A Florida-based CEO told her employees that they should work through Hurricane Ian, as she believed it to be a "nothingburger" that was overhyped by the media.
The Washington Post has obtained a video showing Joy Gendusa, the CEO of marketing firm PostcardMania, trying to convince her workers that they didn't need to evacuate from the area because of the hurricane, which reached landfall on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm with 150-mile-per-hour winds.
The video shows a meeting that Gendusa had with employees on Monday in which she asked them to raise their hands if they were worried about the coming storm.
"It’s not going to be that bad," she told them when they expressed concerns. "Obviously, you feeling safe and comfortable is of the utmost importance, but I honestly want to continue to deliver and I want to have a good end of quarter. And when it turns into nothing I don’t want it to be like, ‘Great, we all stopped producing because of the media and [thought] maybe that it was going to be terrible.'”
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However, video of Gendusa's remarks quickly gained traction on social media, and the company has since reversed course by announcing that its offices would be closed on both Wednesday and Thursday.
Workers at the firm who spoke with the Post were scathing in their assessments of Gendusa's conduct.
"There is no company worth sacrificing for,” said one. “I wouldn’t give my life for any company.”
"There was a huge disconnect between her and her employees," said another. "Not everybody lives in a nice place or in a safe place like her."
