Word Karma

Regular readers might remember my post in July about Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s terrible writing skills on display in a publicly-released company memo. We can now extend my argument that poor writing reflects poor thinking to speaking. At the recent Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, Nadella said that women should not ask for raises but should rely on karma instead. He has since apologized for his statement, but given the wide availability of data on the gender gap in workplace compensation, his position as a CEO in an industry with numerous gender disparities, and the venue at which he was speaking, it was a really dumb thing to say. His words reflect badly on him. More evidence for our students that communication skills matter.