Utah tech CEO praises worker who ditched the family dog to return to the office. Robert Gehrke says some bosses don’t get it.

While many Utah businesses navigate the tricky post-Covid task of returning employees to an office setting, some are handling it with delicacy and due consideration.

Then there’s the case of Clearlink.

Just a few months after assuring remote employees there was no plan to require staff to return to in-person work, Clearlink CEO James Clarke held a town hall meeting where he said everyone within a 50-mile radius of the Draper headquarters would have to be in the office four days a week. It impacts about 1/3 of the workforce, which is now spread across the country.

But he didn’t stop there.

Clarke disparaged a lazy, checked-out workforce; downplayed concerns of parents given a short time to line up child care, suggesting it is unfair for employees to split the workday between parenting and professional duties; praised an employee who gave up the family dog so she could return to the office; and offered anyone who didn’t like the new direction $5,000 to walk away.

Some in the shell-shocked workforce were left in tears. An unknown number of the demoralized workforce took him up on the offer to walk out. Other employees I spoke with (on the condition I would not use their names) said they believe his goal was to drive people out without having to dirty his hands with layoffs.

“My feeling, and a lot of others,’ was that this was specifically designed to get people so frustrated that they’d quit and then they wouldn’t have to lay them off,” one employee told me. “He’s trying to make us quit because that would solve some of his problems. I get layoffs are hard but at least they’re honest.”

The 45-minute video was posted to YouTube and Reddit, but the has since been taken down. A number of employees took to the workplace review site Glassdoor to vent their frustrations with the tone-deaf tirade.

“James Clarke needs to step down,” one read. “Good leaders care about their people, and he clearly does not.”

“Do NOT work here,” another wrote. “The CEO in charge is evil and I’d bet money that the company will be bankrupt by the end of the year if he is still in charge. … It honestly is sickening to know that we’re helping this rich narcissist liar of a man make even more money.”

During the course of Clarke’s lecture, he seemed to tear up when he spoke of an employee who put her family dog up for adoption because of the return-to-work mandate, saying it broke his heart because he had been at the “head of the humanization of pets movement.”

“I was blown away and honestly insulted,” an employee told me. “That’s just so awful and I’m just blown away that he would use that as an example of someone who is making a good sacrifice for the team. That’s just disgusting to me.”

Clarke answered just one of the dozens of questions employees had submitted, dismissing the rest of them as “litter” and “nonsense.”

And near the end of the discussion, he had a special message for “single mothers” who had tried to balance caring for children and working from home.

“While I know you’re doing your best — some would say they have even mastered this art — but one could also argue that, generally, this path is neither fair to your employer nor fair to those children,” he said. “Now, I don’t necessarily believe that. But I do believe that only the rarest of full-time caregivers can be a productive and full-time employee at the same time.”

Clarke criticized employees who had “quietly quit their positions but are taking a paycheck,” citing data that in one month 30 remote workers and their manager never even opened their laptops and others who were using artificial intelligence to do most of their job. He challenged everyone to increase their output between 30 and 50 times over.

After the meeting, some employees were in tears.

“They’re just beside themselves wondering if they’re going to have a job tomorrow,” one employee said. “The impression everyone walked away with is he wants us to quit. This is a conversation where he’s saying he doesn’t value you. He wants you to quit, here’s [$5,000] to walk.”

Clarke founded Clearlink more than 20 years ago, sold the company in 2011, and returned as CEO last year. In the meeting, he disparaged the previous CEO as a former ski guide while boasting of his own education at Harvard and Oxford universities.

Last year, Clarke co-hosted a fundraiser for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who will be back in Utah this weekend.

The company has touted Clarke’s philanthropy, which includes a $5 million contribution to Utah Valley University, with part of it going to the school’s Women’s Success Center. Last month, the company touted how it had made the Women Tech Council’s “Shatter List,” for its work to elevate women in the workplace and break through the glass ceiling.

I reached out to the company for a comment or explanation and they sent a statement that they don’t discuss internal employee matters, but said that “Clarke could not be more excited about the future of the company.”

“We look forward to having these team members join us at our new world-class Global Headquarters in Draper and appreciate the efforts of all of our committed team members — which includes those who work in office and those who will continue to work remotely — as we accomplish our best work together,” the statement read.

Although, that statement of appreciation is hard to square with the disdain Clarke showed for his employees, particularly working mothers, and the crushing disregard many of them clearly felt after their boss’ remarks.

If the last two years should have taught us anything, it’s that the workforce has changed. A poll done last year for McKinsey & Company found that flexibility was one of the top priorities workers consider when they look for a new job. And when people have the option of working remotely 87% of them take it.

Beyond that, though, employees want to be valued for their work and heard when they voice concerns.

Some companies understand that desire and have incorporated it into their model. Others, unfortunately, have not.

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