I was laid off from Salesforce one day after receiving my 3-year anniversary gift in the mail. In all, 8,000 people were let go — a bloodletting that temporarily paralyzed the company and sent up cries of foul internally, in the press, and in social media.
Salesforce’s #airing-of-grievances Slack channel lit up red hot; people didn’t mince words. They accused CEO and chairman Marc Benioff of hypocrisy. He’s a well-known advocate for the kinder, gentler form of capitalism known as stakeholder capitalism, which holds business accountable for the wellbeing of all of its stakeholders — not just shareholders.
That includes community members, the natural world, partners, and employees.