The PR risk from bullying staff

News from the US: Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres has lost a million viewers after reports of “workplace misconduct”.

DeGeneres issued an apology, which viewers tuned in for, before promptly switching off.

It will be interesting to see if this sort of feet-voting extends to UK businesses.

Will Wetherspoon’s face a backlash post lockdown for Tim Martin’s suggestion that staff could seek work at Tesco, a mis-step made fully a year ago? Or have we forgotten how cross we were?

Will we fight our desire to go to the movies and shun Cineworld over claims it “treated staff with contempt”?

As PR risks go, this looks like a new one to me. In the past, we might have thought Waitrose was a nicer employer than Morrisons, but that probably didn’t influence our choice of where to get groceries.

If post pandemic we really are going to get worked up about how big companies treat their staff and shop accordingly, well that’s going to be a major problem for some very large companies, for whom mis-treating staff is a clear part of the business plan (names redacted on legal advice).

Despite what you lot keep telling me, I don’t believe there has been a genuine shift in corporate land to actually doing the right thing, rather than just looking like you might be.

But if staff bullying is going to become a hot button issue, some companies are going to have to shift their behaviour and fast.