AIBU to think that this "good boss" story is just a bit grim

[Undoundid]

Just saw a video on LinkedIn from a wannabe "business influencer" patting themselves on the back for how well they "looked after" staff in Covid.

At the start of the pandemic they lost loads of clients, so before furlough was even announced they cut everyone’s pay to 80% to "save jobs." Fast forward, once the market opened back up, (for them two three months later) they had their best ever year.

At Christmas, they announced (to much applause, apparently) that as a "thank you" they’d be giving staff back the pay they’d lost.

I’m honestly raging. That isn’t a thank you, that’s literally just giving people back money they were owed. Once revenue stabilised and was clearly ahead, they should have reverted pay to 100% immediately, not sat on it until they could make a big showy gesture.

A genuine thank you would’ve been some sort of bonus/extra recognition, not just reimbursement of an enforced pay cut. Apparently they could have just kept the money for themselves but it felt like the right thing to do to give it back. No shit Sherlock.

So AIBU to think this is actually exploitative, not impressive at all, and using it for influencer content is the final cherry on the shit cake?

What was the alternative? Laying people off and having some on 0 pay and some on 100%?

Covid was one of those times where there wasn’t any real guidance on what to expect - we’d never had a pandemic in our lifetime before that.

They backpacked people rather than take a higher profit - I’m sure that’s more than many employers did and would do.

I don't think most businesses gave back the pay the employees had lost once it was all back up and running again so yes in the respect I think he treated them well

Linked in culture is terrible and is best avoided 😭

It doesn't sound that awful tbh. I was in a decision-making role at the time, and it was really tough to know what to do with/for staff.

The worst examples I saw were businessses that had no need to furlough putting their staff on PT furlough, and increasing the demand on PT. Our poor payroll woman had more to do and less time to do it in, she was so stressed.

I don’t think OP is saying they shouldn’t have made the pay cut to try to save jobs, they’re saying that retuning that pay isn’t a “kind gesture” it should have been an expectation and happened as soon as possible. Not just used as a way to pat themselves on the back.

That sounds like they gave them back the 20% they'd cut for the short period they needed to cut pay to keep people on

Just because they'd had a good year doesn't mean they had enough to pay a huge amount of back pay and then bonuses as well

Speaking as someone who (temporarily) lost their job during Covid because of the industry is was and then when gone back listened to one of the directors say how we'd got through Covid fairly well and still made a bit of money ... I think this is much more positive

I don’t have a problem if they did dress it up as kind gesture. it was kind of they weren’t required to do it - even if you’d expect something morally!

There’s always hope it shames the businesses who didn’t do the same into doing it.

It's not the paycut that's the issue for me. It's the idea that when they started to have their best year ever two or three months later and then this carried on for months and months they didn't give back then.

Businesses were very quick to cut pay but slow to give it back. And then when they have given back they are using it as a "well done me" story.

Surely it is the most basic level of human decency to say "I'm asking you to rally round and take a paycut because our revenue has dropped. Oh, actually we have had our best ever year, so we are just going to pay you back the money that we docked from your wages". This is the bare minimum surely???

She literally says it became their best ever year!!!

Oh, OK. So you think it’s ok to give a pay cut and leave it that way even when you’re back to how you were? Fair enough, but I completely disagree.

If I were that boss I’d feel awful and be reassuring staff they’d get their pay back asap, and that the cut was a drastic and temporary measure. I’m with the OP, this is distasteful. And any boss who retained the pay cut once market had stabilised deserves to lose all their staff tbh.

Typical LinkedIn, 98% of the crap on there is just made up for likes.