Would you like your paycheck with a side of political opinion?
That's what employees of real estate developer Legendary, Inc. got last week when they found a copy of CEO Peter Bos' filled-out election ballot attached to their paychecks, according to nwfDailyNews.com. Bos also included a two-page letter telling workers that the election is about “selecting people that can determine the direction for the USA" -- and based on his ballot, that means Mitt Romney.
“To date, I have refrained from advising anyone,” he wrote. “However, this election is different. In my opinion, this is the most important election in my lifetime.”
Several employees weren't happy with the memo, sent out just days before Election Day. “Immediately, I thought that was wrong,” one employee told nwfDailyNews.com.
Yet because of the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, Bos isn’t breaking any laws. Furthermore, he's far from the only CEO to have attempted to sway his workers in the months leading up to the election. Fellow real estate mogul Dave Siegel, CEO of Westgate Resorts, may have been one of the first when he emailed employees letting them know that layoffs were likely should Obama win reelection. Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts wasn’t far behind, issuing an entire voting guide to employees favoring the Republican candidate as an Obama victory “would be a complete disaster.”
Indeed, Romney himself encouraged business owners in June to influence how their workers vote. That should help explain all the other examples that have since crept up.
Who else has try to influence their employees? Look here:
