Attending a meeting without following protocols used to draw flak but during COVID doing office jobs while managing household chores was normalized and working people could attend virtual meets in casual outfits.
The world has now moved from sitting in casuals to sitting without a thread of fabric on your upper body, at least for the CEO of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes. He didn’t only do the unbelievable job of sitting in a management meeting shirtless while getting a body massage in the virtual presence of a dozen co-workers but also posted it on LinkedIn praising the work culture of AirAsia where he may comfortably attend the meet and get a soothing massage at the same time.
His LinkedIn post says – Was a stressful week and Veranita Yosephine suggested a massage. Got to love Indonesia and AirAsia culture that I Can have a massage and do a management meeting.
The CEO has received huge criticism for his act and the post, many have commented on the inappropriate dressing sense of the boss which would have made both male and female coworkers uncomfortable. Also, there are a handful of commentators who have raised issues about their deleted comments.
Indonesians have found it disrespectful to connect their culture with this awful dressing approach. People have also raised red flags against AirAsia’s work culture.
“I don’t think the women in your company would feel comfortable or safe in this context, and given you’re the boss, they likely won’t challenge you or say anything. Please for their sake, listen to the comments you’ve deleted on this post. You are clearly a smart leader that cares about culture but this isn’t the way to create a supportive, safe one”, writes Rebecca Nadilo, MD, Iris.
“A grown man, who is the chief executive of a publicly listed company, conducts a management meeting with his shirt off as he gets a massage. Remove “who is the chief executive of a publicly listed company” and it is still inappropriate”, writes Nathalie D Ramirez, CGO, Maker Lab.
People find it so unbelievable that they are landing on the LinkedIn post after seeing memes on Instagram and Twitter to check if it’s fake.
