PagerDuty CEO Faces Backlash After Citing Martin Luther King Jr In Layoff Memo

San Francisco, January 30 (IANS) Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty, a US-based cloud computing company, faced backlash after citing Martin Luther King Jr in a layoff email to employees. in North America.

According to CBS News, at the end of her presentation, she said, “The ultimate measure of (leaders) is not where (they) stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where (they) stand in times of challenge and controversy.”

On social media, backlash erupted as people denounced the email as “tone deaf” and “disgusting.”

“An all-time classic bad layoff announcement: PagerDuty’s CEO starts with “Hi Dutonians”, takes 370 words to get to the layoff bit, continues *1250 more words*,” Meta’s technical communications manager, Tom Gara, tweeted. It ends with “I am reminded of what Martin Luther King said at a moment like this…”

However, in a note updated by PagerDuty, the CEO apologized for the way he communicated in the layoff emails.

“The quotation from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was inappropriate and insensitive. I should have been more outspoken about layoffs in my emails and more thoughtful and concise about my tone. Sorry,” said Tejada in a blog post.