The CEO of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes, shared a shirtless photo of himself presiding over a management meeting on his LinkedIn profile on Monday, October 16. He bragged about his company’s work culture which allowed him to get a massage and attend a management meeting simultaneously, shirtless. Tony Fernandes deleted the post on Monday evening after he received flak from Netizens for indulging in such ‘inappropriate’ and ‘disgusting’ behaviour.
Sharing a shirtless picture of himself taking a massage while conducting a virtual management meeting, the AirAsia CEO captioned his post, “Was a stressful week and Veranita Yosephine suggested a massage. Got to love Indonesia and AirAsia culture that I Can have a massage and do a management meeting.” He added, “We are making big progress and I have now finalized Capital A structure. Exciting days ahead. Proud of what we have built and never have lost sight of the finish.”
The AirAsia CEO’s efforts did not go down well with social media users who fumed at his ‘disgusting’ and ‘inappropriate’ behaviour.
A LinkedIn user commented on the post saying, “I don’t think the women in your company would feel comfortable or safe in this context, and given you’re the boss, they likely won’t challenge you or say anything. Please for their sake, listen to the comments you’ve deleted on this post. You are clearly a smart leader that cares about culture but this isn’t the way to create a supportive, safe one..”
Another user remarked, “What kind of example you are setting for generations to come and even for those who look up to you, I don’t think it’s appropriate to have an official meeting in such a manner.”
“Work at AirAsia, where meetings are as gross as our passenger experience. You have managed to capture everything from inappropriate entitlement to exemplary C Suite tone-deafness in a single image. Bravo!” a user added.
A person commented, “I’m not sure how to react here. But I think there are 100 better ways to show off your company culture, and this stood out the most least.”
Later the same evening, Tony Fernandes deleted his post. Since the post was shared on the platform, it has garnered hundreds of comments condemning its inappropriateness.