I’m no expert on running a company, but I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to insult your staff if you want them to work hard for you.

Tate Publishing puts out Christian books and music. After finding out that the company was going to expand into other countries last week, rumors began to circulate among staff members that they were going to be the victims of “outsourcing.”

Good CEOs would probably respond to the rumors head-on — tell employees what’s actually happening and whether or not the rumors are true.

Instead, CEO Ryan Tate and his father, company founder Richard Tate, gathered the employees to give a speech.

The best part of the story?

The whole speech was recorded and put on YouTube (the good part begins at 3:36):

Many of you in this room, whether it’s Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, blogs, anonymous emails, stupid comments, have been approached and asked to make changes, to remove things. I should have fired you on the spot… This final email is the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Things are going to be different. The reality of it is people in this room are responsible for it. Cowards in this room were a part of it.” … “Learn in God’s name what the word ‘outsource’ even means! What we’re doing in the Philippines, what we’re doing in China, what we’re gonna do in Australia and I hope all over the world, is in addition to what we are doing in Mustang, Oklahoma. You morons that sat back and wanted to create and generate conspiracy theories on the ‘what-ifs’… are stupid.

The Tates then fired 25 employees — and hired 7 new ones the next day. (It was the Christlike thing to do.) It doesn’t appear that they had evidence that all 25 of those employees were spreading the rumors (which don’t even seem far from the truth), but, you know, why not.

From listening to that recording, those 25 employees probably got the better end of the deal…

When their boss acts like that, it’s not hard to imagine why the employees don’t enjoy working there.

Why bother posting about this? Because when a company has a statement of beliefs revolving around Biblical principles, the implication is that it’s a better company to work for — employees are treated better, making money isn’t the only priority, etc. This story just shows that that’s not always the case. Christian companies, like most companies, do what they have to do to make money — and their owners can be just as vindictive and spiteful as everyone else.

(Thanks to Emmett for the link!)

