circumstances, the clip is a little unbearable on its own.
It's even more unbearable once you learn about the compensation for this CEO,
including the fact that she collected pretty fat bonus herself.
So the reporting has varied on how exactly her compensation breaks down.
Lot of CEOs and executives get paid with stock options and
a relatively modest salary compared to stock options.
Sometimes the bulk of their pay is through a bonus at the end of the year.
But here's what CBS is reporting, Owen,
that's the CEO received a hefty compensation package last year.
On top of her $1.1 million salary, she received 3.9 million in stock awards and
other compensation for the fiscal year ending in May of 2022,
according to MillerKnowll's most recent proxy statement.
The company has expensed $15.7 million this year in stock based compensation,
and employee bonuses won't officially be determined until their
books are closed next month.
The company hit back following the backlash.
We're gonna get to that in just a moment.
But Cenk, what are your thoughts?
>> Yeah, so, look, guys,
there's a couple of things that are super relevant to this story.
If she had just gone on this rant in a normal meeting,
I know a lot of people would still flip out over it.
I wouldn't, I would say, hey, look,
we don't know the context and it's not totally wrong.
She said it in a way that was incredibly obnoxious, but not totally wrong to say,
hey, let's pick ourselves up, okay?
And just cuz we're in tough times doesn't mean that we gotta be down about it,
et cetera.
Let's work our way out of this, that's fine.
But telling people when they are not getting a bonus,
which a lot of them count on, that they're not getting one, is a heavy thing.
Look, I've lived it and it weighs on me.
I don't go in there and go, what are you, Pity City?
No, that's insane.
That shows a lack of empathy that is disturbing.
And if it was just related to this one woman look,
we can all direct it towards her, okay?
But it's not about her.
It's a culture.
>> It is, it is a culture.
She's one of many CEOs who have the same kind of mindset.
And Cenk, look, you're the CEO of this company, and I can totally understand
if you have a little bit of empathy if the company isn't doing well.
And it seems like because of the fact that they sell office furniture at a time when
people aren't really going into the office, that's gonna hurt their company.
I get that, right?
But there's a difference between how you handle an economic slump and
the way other CEOs handle economic slumps.
And I want you to be very aware of that.
Because while you will literally take a pay cut and refuse any kind of bonus,
if everyone else in the company is suffering as a result,
every other CEO has no problem pocketing millions of dollars in bonuses while
denying bonuses to their employees.
That's the difference.
And no one knows about that internal stuff.
I'm not even supposed to be talking about it, but
I'm gonna talk about it right now because you're an exception to the rule, okay?
>> Look, Anna, I get it, and I appreciate you saying that, and I do.
In tough times, if you're the captain of the team,
you should feel the pain first, not last, right?
And there's sayings, like, leaders eat last.
And there's a good reason for that.
If you're a real leader, in my opinion, you do it that way.
But this isn't about me.
So what I was getting to with her is on top of not showing sympathy when
people are going to have trouble making payments,
not gonna be able to bring home money they were probably counting on.
You could say, hey, you shouldn't have been counting on it as a bonus, okay,
fine, right?
But still have a little bit of human empathy or whatever.
But when on top of that, you're taking home millions in a bonus and then you're
yelling at them because they're in Pity City now that's the thing, guys.
I know some of these executives, and it is a little bit of a different culture.
And I'm being soft here, okay?
I could be much harsher.
And they really think, no, yeah, I'm not the same as my workers.
No, my workers aren't getting them.
Of course I'm getting a bonus.
And by the way, here's something you might not know and
that I know because of my business background.
A lot of times the CEO will get a bonus because they made the cut.
They had massive layoffs.
>> Yes, they laid off 162 employees at a manufacturing plant in Wisconsin,
and that was announced earlier this month.
So the employees have good reason to be nervous about the financial situation of
the company, but also, more importantly, what the future holds for them,
whether it has to do with their jobs or bonuses.
Yeah, and so you might be thinking, yeah, but why give her a bonus for that?
I mean, they're struggling.
They had to do layoffs.
There's no bonuses for anyone else, because of that culture.
The culture says, that's a good, strong,
tough CEO that did what needed to be done, saved the company a lot of money,
so we should reward her with a big multimillion-dollar bonus.
And they don't see the hypocrisy of that at all.
>> No, they don't.
Because what happens is, there's a tremendous
amount of pressure to cut costs, and the number one cost is labor.
And so if executives like this CEO are paid through stock options, right?
They're rewarded or awarded shares of the company's stock.
Well, they're gonna want the value of those shares to go up.
And one of the ways the value of the share goes up is if you cut costs,
meaning if you lay off people, you cut labor.
It actually incentivizes executives to run with skeleton crews,
to cut as many workers as they possibly can.
There is a giant financial benefit if they do that.
That is why this disconnect exists, right?
That is why she can, with a straight face, kind of like mock the employees and
mention the phrase Pity City when they have very real and
legitimate concerns about their jobs and
their pay while collecting millions of dollars in compensation herself.
>> Yeah, so look, one more thing about that.
Some of the reporting is really fuzzy here.
I read a story that she got 1.12 million the year before and
1.2 million the year before that.
But then you see that maybe it was stock options and not necessarily bonus, but so
let's give her the benefit of doubt for a second.
I'm not saying she deserves it.
I'm just saying as a hypothetical that it was just stock.
But again, guys, I've been there.
If I just got a 3.9 million or
let's take the lowest number $1.12 million in stock awards,
even if it's not a bonus, I think I just took home a million bucks.
I'm not gonna tell these guys that I'm not paying bonuses to
what do you want me to pity you?
Why do you go out there and do better, okay?
No, you don't say it that way, that's crazy.
Don't do that.
I know that I can't possibly talk them out of not taking the motives.
How many jobs could she have saved with that bonus?
Right? >> Right.
>> And so there's no force on earth that will get the majority of executives to do
the right thing in that context.
All we're asking is don't rub it in afterwards, right?
It's not too much to ask for you to not pour salt on those wounds.