In a time when interest rates are on a never-ending rise, the housing market is tighter than ever and a bag of shredded cheese costs $10, the whole of Australia could really do with some words of encouragement.
Instead, when Tim Gurner took to the stage at the Australian Financial Review (AFR) Property Summit, he implied that perhaps it was workers who were the problem.
“People decided they didn’t really want to work so much anymore through COVID, and that has had a massive issue on productivity,” Gurner said at the Summit in Sydney on Tuesday.
“Tradies have definitely pulled back on productivity. They have been paid a lot to do not too much in the last few years, and we need to see that change.”
Gurner, the CEO of the billion-dollar property company Gurner Group, said boosting unemployment by 40-50 per cent, putting thousands of people out of work, would reduce the “arrogance” in the employment market.
If you’re a millennial and you think Gurner’s name sounds familiar, you may remember him as the guy who told you that buying smashed avocado on toast and a coffee is the reason you can’t afford a house.
From what Gurner has said, workers are the problem — it’s our spending habits and our “arrogance” at work that need to change. So the only thing to do is punish us, bringing “pain” to the economy, taking our jobs away, right?
This is “crunch-time” for the housing market. Two thirds of Australians are facing housing stress, according to research from July this year. Three out of four renters are concerned about financial security as a result of the housing crisis.
But data insights from PEXA Australia shows the housing crisis is driven by high population growth, shortage of houses and inflating prices and interest rates. No sign of avocados, coffee or ordinary workers anywhere in the data.
So would laying-off thousands of workers fix the economic crisis in Australia? It doesn’t seem right.
Gurner Group founder Tim Gurner tells the Financial Review Property Summit workers have become "arrogant" since COVID and "We've got to kill that attitude." https://t.co/lcX3CCxGuj pic.twitter.com/f9HK2YZRRE
— Financial Review (@FinancialReview) September 12, 2023
The purpose of the AFR’s Property Summit was to discuss both the risks and the opportunities these trying times present. Sure, diversity of opinion in forums such as these are critical, but not when comments target minority groups who bear the brunt of the economic crisis much more than multi-millionaires.
Unquestionably, Gurner is successful. At 41 years old, his net worth is estimated to be $929 million, not to mention the company he founded and now heads, which is worth more than $9.5 billion.
But rather than using his high-profile and success story for good, particularly at a place like the AFR’s Property Summit, he used it to re-assert the power hierarchy of the employer above the employees, which more often than not, seems to be white, cisgendered, powerful men above minority groups.
Gurner is not the first CEO to criticise the working class. In May this year, Elon Musk, CEO of X (formerly Twitter), said people who work from home should get off “their moral high horse work-from-home bulls***”. He also commended Chinese manufacturers – who undoubtedly are overworked and underpaid – for “burning the 3am oil”.
Back to Gurner’s comments. He suggested workers are displaying “arrogance”, an attitude that “the employer should be lucky to have them – not the other way around”.
Unfortunately, the growing movement of “quiet quitting” – that is, simply doing your job, within your job description, within your working hours – is being perceived as arrogance.
This may be a hot take, but protecting your boundaries at work is not arrogance. Questioning power relations between you and your employer is not arrogance – especially if you belong to a minority group. Doing your job and nothing more is not arrogance.
Workers are not the problem, and we’re not the solution either. It’s up to governments and high-profile people like Gurner to not talk down on workers, but talk with them. Hear their needs and come up with a working solution to their individual struggles and the broader problem of the economic and housing crises.
Yesterday, Gurner apologised to those he offended in his remarks.
“At the AFR Property Summit this week I made some remarks about unemployment and productivity in Australia that I deeply regret and were wrong,” he said in a statement.
“My comments were deeply insensitive to employees, tradies and families across Australia who are affected by these cost-of-living pressures and job losses. I want to be clear: I do appreciate that when someone loses their job it has a profound impact on them and their families and I sincerely regret that my words did not convey empathy for those in that situation.”
But the damage is already done.