Travel firm’s culture slammed
Flight Centre has come under fire for a booze-soaked culture and murals that suggest women should carry condoms and become ‘‘Naughtywise’’ ambassadors at the company’s leading global event.
The company’s vision of an high-achieving employee, emblazoned across its head office, show a scantily-clad woman with her skirt hitched up, one shoe missing, holding a glass of champagne and wearing a pair of devil’s horns.
The murals were installed as part of a recent refurbishment of the company’s Auckland headquarters and are available for use in Flight Centre offices all over the world.
A Canterbury marketing expert said the mural was ‘‘a classic example of objectifying and victimising women’’ and a Flight Centre employee told The Press it was hated by female sales consultants.
On the left of the image, under the heading ‘‘Mindset’’, the mural refers to alcohol-induced memory loss, injury and ‘‘sharing’’ of embarrassing photos on social media.
Another mural nearby shows a young male staff member in uniform, wearing a headset. He is fully clothed and holding a beer.
In contrast to the female mural, the male ‘‘essentials’’ include an energy drink and an iPhone. The mural refers to male employees knowing their numbers, targets and goals. There are no references to sex.
The permanent murals were installed as ‘‘inspiration’’ for employees to hit sales targets, at which point they are eligible to attend the Global Gathering, the pinnacle of the company’s achievement every year. This year’s Global gathering took place in Berlin last weekend, with thousands of attendees, and a headline performance by pop singer Kylie Minogue.
Flight Centre chief financial officer Victoria Courtney said the murals were ‘‘tongue in cheek’’ and the company had a ‘‘workhard, party-hard’’ culture.
Stuff spoke to an employee who felt compelled to speak out about the Flight Centre culture. The murals at Flight Centre in Auckland were seen as ‘‘stupid’’ by most of the staff, including the men, she said. ‘‘The female sales consultants hate that poster. (They) look at it and say ‘that doesn’t describe me’.’’
The employee, as well as a former colleague who has since left the business, described a global Flight Centre culture where alcohol was the ‘‘reward for everything’’ and female staff were routinely sexualised.
The former colleague said the booze culture was ‘‘a global thing’’ at Flight Centre. ‘‘You are explicitly told you have to attend the monthly buzz nights. New people are brought up to be introduced, and made to do shots. It sets the tone for your work life – if you refuse you risk being seen as a stick-in-the-mud.’’
Courtney confirmed these events were considered
compulsory. ‘‘There is absolutely an expectation for staff to attend company events and we do stipulate that in our contracts. There is an expectation but we absolutely understand that it’s unreasonable for everyone to attend every event . . . so we’re flexible around that.’’
Courtney said 80 per cent of Flight Centre staff globally were women, and 50 per cent of senior management in New Zealand were female. ‘‘We haven’t had any concerns or issues raised.’’
The female staff member told of attending a Flight Centre conference where senior management gave ‘‘shots’’ of tequila to conference delegates from first thing in the morning.
The staffer said young people joining the company were often ‘‘really excited’’ by the harddrinking culture but ‘‘it’s not what you want in a professional company’’. ‘‘A lot of people brought this up at the conference last week; that it’s a young person’s company that doesn’t cater for families.’’
Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Canterbury, Ekant Veer, a specialist in equity and diversity issues, says the emphasis on drinking is common in many sales-intensive companies.
‘‘What you’re describing [at Flight Centre] was the standard culture in the Wolf of Wall Street times,’’ he said.
‘‘Some company leaders are still living in those times, not accepting that things have moved on from 40 years ago.’’
Professor Veer said the mural of the partying woman was ‘‘a classic example of objectifying and victimising women’’.
‘‘It’s really difficult to change a culture like that, as we’ve seen in cases like (law firm) Russell McVeagh.’’