Some Salesforce employees say they received an email scolding them and asking to explain their absence from a company event, where CEO Marc Benioff made jokes about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to internal Slack messages viewed by Business Insider.
Benioff angered some employees on Tuesday with the comments, including one about ICE surveilling employees’ travel. Dozens took to an internal Slack channel to express disappointment, according to the messages.
Later, employees on Slack said they received an email from the company asking them to explain their absence from the employee-only event, the Company Kickoff (CKO).
“Your absence was noted during today’s CKO programming,” an excerpt of the email posted to Slack said. “During scheduled sessions, attendees were observed in hallways, bars, casinos, restaurants, and other areas across the hotel properties instead of attending sessions. This does not meet our expectations.”
One employee wrote that the email included a short Google form to explain any “extenuating circumstances” and that the response was limited to 250 characters.
It’s unclear whether the email was related to Benioff’s comments about ICE. Some employees said they did not go back to the event after his comments. Some employees who did return to the event after Benioff’s keynote also reported receiving the email.
“You should not be punished for not wanting to be in an environment that made you or any of your colleagues feel psychologically or physically unsafe,” one employee wrote on Slack.
Another employee on Slack quoted the statement “This does not meet our expectations” from the email and replied “right back atcha.”
Salesforce did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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