Wayfair's CEO sent an encouraging message to the furniture chain's more than 14,000 employees at the end of the year: Work more.
He emphasized that the company is “back on the road to success” as its market share is growing and the company is making profits. Given that success, CEO Niraj Shah encouraged his employees to work long hours so that “work and life” become one, according to an internal memo first obtained by Business Insider.
“Long working hours, responsiveness and work-life balance are nothing to shy away from,” Shah wrote, according to the report. “There aren’t many stories where laziness was rewarded with success.”
A Wayfair spokesperson confirmed the authenticity of the memo.
“We are incredibly proud of our world-class team and our culture of open communication. In his message sent to our employed corporate employees, Niraj reiterated some of the values that have contributed to Wayfair's success, including “challenging the status quo, being cost-effective and working hard together to achieve results,” Wayfair said in a statement to CBS MoneyWatch.
Wayfair saw a surge in online sales during the pandemic era, but revenue fell in 2022 as shoppers returned to physical stores and shifted spending to other products and services. Last year the company cut 5% of its workforce. The company has since returned to profitability, with Shah noting that the number of repeat customers increased throughout 2023.
Shah added that he wants employees to spend the company's money as if it were their own, always negotiating lower costs when possible.
Would you spend money on it, would you spend that much money on the thing, does the price seem reasonable to you and finally – have you negotiated the price? “Everything is negotiable and if not, then you should start there,” he wrote.
Some critics questioned Shah's message.
“Hey CEOs: If people don't want to work long hours, that doesn't mean they're lazy. It means they have a life outside of work,” Adam Grant, a professor of organizational psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, wrote on Instagram.
“A team that delivers 40 hours of excellence is angrier than one that delivers 50 hours of mediocrity,” he added.
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Megan Cerullo