Trish Baker, CEO of Baker Ltd., muted all 400 attendees at a mandatory, virtual-staff meeting on Friday. She first grew frustrated when a series of accidental unmutes led to interruptions like coughing, chatter, and cats walking across keyboards.
“At first, I respectfully asked everyone to mute themselves. But when the interruptions continued, I told them that if they can’t learn to be quiet, I’d make them be quiet,” said Baker who then clicked the mute-all button.
Some spectators, like Devin Allen, Paper Clip Coordinator, pushed back. “I used the chat to let her know that I was muted the whole time and that the timeout wasn’t fair. She just responded that life isn’t fair and a few people had to go and ruin it for everyone.” When several others protested alongside Devin, Baker simply snapped back, “Do you want to make it 10 minutes?”
Baker has been known to use similar management tactics in the past: When staff were taking long breaks, she threatened to lock the snack cabinet; when they were sending inappropriate chain mail, she threatened to take away internet for a week; and when they dressed too casual on casual-Fridays, she threatened to pick out everyone’s outfit for them.
After the 5-minute time out, Baker could not figure out how to unmute herself or anyone else and decided to reschedule the meeting instead.