TikTok boss ‘cancelled’ after saying girls ought to NOT be given maternity depart

A TIKTOK govt has resigned from his place after saying girls shouldn’t be given maternity depart from the office.

Joshua Ma, the previous head of e-commerce at TikTok Europe, shocked London-based workers when he mentioned at a cocktail party that as a “capitalist” he didn’t imagine firms ought to supply maternity depart, the Monetary Occasions (FT) reported . .

The feedback reportedly sparked outrage from UK-based workers, resulting in the senior govt resigning from his place.

TikTok mentioned it investigated the feedback “to find out if there was a breach of firm coverage.”

Whereas the investigation is ongoing, Ma shall be “taking a while off,” in keeping with an inner TikTok e mail verified by FT.

“As you might know, the Monetary Occasions revealed an article right this moment containing some discouraging allegations about our UK TikTok store operations,” the e-mail to workers learn.

“Hopefully this painful expertise will make us a stronger, nearer and higher staff in the long term.”

Ma has been with ByteDance (TikTok’s mum or dad firm) since 2018 and took over the administration of TikTok Europe’s e-commerce staff in August 2021.

A “poisonous” work tradition

Ma’s alleged feedback highlighted a broader office toxicity concern at TikTok.

Analysis carried out by FT discovered that the e-commerce staff has halved since TikTok Store launched in October 2021.

“Each week individuals depart, it’s like a recreation — each Monday we ask who acquired fired, who stop,” mentioned a present worker.

Workforce members mentioned they’re typically anticipated to work greater than 12 hours a day to match Chinese language working hours, resulting in excessive ranges of stress and burnout.

Staff added that they had been tasked with hitting “unrealistic gross sales targets.”

“The tradition is absolutely poisonous. Relationships there are constructed on concern, not cooperation,” mentioned a former staff chief from London.

“They don’t care about burnout as a result of it’s such an enormous firm, they’ll simply exchange you. They drive with the TikTok model.”

A number of former TikTok workers additionally mentioned on Glassdoor that the corporate’s work procedures and ethics failed them.

“They didn’t examine a criticism of harassment for 3 months and eventually after I determined to depart because it was changing into insufferable they contacted me to ask for extra particulars on my criticism,” the previous worker wrote.

“Frankly a whole joke,” they added.

TikTok famous in its inner e mail that the well-being of its staff is its “high precedence… [and] Management 100% encourages utilizing annual depart to recharge and spend time with family and friends.”