London: An unpleasant story has recently emerged: a CEO of a British marketing company has recently boasted that he never granted an employee a two-day leave to attend her wedding. Working at the company, its CEO, Lauren Tickner, shared the story on social media, which led to a debate about corporate culture and top management.
The row began after Tickner shared a post in response to her monitor, admitting to have denied a female worker’s leave for her wedding due to work issues. As per the CEO, the employee had already gone on two and a half week’s leave and didn’t train someone in her stead. Consequently, granting permission for the two-day wedding leave would have put into danger two important projects.
CEO Comes Out to Explain Move at the Time When Public Outrage Builds Up on Social Media
This triggered an uproar, and soon Tickner wrote on Threads, giving her account of the incident. She said the leave was not granted because the employer could not find a replacement to takeover the duties of the employee while noting that the team experienced high work demands. Tickner said that the employee agreed to search for and condition a transient replacement but had not done it.
Still, such explanations did not convince social media users at all. Some of the staff called it appropriate to refer to the CEO as a ‘toxic boss’ for not allowing the employee to attend his wedding due to work. While some got to ask how a project could be this delicate that it couldn’t afford to go for two days without one employee? Others regarded this as another poor strategy from the CEO where the burden of training the replacement fell on the said employee.
Opinions Split on Social Media over CEO’s Response
For Tickner, who made a staunch stand, the fury that ensued on social media was downright massive. People could not resist commenting and some of the reactions included some users attacking her for being unsympathetic especially when it comes to employees. Some of them even commented that when a project could not run for two days without one person, then the inside operations had to be very bad.
Some people accused the CEO of leading the company saying, “If a company cannot last two days without an employee, it is management’s failure not the employee’s.” One of them contributed, “To ask an employee to train his/her replacement in the event of wedding leave is really absurd.”
The prevailing issue has created a new discussion about practical mattresses and employee rights to celebrate the personal achievements at weddings. As the conversation moves to the online space, others are concerned with whether a hermetic work environment is appropriate in the modern world environment.