CEO faces backlash for 'tone-deaf' layoff email quoting Martin Luther King Jr

PageDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada was named one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in SaaS by The SaaS Report in 2017. (Image credit: www.pagerduty.com)

The CEO of a San Francisco-based tech company is facing backlash online for the manner in which she announced the company’s layoffs recently. PagerDuty laid off seven per cent of the company’s staff amid mass job cuts across major tech companies in the world.

In her now-viral email to staff last week, Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty, quoted civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

“I am reminded in moments like this, of something Martin Luther King said, that ‘the ultimate measure of a (leader) is not where (they) stand in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where (they) stand in times of challenge and controversy,’” Tejada wrote in her 1,669-word email.

She also termed the job cuts as “refinements” instead of layoffs. Twitter users who saw the email hit out at her for celebrating promotions given to employees in the same email in which she announced the layoffs.

The most tone-deaf layoff email I read so far was written yesterday, and it comes from PagerDuty CEO Jennifer Tejada. The email is vey long, and feels like it was written by an AI that took all the phrases that people usually say, and put it one long email. See for yourself: pic.twitter.com/TX6ntwObjE

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— Gergely Orosz (@GergelyOrosz) January 25, 2023

After criticism for her choice of words, Tejada apologised to the employees.

“The way I communicated layoffs distracted from our number one priority: showing care for the employees we laid off, and demonstrating the grace, respect, and appreciation they and all of you deserve,” she wrote on January 27.

“There are a number of things I would do differently if I could. The quote I included from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was inappropriate and insensitive. I should have been more upfront about the layoffs in the email, more thoughtful about my tone, and more concise. I am sorry.”

Jennifer Tejada was named one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in SaaS by The SaaS Report in 2017. She was also named to the 2018 Silicon Valley Business Journal/San Francisco Business Times Upstart 50 list, according to PagerDuty’s website.