Last August, social media was loud again with this latest statement from the CEO of Nymbix. In a short video, the company interviewed their in-house staff asking them to describe Work-From-Home in four words. Everyone quickly grabbed their pitchfork after the CEO said that WFH “makes you dumber every day”. His statement consists of 5 words. The video online says “everyday” which is a grammatical error.
It is easy to look at the campaign as an attempt to “rage bait” Filipino workers online. Rage baiting is a strategy to elicit anger from a target demographic(s) of a population. Examples are misspelling of words, sweeping generalizations, and statements with opposites of deeply held beliefs without just or logical explanation.
For those who missed the video, here is a short version:
The video above is a repost from YouTube. The original video was taken down by the company after receiving backlash from the WFH people. I understand that it was meant to “encourage” working on-site. The opening and closing quotes were deliberate because the video produced the opposite effect.
What is wrong with the campaign?
This is not the best way to attract talent to your company. By triggering rage from WFH people with their generalized claims, the marketing people of Nimbyx shot themselves in the mouth. Instead of composing yourself as a good place to work and collaborate, they bad mouth those who chose not to work in the office. This is never about WFH vs On-Site. Some people prefer to work alone at their location of choice, and some love to be inside the office, engaging with their colleagues in real-time. It is a matter of business design and the optimal condition where a professional can work to the best of his or her potential with the external variables provided.
What is more troubling about the campaign is the lack of accountability from the CEO. He stood by his company’s decision about the marketing campaign and was defensive of how WFH is detrimental to an organization and the person.
What can we learn from this?
If you are looking for a job, I strongly suggest that you look not only into the salary and compensation that the position offers but also the quality of leadership in the organization. The kind of leadership you are exposed to will affect how you work and cascade into your values. A CEO who holds himself accountable has a high chance of leaning into ethical decisions and would foster the best interests of his people, the company he leads, and its stakeholders. Someday along the road, you will be in a position where you will lead others too. The quality of your leadership will depend on the leaders you’ve had before and what you would do with the good and bad leadership experiences you’ve had.
Lastly, on-site work will continue to lose its charm to top talents. I’m saying this as a WFH worker for over 1 decade. The worsening traffic in Metro Manila and how it affects the physical and mental health of people makes WFH a privilege. Companies, especially BPO, who require on-site professionals for their business use-case must be creative in attracting talents to their fold. Nymbix’ campaign is not disruptive, but rather a result of poor leadership and a lack of capability in understanding the situation of the Filipino working professionals.