This Guy Emailed His Boss Asking For A USD10K Raise And CC'ed 200,000 Colleagues
A Wells Fargo employee in Portland, Oregon, thinks he and his co-workers deserve a raise - and he wants everyone to know.
By Sadho Ram — 16 Oct 2014, 05:36 PM — Updated about 10 years ago
Late last week, 30-year-old Tyrel Oates, a Wells Fargo employee, after deciding for two weeks that he deserved a USD10,000 annual raise, simply emailed his CEO John Stumpf to ask for it. But there was more to his simple email.
You see, Oates' request was that it wasn't just for himself: It was also for hundreds of thousands of other Wells Fargo employees. He also CC'd 200,000 other Wells Fargo employees on the email to Stumpf. Talk about some chutzpah!
Based in Portland, Oates has been an employee at the banking and financial services giant for nearly seven years, and earns around USD15 an hour. In the letter, Oates brought up the issue of income inequality.
The story initially broke when the full email was posted to Reddit, and later confirmed by The Oregonian, via an interview with Oates. Oates argued that as the company has skyrocketed in profits over the past few years, those profits should be shared as the average employee still makes less than a living wage.
6abc.com
He spent two weeks gathering his fellow employees’ email addresses for the move, which he hoped would “show the rest of the United States, if not the world, that yes, big corporations can have a heart other than philanthropic endeavours”. He marked the email as “high importance”, and had “income inequality” as the email subject line.
buzzfeed.com
According to his profile on Forbes, Stumpf has been with Wells Fargo for 31 years, and in 2013 was paid around USD19 million
John G. Stumpf is Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Wells Fargo & Company, a banking and financial services company. He has been President since August 2005, Chief Executive Officer since June 2007, and Chairman since January 2010. A 31-year veteran of Wells Fargo, he has held various operational and managerial positions throughout his career.
forbes.com
When asked, Oates said that he's not worried about losing his job
He told Business Insider that the response has been positive, saying: “Out of the hundreds of replies I’ve received from colleagues supporting my actions and ideas, I’ve only received two negative replies.”
businessinsider.in
However, as per BBC, at a Wells Fargo branch in Washington DC, one worker says she found the email "unprofessional, but well written"
She says that she could use a raise. She wonders how much longer Mr Oates will keep his job - a concern echoed by many of the commenters on the Reddit post.
"Now, whenever a hiring manager willing to pay $20/hr Googles the name from his resume, this will come up," writes one Reddit user.
While CEO Stumpf hasn't replied, a bank spokesperson says Wells Fargo's compensation is "market competitive"
Its statement said Wells Fargo “values and supports its team members.” Wells Fargo provides “market competitive” compensation with an annual review. Everyone’s pay “significantly” exceeds federal minimums.