PHOTO: Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky.
Half dozing, but, at the same time, half-awake, I’m only half-hearing the sounds of chefs discussing their craft, on a series of late-night cooking shows.
They’re high-energy, discussing, in staccato bursts of words, all the seasonings they’re mixing and matching… some of the seasonings packing heat, some packing sweetness… and they’re discussing acids and fats in cuisine… and grilling, smoking, frying and broiling techniques.
And it’s all so refreshing, not only imagining the different flavors, but imagining the skill it takes to excel at the craft of preparing foods.
But something from much earlier in the day keeps interrupting my reveries… a Fortune magazine article posted on Yahoo Finance, about what’s often euphemistically referred to, in business, as ‘staff reductions.’
There’s been a lot of news, lately, about the sudden spate of layoffs at high-tech companies.
“Allow people to leave the company with dignity,” begins the article.
It’s the CEO of the short-term rental company, Airbnb, who’s being recognized in an article by reporter Trey Williams, for allowing workers selected for staff reductions at his firm, to ‘leave with dignity’.
And all I’m thinking about is the affordable housing crisis, which short-term rental companies, apparently, seem to be exacerbating… the STR firms, themselves, and some others, various investors, for example, who have been snapping up single-family homes and converting them to short-term rental properties, aka mini motels.
Maybe folks who can’t afford a roof over their head could stand a little dignity, as they’re being forced out of neighborhoods, communities, cities, and so on.
So, as someone who’s worked in the PR profession, I’d have to say, getting mentioned in Fortune, and having a word like ‘dignity’ associated with a company, and its CEO… that’s a shot of PR.
But, considering everything else about STRs and STR companies, and all, maybe breaking out the champagne at company headquarters should be put on hold?
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.