I’m staggered after reading the following in today’s NYTimes Business section: "About 12:30 Monday morning, Lehman sent out a press release announcing its intention to seek bankruptcy protection. Lehman’s 25,000 employees learned of the filing through the media, with no direct communication coming from (CEO Dick) Fuld or other Lehman executives."
So… if we are to believe the Times, are we to conclude that Lehman has no internal blog with RSS alerts, no Twittering execs (who could protect their Tweets, of course, so they wouldn’t be publicly visible), no interest in using social media tools to stay connected to their employees and treat them with courtesy and respect? (Er, what about an email from the CEO??)
And, further, should we conclude that employees are not using social networks to communicate amongst themselves?
As mind boggling as the Wall Street collapse of the past few days is, I find this even more troubling.
I must be wrong.
Surely there’s a private Facebook group or a by-invitation-only LinkedIn group, or a crisis blog for employees set up by Lehman’s HR folks. I did find the Lehman Brothers page below on LinkedIn.
If it’s true, as the Wall Street Journal points out, that 42% of people find a new job through networking, ex-Lehman employees are starting way behind the ball.
Does anyone know? Please set me straight.
Previous Comments
Denise O'Berry said on September 16, 2008 at 07:02 PM
Can’t answer your question, but doesn’t surprise me a bit.
So many big corps clamp down on employees using any type of social media in any way, shape or form. Even for internal communication.
Which, if they’re like many big corps is probably sorely lacking. It’s way too common for people who work in these orgs to find out company news in the MSM.
Sad, but true.
Awakening Entrepreneur said on September 18, 2008 at 03:31 AM
Can’t comment, I’ve seen many organization banning all social networking sites like facebook, orkut, myspace and some organizations just block any outside access to the internet.
But the surprising part is as pointed by the author , “what about the mail from the ceo?”. This is what I am surprised about…. even if the employees are not using blogging/rss (many companies don’t allow access to blogging sites also), a mail from the top management could have been originated.
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