Airbnb CEO shares the mistake he made while conducting Covid-era layoffs: 'A company's not a family'
No matter how much you like your colleagues, don't think of your workplace as a family, says Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky.
Chesky learned this lesson from experience, he told Wharton psychologist Adam Grant's "ReThinking" podcast in May.
In 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chesky penned a note to employees explaining that the company would conduct layoffs. "I have a deep feeling of love for all of you," he wrote.
It made sense: Workplace families were a particularly popular loyalty-building concept among tech companies pre-Covid, with perks like free food, dry cleaning and in-office gyms encouraging employees to spend more time in the office than with their actual families.
But today, Chesky would frame his appreciation differently, he said: Thinking of your workplace as family can be an effective motivational tool, but it can also make it difficult for bosses and employees alike to do their jobs.
"I wrote that letter fairly quickly," said Chesky. "I didn't have a lot of time, and so I wrote what I felt and that's what I felt, and I was pretty emotional when I was writing it. And it is true that a company's not a family. In fact, we had to make that pivot."
