Zoom CEO Eric Yuan reportedly badmouthed Zoom meetings in leaked call

Zoom CEO Eric Yuan reportedly aired his grievances about the product he founded — the same product that all but revolutionized lockdown-era labor — during a company meeting.

Throughout, Yuan reportedly expressed concerns about Zoom’s effect on the ability of the company’s workers — known internally as Zoomies — to bond.

“Over the past several years, we’ve hired so many new Zoomies that it’s really hard to build trust,” Yuan said, according to Insider. 

Yuan, an alumnus of early teleconferencing company and Zoom competitor WebEx, also pointed out his disdain for Zoom cultural norms such as waiting your turn to speak and not interrupting one another, and how that stifles innovation, the report said.

“Quite often you come up with great ideas, but when we are all on Zoom, it’s really hard,” he reportedly said, noting that “everyone tends to be very friendly” on company calls. 

The decision to push back against remote work appeared hugely unpopular among employees — whose ranks were already cut earlier this year — according to a New York Times report that described workers as “frustrated” during the meeting, and Blind posts from workers sharing the news on the anonymous job forum.

A Zoom worker on Blind, which requires that workers register with a company email address to authenticate their employment, alleged that Yuan told workers who did not like the policy change that they could exit the company. A company spokesperson declined to comment to SFGATE about the claim, but Insider reported in a separate story Wednesday that Yuan encouraged disgruntled employees to leave, wishing them “all the best.”

Hear of anything going on at Zoom or another Silicon Valley tech company? Contact SFGATE tech editor Joshua Bote securely on Signal at 707-742-3756 or email him at [email protected].