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Huawei demoted employees for tweeting happy new year wishes from an iPhone

So much for a happy 2019.

Huawei demoted employees for tweeting happy new year wishes from an iPhone

[Photo: Tyler Lastovich/Unsplash]

BY Michael Grothaus1 minute read

China’s biggest smartphone maker, which is already embroiled in several geopolitical rows, so far isn’t doing itself any favors when it comes to optics in the new year. Just before midnight on December 31, 2018, two Huawei employees sent a tweet from the company’s official account wishing a “Happy #2019 from all of us at Huawei.” It was a nice enough tweet–but the problem was the employees sent it from an iPhone–an embarrassing faux pas. The tweet was quickly removed, but not before being screen-capped and widely shared on Twitter.

But that minor embarrassment has now turned into a bigger PR nightmare for the company. In a memo sent to employees and leaked to Bloomberg, Huawei has decided to punish the two employees involved in the tweet by docking their monthly salaries by 5,000 yuan (about $730 a month) as well as demoting them a level in the company’s hierarchy. One of the workers punished for the mixup was a head of Huawei’s digital marketing team. Besides shaming the two employees involved, the memo also said Huawei departments must now “tighten management of suppliers and partners” after “the incident exposed flaws in our processes and management.”

So much for a happy new year.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Michael Grothaus is a novelist and author. He has written for Fast Company since 2013, where he's interviewed some of the tech industry’s most prominent leaders and writes about everything from Apple and artificial intelligence to the effects of technology on individuals and society. Michael’s current tech-focused areas of interest include AI, quantum computing, and the ways tech can improve the quality of life for the elderly and individuals with disabilities More


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