He caused quite a stir last week with his open holiday policy for staff and now Richard Branson has offered up some advice for people who have a “snooty” boss: Picture them on the toilet.
Branson, or Richard as he really likes to be known, says companies should do away with “unnecessary hierarchies and formalities” if they want to be more successful.
“I have always urged everybody to call me Richard,” the billionaire wrote on his blog earlier today. “While it is a real honour to be knighted, I am perfectly happy to be addressed by my first name. Some people insist on calling me Sir, and whenever I hear it I feel like I have wandered into a Shakespearean play!”
Branson (sorry Richard) says CEOs who insist on people using their titles will find it difficult to bond with their employees and he warned: “If you put yourself on a pedestal, you are asking to be knocked off.”
He also had a little gem for anyone who was dealing with stuck-up people in the workplace: “Whenever somebody is being really snooty and insisting I call them Lord or Lady So-And-So, I think of them in the toilet. When they are sitting on the loo, they are just the same as everybody else!”
