Wayfair CEO: Emphasizing Longer Work Hours for Employee Success
Wayfair's CEO encourages employees to embrace work-life integration and embrace a proactive approach to productivity, fostering a culture of dedication and growth
Wayfair's CEO has a year-end message for employees of the online furniture company: Embrace hard work and find a balance between work and life.
"Success requires hard work. As ambitious individuals, many of us find joy in seeing our efforts bring tangible results," CEO Niraj Shah said in a note to employees earlier this month, celebrating the company's recent success, and which a company spokesperson confirmed to CNN. "Working long hours, being responsive, and blending work and life is something to embrace. There is little evidence of laziness leading to success."
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 27: A vacant office is seen on October 27, 2022 in San Francisco, California. As reported by commercial real estate firm CBRE, the city of San Francisco is currently facing a record high of 27.1 million square feet of available office space as it attempts to recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the US Census Bureau, an estimated 35% of employees in San Francisco and San Jose are still working from home. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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Shah urged Wayfair employees to treat the company's money as their own and to haggle prices. As of December 2022, Wayfair had approximately 15,000 employees, based on its latest filing. "Before making a purchase, consider if you would spend your own money on it, if the price seems fair, and if you've negotiated the cost," Shah wrote in an email to employees, as reported by Business Insider.
During the early stages of the pandemic, Wayfair experienced a significant increase in business as more people who were staying at home ordered furniture, desks, and home goods from their online store. However, in 2022, the company faced challenges as customers began to return to in-person shopping and focused more on spending their money on experiences rather than physical goods.
In 2022, Wayfair announced it was cutting 5% of its workforce.
But Shah told employees in his email that the company is back to being profitable.
"We can achieve greater success by working together in the same direction," he stated. "Let's adopt an assertive, practical, cost-effective, adaptable, customer-focused, and intelligent approach."
During an interview on Thursday, Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor, informed CNN's Richard Quest that "if Wayfair intends to maintain a work environment where employees put in 80 hours per week, the company will need to increase their salaries by 50% in order to compensate them for it."
"Bloom expressed doubts about the typical employee's success in this situation, citing a strong job market and plenty of options for employees. CNN's questions about pay went unanswered by the company spokesperson."
