Salesforce ‘Ohana’ questioned after CEO Benioff dodges layoff questions
Billionaire Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff often invokes the Hawaiian concept of “ohana” when referring to his company culture. It conveys the idea of family ties that encourage people to take responsibility for one another.
After a phone call Thursday with all Salesforce employees, during which Benioff reportedly dodged questions about recently announced layoffs in a rambling two-hour speech, the appropriateness of the concept was questioned.
A day earlier, the software giant said it would cut about 10% of its workforce, noting that customers are “taking a more measured approach to their purchasing decisions” in a “challenging” environment.
In an email to employees about the thousands of layoffs Wednesday, Benioff again invoked “ohana” and the idea of family ties:
“The affected employees are not just colleagues,” he wrote. “They are friends. They are family. Please reach out to them. Offer the compassion and love they and their families deserve and need now more than ever. And most of all, please count on your guidance, me trapped as we get through this difficult time together.”
“Avoid the current topic”
But judging by the reactions to his speech and the unanswered questions, the staff didn’t feel the “ohana.” On an internal Slack channel set aside for questions during the meeting, an employee asked, according to the Insider:
“Given how little this appeal addressed the layoffs, the questions asked in this channel, and the ‘family’ who were laid off, should we consider retiring the term ‘ohana’?”
Other posts on the Slack channel reportedly included, “Is Marc filibustering more than 47,600 employees right now by talking in circles and avoiding the topic of the day?” and “I’m sure many of the 10,000 people on that call could get things done , rather than listening to an unstructured conversation about the business when most people came in with very specific questions they were hoping would be answered.”
Benioff appeared to refer briefly to the layoffs in his speech, but in a way that compared them to deaths, according to the insider:
“You know, at the kickoff every year we have a moment where we always say goodbye to everyone who’s died during the year,” he said. “And, um, loss is really difficult, and losing people, and especially losing our trusted colleagues and our managers or employees, is very much like me in a lot of ways. We have to somehow acknowledge that and give ourselves time to mourn and somehow be able to move forward.
According to a 2017 company blog post titled “The Real Meaning Behind ‘Salesforce Community’,” “In Hawaiian culture, ohana represents the idea that families — consanguineous, adopted, or willful — are held together and that family members are responsible.” are for each other. When [Beniofff] When he founded Salesforce in 1999, he made sure ‘Ohana’ was at the core of the company.”
Salesforce didn’t respond immediately wealth‘s request for comments.
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