AirAsia Thailand CEO hurls vulgarities at female colleague during a town hall meeting.
When I saw the headlines I thought it was a prank.
“Asia Aviation Public Company Limited (AAV) executive chairman Tassapon Bijleveld, who is also the chairman of Thai AirAsia, reportedly humiliated an employee when she was asking a question during a virtual town hall meeting.”
So, naturally I went to dig for the video.
It is true.
He did rebuke the female colleague in a really unacceptable and unfriendly manner.
He did not make any attempt to show it was a joke or banter.
You can tell it was unplanned, raw and very real, when everyone else, including Tony Fernandes, froze for a second or two.
They didn’t know what to do.
They decided to laugh it off.
What nonsense.
Sheer hogwash, utter low blow and very disgraceful behavior by a CEO.
Heck, even if he was a janitor, you would expect simple manners, basic decorum and professionalism in a work setting with 500 employees watching!
If you cannot control your emotion, it will ruin you.
You are the CEO, the pillar of support when everything goes to whack.
You set the example of how employees will behave to each other.
You set the standards of what is acceptable and what is wrong.
I know it isn’t written in your employment contract or in that multi-million dollar bonus you get.
But as a C-level executive, you should know better.
Jokes, sarcasm and banter has a place and time for it.
This is plain wrong.
Verbal assault at its finest.
Psychological derision perpetuated by a top figure in the company.
For once, this is where a simply apology won’t work.
Tassapon should do more, set out steps to show how he has really learnt from this and how he will champion to prevent such nonsense from happening ever again.
Startup founders, business owners, friends and entrepreneurs reading this, please do not ever do such ridiculous things at work.
It certainly did not show how bad the lady was, all it did was show how tragic and morally bankrupt the perpetrator really is and the character of everyone who stood by and watch it happen.
Great company culture is more than fancy seats, donuts and PlayStations.
This really shows how you can rip apart an entire culture in seconds.
So please, always be in control of your emotions.
Always.
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