When an Australian boss dissed the next generation for spurning unpaid work and blamed social media, it was the perfect story to drive traffic and prompt an instant online pile-on. The response to this story - and how it emerged in the first place - tells us a lot about how the media work these days.
The woman at the centre of the Gen Y online pile-on Natalie Brennan Photo: screenshot
The PR problems for cake and coffee retailer Muffin Break began as soon as this heavy headline appeared at News.com.au - the online arm of Rupert Murdoch’s company News Limited in Australia:
The general manager Natalie Brennan copped an immediate online backlash for saying young people were no longer willing to work for free to advance their careers - and the online outrage spilled over on this side of the ditch too.
The Herald’s social media reporter Megan Harvey and Stuff’s Alison Mau wrote firm rebuttals on behalf of millennials.
There were hundreds of tweets like this:
Should we all go to Muffin Break tomorrow for our free muffin so we can get experience eating muffins, see if we like them and decide if we want to buy more perhaps.
— Ferg Campbell (@OtagoLad) February 24, 2019
#MuffinBreak, let us know if you need any hard-working students to help you recover from this PR nightmare.
— Uni-Works (@uniworksau) February 25, 2019
P.S. Since they will be adding value to your bottom line, they have to be paid the award rate and get 1 free muffin per day. Deal?
News.com.au harvested selected social media outrage in a story headlined: Muffin Break: How The World Reacted which also ran on nzherald.co.nz.
The Facebook page of Muffin Break NZ gamely tried to launch a new muffin like this:
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Visit a Muffin Break & try something NEW
. . . which drew this riposte from the first to respond: "Roses are red, violets are blue, the head of your company is acting like poo."
The company tried in vain to point out it doesn’t use unpaid interns on shop floor and pays award rates. Natalie Brennan apologised.
But it was too late.
The following day news.com.au business writer Frank Chung backed up the under fire executive.
“She never said she expected all of her employees to work for free, as many online seem to be suggesting — only that those who put themselves forward to do unpaid work were more likely to get a job,” he wrote.
“It's important to clarify that Brennan was talking about head office-type roles like marketing and middle management. She wasn't suggesting cashiers or baristas should be working for free,” he added.
"The point is, feel free to be outraged about what Brennan said — but not what she didn't say," he said.
Fair point. Context is important.
But there was little of that context in the original report of her comments, which was also by Frank Chung for news.com.au (and then dressed up with corny stock photos of posey millennials clutching their smartphones).
“Privately, a decent number of employers share her 'kids these days' sentiments — but are unwilling to say so exactly because of this kind of backlash, ironically fueled by social media,” wrote Mr Chung.
The real irony was that his initial story that dropped Ms Brennan in it actually showed that pretty vividly.
This article also shed light on just how Ms Brennan sparked the poisonous pile-on in the first place.
Mr Chung reported it was during a chat with Ms Brennan for an article all about job interviews and CVs that the conversation turned to common mistakes job candidates can make.
From there, he said, the discussion about the much-maligned millennials and the "entitlement mentality" began, he said.
Only the big diamond yarn was bigger than the Muffin Break story last Monday for the Herald. Photo: screenshot
That article - which also ran in The New Zealand Herald - was shaping up as a run of the mill business section yarn until Ms Brennan delivered that broadside.
And News.com.au was only doing that story because of a surprising comment from another executive in another otherwise uninteresting story about job recruitment - which also brought in unexpected clicks for news.com.au.
A recruitment firm boss told Mr Chung he once texted a woman to arrange a time for job interview - and got a sleazy response.
“A Melbourne recruiter has revealed the 'shocking' moment a female candidate sent him a text message offering a sexual favour,” the story began.
News.com.au's analytics team must be slapping Mr Chung on the back for his uncanny ability to turn run-of-the-mill business features into valuable clickbait.
Mike Hosking seized on the story with an opinion piece endorsing Ms Brennan's views of Gen Y’s work ethic.
He was echoed in Australia by well-paid 2UE radio host Ben Fordham, who told his listeners not only did working for free get him where he is today, it’s the same for those he hires to work with him.
“I’m sorry but if you’re not prepared to work for free in this business you won't get a job,” he said.
How come a well-paid broadcaster can say that with not much pushback, but when one boss said the same about selling coffee and cake behind a counter it went viral?
We see plenty of these stories in the media now: something startling is said, somewhere overseas, sparking a social media reaction, which then becomes the story.
Opinion writers and broadcasters here then react to that.
But similar stories about young people and work here in New Zealand are there for the telling also.
What is common practice with internships here? What is considered best practice?
Indeed, what is legal when it comes to unpaid work?
Hardly any of that was covered in the many, many responses to what the Muffin Break boss unwisely said to a reporter in Australia.
