Workers who leave the head office to buy a cup of coffee are costing an Australian mining firm too much money, according to its boss.
Managing director of Mineral Resources Chris Ellison said during a financial results presentation on Wednesday he wants to “hold staff captive all day long”.
“I don’t want them leaving the building,” he said.
The head office in Perth has a restaurant, nine staff psychologists, a gym, and other facilities designed to encourage staff to stay in the office. “We have a lot of different benefits that we have brought on,” said Mr Ellison, whose company has a strict “no work from home policy”. "Why have I done that? Because when I get them first thing in the morning, I want to hold them captive all day long. I don’t want them leaving the building.
There are so many better ways he could have phrased that, but like most old, white men in his position this guy is probably a complete idiot who has rarely needed to think about the importance of language in sensitive discussions. People like that think this stuff is just a joke and they’re either completely unaware or just don’t care that many workers do actually feel trapped by their circumstances of employment.
I don’t think he is joking. As an out of touch billionaire who thinks that he is a modern feudal lord, he sounds on message.
I guess what I mean is that privileged people in positions of power often seem to think language doesn’t matter and that they can just say whatever they want with no repercussions. When it gets called out or questioned they pull the “it was just locker room talk bro” line and act like it was funny and everyone is overly sensitive/overreacting. The pain of others is a joke to them.
I think Greyghoster’s point is that he was literally just being honest about his feelings.
Like yeah there are definitely times that being sensitive and careful about your wording matters in order to get across a nuanced or difficult point in a sensitive manner. But this isn’t one of those cases. He could have been more sensitive about his wording, but if he had been it would just have been a dishonest way to try and euphemistically say “screw you, got mine”.
And if I’m understanding you correctly, you more or less agree with that. You’re just pointing out that he doesn’t feel the need to do that dishonest spin, because he’s felt so protected by his status in life that he thinks being completely honest about how much of a dick he is will work for him. And historically he’s been right about that, more often than not.
Also what’s going on here? Your comment says 41 minutes ago. Greyghoster’s says 27 minutes ago. No “edited” mark??edit: disregard that. It’s cos your comment’s timestamp got updated when I clicked reply and theirs didn’t.