Community and Values
I have been a patron of a company for years. I recently found out that they do not pay their employees properly, and the reality is that the employees rely so heavily on customer tips that if they do not get a Venmo within a few days, the manager calls to remind you to tip them. My moral compass is telling me that I do not want to support that company anymore, but my heart aches for the employees.
As a business owner, I decided to shut down the stores on Sunday due to the storm. The safety of our employees is first and foremost. And everyone scheduled for that day will be paid in full. That is the right thing to do. As I have written about before, we pay our employees $25 an hour to start. There is an opportunity for upward mobility (all new job specs are sent to the company first), if you are full-time, you get full healthcare without having to pay into the system (and ours is quite good), we match your IRA at the end of the year, and there are perks and discounts, now commission on top of their salaries and an education series. Could I do what every other dispensary does? Sure, but I’d rather see our employees loyal to Gotham and be able to survive in NYC. Happy employees make me happy. By doing all these things, we have also created a community both inside and outside the store.
These days, our lack of leadership in this country is astounding. One of the things I love about our mayor, Zohran, is his commitment to community. He told the city (on Instagram) everything they were doing to prepare for the snow, and he picked up his shovel and helped, and that shows leadership. I found out that people can volunteer to shovel and get $19 an hour from the city; you gotta love that. He is setting new priorities that have a moral compass. We need more of this at the highest levels of government.
The press has become mute, or extremely one-sided. The NYTimes has not put the horrific shooting and protests happening in Minneapolis on the front page until this past Monday. They have ignored all the protests for the past year. That suggests to me that public sentiment is changing, or they would continue burying the lead. As much as I believe that Meta, Pharma, Google, and other large tech companies should be broken up, Instagram has given us a new home in the media. I am following all the young journalists who are covering what is happening on the ground, listening to people tell truths that they have witnessed or been part of, with real-time information all day long, vs. the slant and bullshit that our major media outlets are not covering for fear of losing their seat at the table. As much as I hate Meta, these new journalists give me hope.
During the ongoing war in Minneapolis, Trump and Melania screened her “documentary,” with Tim Cook as a guest. Really? Do all these CEO’s who have bent their knee to this horrific group running our country believe that this is the only way to make sure that their stocks don’t tank? Have we created companies with no moral compass except for profit? Is this what America has become?
America has lost the plot; we have lost our compass. Although I do feel profoundly proud of what we have created at Gotham, I ask other founders and CEOs: Why do you not do the right thing by your employees? Why do you not speak out against what is happening in our country, particularly those running multi-billion dollar companies?
It is time for change, and for all those who are not paying attention, shame on you. Pay attention to the environment around us; even in technology, people can now build their own software with ease, diminishing the need for large tech companies. We are in strange times, but there are always silver linings.
Caring about community and values seems to be way overdue.