Salesforce cofounder Parker Harris addressed the controversy over CEO Marc Benioff’s ICE jokes in an internal meeting, saying he was “not OK with it,” Business Insider has learned.
“Marc made a very bad joke,” Harris, who is the company’s chief technical officer, said. “But that’s something that Marc did, and I’m not gonna call him out in public out on the internet.”
A transcript of Harris’ remarks at a meeting of the product and tech team last week was posted by an employee to a Slack channel. Business Insider verified that the transcript was accurate.
Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment. Benioff has not spoken about the jokes or the company’s reaction to them.
In his meeting, Harris began by addressing a question about why many company leaders had not addressed Benioff’s comments at Salesforce’s employee-only company kickoff in Las Vegas last Tuesday.
“So I’ll start by saying that somebody already has, and it was immediately leaked,” Harris said, referring to a Business Insider story about another executive who criticized Benioff’s jokes.
“Let’s talk about it with each other and not out to Business Insider and other places because it doesn’t do us any good,” he said, adding. “It’s a violation of the Code of Conduct, and it’s a fireable offense. And if we do catch you, we will fire you.”
At the kickoff, Benioff made “multiple” jokes about ICE, including one about agents surveilling Salesforce employee travel, employees told Business Insider at the time.
Workers reacted with anger on Slack, which is owned by Salesforce. Slack General Manager Rob Seaman posted a comment saying he could not “defend or explain” his boss’ comments.
“They do not align with my personal values and I know this to be the case for many of you as well,” he wrote.
Craig Broscow, a Salesforce VP, acknowledged the “deep disappointment” in his own Slack message after the kickoff remarks.
“It would be a step in the right direction and for Marc to acknowledge as soon as possible — ideally publicly — that his attempted joke was extremely upsetting to large segments of his employee base,” Broscow said.
Speaking to his team, Harris said Seaman got in hot water for his post.
“I’ll tell you personally, and this is what Rob said as well, and I respect Rob for saying that, but he got in big trouble ’cause it went out on the internet,” Harris said. “Personally, I’m not OK with that joke.
Harris went on to say that “it’s hard right now with what is going on [in] the US” and “what’s going in, like, Minneapolis is not about our software. Our software is not being used there.”
Harris said Salesforce is “not a political organization” and encouraged employees to make their views known at the ballot box.
“I’m going to use my democratic right to vote, and that’s how I’m gonna take action against some of the things that I’m not okay with,” he said.
He closed with saying, “So that’s my statement. It may not make you feel better. So I’m sorry if it doesn’t make you feel better. I think we should keep talking about it. I’m totally fine talking about it more. Please keep it confidential.”
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