During COVID-19, some business owners are their own worst enemy

So many companies have undone all the good work done by their PR agencies and gone viral for the wrong reasons.

At the risk of sounding like a Facebook meme, the Warren Buffet quote that “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it” has never been more apt, but unfortunately not everyone did “think about it and do things differently.” Many businesses went against government advice (not to mention the guidance of their PR advisors), demanding their employees come in when they could have easily been working from home or made staff redundant before waiting for government advice on wages.

Cineworld is a brand whose reaction sticks out for all the wrong reasons. Jumping the gun and terminating the employment of its staff “with immediate effect”, staff were particularly riled when their previous employer stated it hoped they would return when the cinema could reopen, expecting their loyalty without offering any of its own.

What did their reputation probably the most damage though was the fact that it was all needless. If Cineworld had waited a few days, as the government had asked, they could have retained their staff with 80% of their wages funded by the U.K. government.