Corporate giant PricewaterhouseCoopers has offered to counsel its staff in Australia who are worried by Donald Trump’s US election win.
In an extraordinary move, ridiculed by many on social media, PwC implied that Mr Trump held values contrary to the company’s and that all staff should take solace in PwC’s culture of “care” in the wake of the election result.
In a letter to PwC’s 7000 Australian staff, Australian chief executive Luke Sayers said the company’s values “will be vital” in the wake of the US election. “I did want to call out the value of care today,” he writes. “Partners and staff have reached out to me already concerned by reports of women being denigrated on the streets in the US, or Muslims being told to go home.
“My deepest commitment is to the diversity and inclusion of our people, and the communities we live in. If you don’t see this happening in our firm, or PwC can help in anyway, please let me or a member of my executive board know immediately.”
PwC appears to be following the lead of several companies in the US, from General Electric to Apple, that have issued statements supporting workplace diversity in the wake of Mr Trump’s victory.
During the campaign, Mr Trump made comments that offended some women and some minorities, including Latinos and African-Americans.
Mr Sayer’s letter is unusual, however, given Australia’s distance from the US and the fact most PwC employees are well educated and are unlikely to need emotional counselling over the outcome of a democratic election.
“The US election result? An Australian company? There’s no synergy there and, honestly, the note sounds like cut and paste from ‘1001 Corporate Mission Statement Templates Vol 1’,” one critic wrote on the job network site LinkedIn.
Another wrote: “I don’t understand? Is your CEO reassuring staff because of the tolerant rioters in the streets of America,” in reference to the street protests in the US following Mr Trump’s election win.
“Did they (PwC) send the same message to their Middle East offices?” wrote another. “Not a lot of LGBTQI diversity or inclusion going on in those places.”
Not everyone was critical. PwC employee Fiona Wilhelm posted on LinkedIn: “You know you’re part of an awesome work culture when off the back of the election result your CEO writes a note to all Australian staff calling out our value of ‘Care’ and reaffirming the firm’s commitment to the diversity and inclusion of our people.”
PwC was criticised in March for its strong advocacy for same-sex marriage in which it modelled the “mental health” costs of a same-sex marriage plebiscite at $20 million.
In his note to staff, written on November 10, Mr Sayers says the election of Mr Trump would have a significant impact on Australia-US relations.
“Politically, Trump’s foreign policy and trade positions represent a significant departure from previous US policy and will likely have consequences throughout our region,” he writes.
“It’s important to remember that no matter what happens, the connection between our two countries is strong and will ensure.”
A PwC spokeswomen declined to comment on the note.
In the US, Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in the wake of Mr Trump’s victory that his company welcomes everyone “regardless of what they look like, where they come from, how they worship or who they love”.
The chief executive of General Electric, Jeffrey Immelt, wrote that his company was committed to “people of all races, genders and sexual orientation”.
Matt Maloney, chief executive of US online food delivery company Grubhub, told staff after the election that if they agreed with Mr Trump’s “hateful attitudes”, they should resign.
He said Mr Trump’s “nationalist, anti-immigration and hateful politics” would have resulted in his “immediate termination” if the billionaire had been a Grubhub employee.