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The holidays often require people to travel. It’s just a fact of life. People need time off. Don’t tell that to Gibson Guitar’s CEO Henry Juskiewicz. The dude is VIGILANT when it comes to employees in leadership positions asking for time off, even when it is the holiday season. You would think one would answer PTO emails with “Thanks for the notice. Have fun!” or “I’m sorry your best friend died. Take as much time as you want” or “Man, fuck the Broncos. Go Chiefs!”
Nope. Juskiewicz hates PTO probably as much as he hates it when people try to pronounce his last name.
He’s either a brilliant business genius obsessed with the bottom line OR a deranged psychopath. Either way, you’d think the CEO of a cool guitar company based in Memphis would be a lot more chill about missing work.
Subject: RE: Personal Day-Thanksgiving Approval requested
NO
I do not allow leaders to be absent the days before and after a holiday. I had asked Tom to make it clear, but apparently people have not understood or the communication was not clear.
You cannot take long weekends or long holidays unless there are special circumstances. You are leaders and these are work days. During work our leaders need to be there doing their jobs. Taking time off when other people cannot do so or causing insufficient staff during working periods shows a lack of responsibility and consideration for all that depend on our business to be there for them.
Henceforth vacations must be taken for a minimum of one week and must be scheduled well in advance. I will expect a vacation calendar from my direct reports for an entire year.
I will turn down all requests for long weekends and for periods of less than 5 contiguous days without special circumstances.
I also do not believe it is appropriate for a request of this kind is to be shared with others. This suggests where you are coming from [employee name]. I also do not appreciate being lied to about being ill so you can game the system to get what you want [employee name]. As soon as I return from my travels, I will schedule a private conversation about this.
I have counted on the personal integrity of people working with me and have refrained from putting in place a rigorous oversight system. I have asked our HR department to oversee this activity on a spot basis which they have not followed through on. The result is I am seeing a continued decline in decorum, a deterioration in discipline in terms of appropriate attire, coming and going on time and other issues that do not belong in a professional situation with executives that are supposed to be examples of appropriate behavior.
It is not alright to leave early Friday afternoon or arrive late on Monday morning. It is not alright to take extended lunches. The list of unprofessional behavior goes on.
We will be implementing HR policies that were developed at Philips and we have appointed [person] as our global head of Human Resources. These new policies will be promulgated throughout our group of companies and these will be enforced strongly. I will take the time to review these new policies with the people that report to me directly.
I will schedule a private meeting with you [employee name].
Henry
Henry E. Juszkiewicz
CEO – Gibson Brands, Inc.
Your boss ain’t so bad now..
[via Gawker]
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Brian McGannon
What do I love? I love happy hour, a good golf tan, and getting moderately drunk during dinner.
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What an idiot. This guy just nuked recruitment at Gibson Guitar for five years. Nice job J-wicz. I’m sure upper managment loves being treated like a bunch of fucking 8th graders. I wonder if they have to request a hall pass to leave their desks to take a piss.
Um yeah. Fuck that guy. Nobody pays someone else enough to put up with that shit.
A simple “no” would’ve done just fine.
Gibson’s quality has been on a solid decline for the last 6ish years, it’s no wonder when you see this is how management rolls.
0/10, would not work for
Dude sounds like he needs a vacation
This guy really doesn’t understand morale. And apparently is oblivious to what happens to power tripping assholes throughout history.
“But Fender’s CEO lets his management have Christmas off”
Looked at doing a deal with them a while go. He’s a weird dude.
Not as harsh as I thought it was going to be after reading the column title, but still not necessary to be this strict to salaried employees.
Also could not disagree more about the long weekend policy. Pretty standard to take long weekends, as long as you request it ahead of time.
From a management perspective, I think this entirely appropriate. People lied to him and aren’t following established policy. He had to lay down the line.
It looks like people lied to him because he was being too strict. True, upper management shouldn’t be lying to the CEO, but can you blame them? It basically sounds like a close relative has to die before you can take a day off. I agree that the higher ups should be setting the tone at the top so lower employees don’t get the wrong idea, but is it imperative that every manager is there on Dec 26th making sure the production lines are rolling full speed? Instead of sending this e-mail and implementing even tougher policies, he should meet with some people who aren’t afraid to tell him no and develop some reasonable policies.