Wayfair is once again profitable and back to “winning” ways—but that doesn’t mean its workers can kick their feet up in 2024.
Although the retail giant is back in the green and repeat customers are up, its CEO and co-founder Niraj Shah has cautioned employees that “winning takes hard work” and that they should expect to put in overtime in the year ahead to stay on track.
Shah told his workforce of around 15,000 that “working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from,” in an email obtained by Business Insider.
“There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success,” he continued, adding that the idea staff should not work late was “laughably false”.
“Hard work is essential for success, and a key part of getting things done,” the Indian-American businessman, who dropped off Forbes’ Billionaires list this year, added.
“Everyone deserves to have a great personal life—everyone manages that in their own way—ambitious people find ways to blend and balance the two.”
While insisting employees be generous with their time, Shah simultaneously asked employees to tread caution when spending company dime.
“Think of any company money you spend as your own,” he wrote. “Would you spend money on that, would you spend that much money for that thing, does that price seem reasonable, and lastly – have you negotiated the price?”
Wayfair did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Employees aren’t feeling motivated by their boss’s pre-holiday note
Shah’s efforts to keep up profitably at the online home store come after last year’s share price bloodbath.
Wayfair’s stock dropped from over $340 in March 2021 to around $115 in one year, before tumbling further to just $33 by the end of 2023.
At the start of this year, the furniture retailer’s stock surged by 20% after laying off around 1,750 employees, or 10% of its global workforce. It marked Wayfair’s second round of job cuts in less than six months.
Meanwhile, more recent efforts to get the company back on its feet include adding an automatic surcharge to delivery orders under $35 and now Shah’s memo to workers to get back on “the execution oriented, hard working, frugal, customer oriented” bandwagon.
But employees aren’t feeling motivated by their boss’s pre-holiday note.
“He’s basically saying if you don’t work late then you’re lazy,” one person on Reddit wrote. “Long hours don’t prove anything about productivity. It just means you worked long hours!”
“I love when these CEOs talk about ‘winning’ as if the employees get absolutely anything out of the company’s profitability,” another added. “I win by working less and/or making more money… These leaders need to wake up.”
Others argued that workers being expected to put in extra hours without remuneration should look for another job.
Shah’s not the first CEO to glamourize overworking—but new research shows it’s counterintuitive
Earlier this year, Musk similarly praised his Chinese workers for “burning the 3am oil” and not leaving the factory for the likes of going to sleep, “whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all.”
Meanwhile, after getting some flack for the company’s intense 100-hour workweeks, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon allowed bankers to take Saturdays off but noted that going the “extra mile” can make a big difference.
But actually, working for longer doesn’t equate to getting more done. In fact, new research has shown that it’s counterintuitive.
Slack surveyed more than 10,300 employees globally and found that those who feel obliged to work extra hours are 20% less productive than those who clock off at the end of their standard work day.
What’s more, they reported more than double work-related stress and burnout, as well as lower levels of satisfaction with their jobs, than their counterparts who clock in a normal nine-to-five.
On the other hand, those who work of their own accord during post-work hours actually have slightly greater productivity and wellness scores, per Slack.
