While airline CEOs often aren’t popular with employees or customers, it’s rare that they get targeted in this way…
In this post:
Alan Joyce’s home was attacked overnight
The home of Qantas CEO Alan Joyce and his husband was attacked by (seemingly) protestors on Monday night, as the exterior was plastered with eggs, toilet paper, and even fruit. This was only discovered in the daylight on Tuesday morning.
For context, in May 2022, Joyce moved into the 19 million AUD (~12.8 million USD) home on Sydney’s lower north shore. The four story home was originally built in 1908, but was completely rebuild in 2015. The home is 631 square meters (~6,800 square feet), and has six bedrooms.
The optics of Joyce moving into this home ended up being pretty controversial, given the extent to which many Qantas employees have been without pay for the past couple of years during the pandemic. So seeing the CEO upgrading to a home this big probably didn’t send a great message to many in terms of shared sacrifice.
Admittedly the money used for the home was likely made long before the pandemic, as Joyce has been one of the highest paid executives in Australia for years. He has been CEO of the airline since 2008, so suffice it to say he has had quite a long tenure.
Were employees or customers behind this?
It’s not yet known who may have been behind this incident, as the culprits weren’t caught at the time. Presumably it was someone frustrated with Qantas, but that leaves a lot of people:
- It could have been customers; Qantas hasn’t exactly been fast with flight refunds, and Qantas also hasn’t been running a reliable operation in recent weeks (like so many airlines)
- It could have been employees; Joyce is known for being a pretty ruthless negotiator with labor groups, and during the pandemic many employees were put on leave, with some still not having returned to their jobs
This is the first time that something like this has happened to Joyce. However, in 2017, Joyce was pied at a business conference in Perth by a homophobic person who wasn’t happy with how Qantas was coming out in favor of marriage equality.
It goes without saying that attacking someone’s property in this way is unacceptable. That being said (and it’s probably a sad reflection of what we’re used to seeing in the United States), at least it wasn’t violent.
Bottom line
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce’s home was attacked on Monday night, with some disgruntled people throwing toilet paper, eggs, and fruit at it. It’s not yet known who was behind this, though presumably it could have been either frustrated employees or customers. Qantas isn’t exactly a particularly popular company at the moment, as is the case with so many airlines.
Pretty pathetic of people to attack someone's private home and anyone condoning that behaviour should be ashamed. And who is anyone to have a dig at someone for buying the type of home they want or can afford. The ridiculous tall poppy syndrome that can be so prevalent here in Australia.
Everyone has motive. Who shot Mr Burns?
A sad example of tone deaf leadership and an utter lack of emotional intelligence. Also a sad manifestation of the hyper capitalism that is disenchanting many and can lead to an erosion of brand equity.
It was me! Lol
Frustrated with no availability of qantas first or business class award seats!
Seriously anyone notice there is nothing but coach for months?
Kidding aside that is horrible and unexpected especially in Australia
The world keeps changing and not in a good way scary times
2 completely unrelated facts?
Airbus reached a $4 billion settlement with French, U.S. and U.K. prosecutors in 2020 in connection with a bribery scandal in which Airbus illegally swayed government officials and other decision-makers on airplane sales.
Boeing has not won a single competition at QF since Joyce took over as CEO.
Things that make you go HMMM!
LarryInNYC - you had the same read I did, really had never heard toilet paper (thrown for decoration) abbreviated that way!
I had never seen before that it was offensive (having lived, studied and worked on Native American Pueblos, now living just a mile from one). I must have some research to do. Gosh, I still remember back in my youth learning to build one - that was the name. Again the real impact though...
LarryInNYC - you had the same read I did, really had never heard toilet paper (thrown for decoration) abbreviated that way!
I had never seen before that it was offensive (having lived, studied and worked on Native American Pueblos, now living just a mile from one). I must have some research to do. Gosh, I still remember back in my youth learning to build one - that was the name. Again the real impact though is that it's not the right term for the article and set us off on a different path.
Also - video ads are beyond annoying.
To be honest, I don't think anyone cares about Alan Joyce's house as so many in Australia dislike Alan Joyce! This wasn't even covered in the Australian press much and looks like the story is only starting to get legs here because it is being picked up across the world so I guess we will see more of it. What is covered extensively of course is the issue of staff terminations, outsourcing positions, flight cancellations,...
To be honest, I don't think anyone cares about Alan Joyce's house as so many in Australia dislike Alan Joyce! This wasn't even covered in the Australian press much and looks like the story is only starting to get legs here because it is being picked up across the world so I guess we will see more of it. What is covered extensively of course is the issue of staff terminations, outsourcing positions, flight cancellations, ridiculous prices, cancelled flights, slow refunds, cancelled flights and appalling customer service. Qantas abandoned the Australian market during Covid and left all the heavy lifting predominantly to the Middle East Carriers for freight - that alone should make customers want to abandon QF. Unfortunately now, QF appears to be unable to handle the high level of travel demand. Joyce clearly has always disliked both staff and customers and seems only to care for shareholders who of course keep rewarding him with the big bucks. None of that is new!
"TeePee" is an offensive term for a Native American's home. You should be ashamed.
It is "Tepee", technically. But agreed TPing something is a correct acronym rather than how he spelled it.
@JK, How could you possibly think he meant it in that context.
Offensive? I thought it was a literal translation of a Sioux word?
I mean -- I thought it was literally a transliteration of a Sioux word.
In Australia, its actually TP which is short for 'Toilet Paper'
when did half of western world's adults turn into whiny 10-year olds...
Hope it was one of the thousands of people the prick fired illegally in COVID while the company was living off government support!
It's TPed. "TeePeed" means people came and set up tents on his lawn.
Could be any of the 2000 workers he sacked illegally during the pandemic. Or any Australian taxpayer he stole billions from. And good on them if they did.
It also could have been anti-vaxxers angry that QF will require proof of vaccination for international flights even after the government requirement ends.