Sony Pictures CEO announces resignation, Striking port workers explain stoppage

Greetings, comms pros! Let’s take a look at a few news stories from the last week and see what we can learn from them.

1. Sony Pictures Entertainment chief Tony Vinciquerra announces plans to step down

A change at the top of Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is underway, as CEO Tony Vinciquerra is slated to give up the company’s reins at the beginning of next year. SPE’s Chairman of Global Television Studios, President and COO Ravi Ahuja will take over on January 2, 2025, with Vinciquerra staying on in an advisory role until December 2025.

Vinciquerra told Deadline that Ahuja will be a great fit for the role and shared a note of gratitude.

“He has very good EQ and IQ. He’s much smarter than I am. And much better with people than I am. When I stepped into this role seven and a half years ago, I would’ve never imagined the extraordinary industry disruption and opportunity we’d face,” said Vinciquerra. “I’m filled with immense gratitude for this exceptional company and its profound legacy in Hollywood history. I’m consistently inspired by my brilliant and resolute colleagues.”

No matter the company’s size, a change at the top is a big event to contend with. SPE handled this smoothly amid a changing entertainment landscape by making a runway for the change to take place and identifying a transition period for Vinciquerra. By emphasizing continuity, there’s a better chance for a smooth transition that keeps work and culture intact.

2. Longshoremen union speak out about strike

Port workers across the country are continuing their strike over compensation and automation concerns, with representatives for the International Longshoreman’s Association claiming that their actions are meant to benefit “future generations.”

According to The Guardian:

Joe Mosquera, a crane operator and union organizer with ILA, local 1235, said its goals were straightforward. “The action is going to give us a fair contract and we can get back to work to get people the goods they need,” he said. “This is for our future generations. To keep automation out is to keep our jobs for the future. And if anything becomes automated, we want to make sure that there’s a worker to back it up.”

The ILA has not had a new contract for six years. “We honored our last contract,” said Mosquera, “even through Covid when we had to work double or triple. We never shut down, so everybody could get their goods. We didn’t ask for a pay raise. We didn’t walk out to try to get leverage when we could have, because we were honoring our agreement.”

In a world in which employee experience is becoming a more crucial part of employer communications, these strike actions bear watching. A major part of the strike centers on automation, which recalls memories of the WGA strike from last year. When workers don’t feel like organizations consider them or their needs and push for automation without any regard for their livelihoods, these situations get sticky and can drag out.

For comms pros, there are three main things they need to do amid a unionization push or strike:

• Acknowledge worker unionization and strike rights.
• Communicate through your mission and values.
• Ensure leaders are prepared to talk about labor movements.

Organizations derive identities from the people who work for them. Being able to relate to workers and provide them with what they need to succeed begins with acknowledging and talking to them.

3. Amazon employees threaten to quit over RTO mandate

A few weeks ago, Amazon decided to call its corporate workers back to the office full-time beginning in January 2025.

A recent survey from Blind found that Amazon employees aren’t taking the mandatory badge swipe lightly.

According to Blind:

“Just days after the company’s announcement, some Amazon professionals said they plan to take more drastic steps, including looking for another job. Nearly three out of four Amazon professionals (73%) said they are considering looking for another job because of the in-office work policy.”

Returning to the office is totally fine as a policy, but it needs to be rooted in both company culture and sound reasoning. This is much different than calling people back to their desks because a company is falling behind on an ill-timed office lease — it communicates the ‘why’ behind the move through a shared sense of organizational values.

In the absence of that “why”, you leave a void that causes people to speculate. In this case, Stanford economist and remote work expert Nicholas Bloom said that requiring employees back five days a week might be a way of conducting layoffs on the sly.

Business Insider reports:

Bloom told Business Insider that requiring employees to work in the office five days a week could be a “backdoor layoff” strategy — a move sometimes used by employers to reduce head count without facing the consequences of formal layoffs.

He said the move would probably succeed on that basis but would “damage areas like AI where it is hard to recruit top employees.”

“Amazon presumably took the view they would rather control costs by cutting head count and take the hit of technology and innovation,” he said.

Whether true or not, that idea is now out there and detrimental to the company’s employer brand. Though Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” talk is standard issue thought leadership at this point, his wisdom rings true: people don’t buy what you do, but why you do it.

4. How about some good news?

• An unusual rock on Mars has scientists speculating whether it originated from “somewhere else”.
• An ancient pedant was found on a beach in Cornwall.
• A goat in Canada ran the last few miles of a marathon and earned a medal for his efforts.
• Ragan Training is great for communications pros to find inspiration and resources.
• You should be rewarded for your work. Find out how to earn an award here!

Have a great weekend comms all-stars!

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports, a good pint and ’90s trivia night.