Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, stated on Thursday that women should not ask for a raise and, instead, have faith that their good work will be rewarded in time. The remark gained instant criticisms, especially on social media.
Nadella made this statement while talking at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Phoenix, Arizona. President of Harvey Mudd College and board member of Microsoft, Maria M. Klawe, asked him to give his piece of advice to women who are hesitating in asking for promotions and other aspects affecting their careers, Reuters reported.
"It's not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along," Nadella said. "Because that's good karma. It'll come back because somebody's going to know that's the kind of person that I want to trust."
Klawe immediately retorted, saying that Nadella's opinion is "one of the very few things that I disagree with you on."
Prior to the question, Klawe introduced Nadella as one of the people she "adored," and even described him as an "amazing" person, according to the New York Times.
A few hours after his speech, Nadella seemed to realize the gravity of his statement. He admitted that he might have lacked tact during the talk.
"Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise," Nadella wrote in a Twitter post. "Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias."
Nadella also sent an email to all Microsoft employees, admitting that he gave the wrong answer to the question. He realized that he might have offended 29 percent of Microsoft's global workforce that are women.
"I answered that question completely wrong...If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask," he wrote.
Workforce diversity is a known issue in the tech industry that is dominated by men. The percentage of women who hold positions for Apple, Facebook and Google is almost the same as Microsoft.
