Last month, a Tesla employee criticized the company in a Medium post, spurring a public exchange between the employee and Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO. In November, an IBM employee resigned by posting an open letter to CEO Ginni Rometty, in response to an open letter that Rometti had written to President Donald Trump.
Should CEOs Respond When Employees Complain About Them Online?
A CEO can easily become the target of an employee’s online criticism. Should the CEO respond, and if so, how? First, CEOs should make sure they are taking proactive steps to learn about and listen to employee concerns internally; employees may not be so quick to publicly criticize their leaders if they feel they’re being heard. But if the critique is already out there on the internet, CEOs should weigh the costs and benefits of responding. Who is the employee, and what is their standing with the company? What might be their objectives in posting, and what are they looking for in a response? Will responding defuse the situation, or only add fuel to the fire? Is the employee’s complaint factually accurate? Asking these and other questions can help executives decide on the right response.