The Work Family Archives - Page 2 of 2

You Don’t Fire Members of Your Family

On May 5, 2020, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told employees that “nearly 1,900 teammates will have to leave Airbnb.” That was about a quarter of the company. “I have a deep feeling of love for all of you,” he wrote.

In 2024 Chesky looked back on Adam Grant’s podcast ReThinking. “We used to refer to ourselves as a family, and then we did have to fire people or they’d have to leave the company,” he said, “and yeah, you don’t fire members of your family.” He added: “It is true that a company is not a family.”

They’re Family

Salesforce built its company culture around Ohana, the Hawaiian word for family. On January 4, 2023, CEO Marc Benioff emailed staff that the company would “reduce our workforce by about 10 percent.” The email used the phrase “As one ‘Ohana.” Of the employees who would lose their jobs, it said: “They’re friends. They’re family.”

At an all-hands meeting soon afterward, an employee asked on Slack: “should we consider retiring the phrase ‘Ohana?'”