Leave Pity City – Michigan CEO Blasted for Lashing Out at Staff Online

The CEO of an office furniture company in West Michigan has come under fire for an online tirade in which she tells her staff to leave Pity City.

Question About Bonus Leads to Tirade

Andi Owen is the Chief Executive Officer of MillerKnoll. While leading an online video conference with staff members, she fielded a question pertaining to how employees can stay motivated if they're not going to earn bonus compensation.

That led to the online tirade in which Owen told her staff that they have to "leave Pity City." Ironically, the castigation was delivered just seconds after the executive stressed to staff members the importance of leading by example and being nice to each other.

"Don't ask about what you're going to do if you don't get a bonus, get the damn $26 million," Owen says. "Spend your time and your effort thinking about the $26 million we need and not thinking about what we're going to do if you don't get a bonus."

Owen then referenced a former employer who said it was acceptable to "visit Pity City but you can't live there." That's when she instructed her staff to "leave Pity City and get it done."

Owen is a Highly Paid Executive

The fact that Owen's words didn't land well with employees is compounded by the fact that she made nearly $4 million in bonuses last year on top of a base salary of $1.1 million.

You can watch Owen's diatribe in the video below. The video has gone viral, being viewed more than seven million times online.

Owen has since apologized but that leaves us wondering, is she apologizing for treating her staff so harshly or is she sorry she got called out on the internet?