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Indian American CEO of Wayfair says employees need to work longer hours
“Working long hours, being responsive, and blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from,” wrote CEO of Wayfair to employees.
Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah curated a special message for his employees after the company yielded profitable results. Shah not only wants people at Wayfair to work hard and be ambitious but also encourages them to do more work and blend 'work with life.'
As per CNN, Shah said in an email to employees, "Winning requires hard work. I believe that most of us, being ambitious individuals, find fulfilment in the joy of seeing our efforts materialize into tangible results. Working long hours, being responsive, and blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from. There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success." (Also Read: Ex-CEO of Tech Mahindra shares valuable insights from his 19 year career)
In the email obtained by Business Insider, he also talks about how he heard someone saying, 'Niraj said that he does not think that we should work late'. To this, his response was, “I would suggest that this is laughably false. Hard work is essential for success, and a key part of getting things done. 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. I think that is what we all should do.”
Shah also encouraged Wayfair workers to treat company money as their own and negotiate prices. "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? Everything is negotiable, and so if you haven't then you should start there," wrote Wayfair CEO in the email as per Business Insider.
Wayfair reached profitability after implementing cost-cutting measures, including layoffs, in response to losses after initially generating a profit in early 2020. This profit was made during the pandemic's furniture boom. The company announced a loss of $163 million in the third quarter, down from a loss of $283 million in Q3 2022, in its most recent quarterly reports, which were released on November 1, reports Business Insider.
