Comments on: This CEO’s 2,000 Word Email Explains Why German Managers Are Superior Than Those in the U.S.

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 18:31:59 +0000

@grannybunny “No doubt the thousands of employees getting laid off are heartened by the statement that 5 billion Euros will be returned to the shareholders in the next 3 years”

I think you’re missing the point here. That email isn’t trying to console the employees getting laid off. That email is trying to assure the remaining employees that the CEO has a viable plan how to save the company. It’s trying to assure them that they’re not on a sinking ship, that this isn’t just the first of many waves of layoffs. A CEO has to at least try to do that when he’s announcing massive layoffs.

In that context, that 5 billion figure is there to support the CEO’s claim that he has a viable plan. He’s signaling that the company is not in quite such a bad shape as some might think. At least they won’t have to ask outside investors for additional money. They’re even going to have some spare money.

If you still think that email was bad, I’d like to know how you would have written it.

By: Gayle Goldberg

Gayle Goldberg — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 18:45:58 +0000

The title of your post can easily be misinterpreted. The Nazis believed that Germans were superior to others, and your use of the phrase “Why Germans … are superior” is quite off-putting. Please consider rewording it.

By: Elizabeth West

Elizabeth West — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 16:38:18 +0000

That’s a nicely worded email, but Deutsche Bank is in HUUUUUGE trouble over money laundering practices, so their reason for laying people off seems disingenuous.

By: MariaRose

MariaRose — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 15:39:29 +0000

Typical rhetoric of a corporate mind trying to appear caring but really saying that employees are merely numbers not people. This was just a fancier version of the same message.

By: Kathy

Kathy — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 14:34:17 +0000

I have seen such well worded layoff announcements before and they still seem tone deaf to me. “We are taking this step to make our great company better!” appeals to employee loyalty. It is based on the assumption that the employee who has always been a loyal member of “our great company” will continue to care about its success as he reads that it is somebody else’s company now, not his. Especially to the engaged employee, one who has made caring about his company a part of his life, this is morally wrenching.

By: grannybunny

grannybunny — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 13:03:13 +0000

I don’t see a big difference between all the corporate-speak in this email and the gobbledy-gook routinely spit out by corporate mouthpieces in America and elsewhere. No doubt the thousands of employees getting laid off are heartened by the statement that 5 billion Euros will be returned to the shareholders in the next 3 years, and by the news arriving from elsewhere about Deutsche Bank’s questionable practices in providing financing to the Trump businesses after most other financial institutions declined to do so.