It’s hard for corporate overlords when employees demand humane, certainly-achievable working conditions. Some choose to respond with wildly out of touch ranting; others simply seek to replace people they purport to care about. Still others find themselves so in the throes of distress that they have no choice but to make an absolute asshat of themselves on camera. Healing isn’t linear, etc. etc.!
Unfortunately, for Nicholas Carlson, the global editor-in-chief of Insider, he chose the latter. Now the image of him with a Citi Bike basket full of ripped up pro-union fliers has been forever immortalized.
On Tuesday, the New York Post published a video of Carlson being confronted by a handful of members of the Insider Union after they witnessed him tearing down their posters while bicycling around Brooklyn last week. (Insider’s 250-person union has been on strike since June 2, though Semafor’s Maxwell Tani reported Wednesday afternoon that they appear to be close to a deal.)
One of the fliers—probably the one that prompted Carlson to hop on a Citi Bike and rip the signage from lamp posts in the first place—asked: “Have you seen this millionaire?” alongside his photo and details about the union and its ongoing negotiations, which include filing unfair labor practice complaints against the company over its move to drastically increase employees’ healthcare premiums in recent months.
The 57-second video shows one woman asking Carlson how he’s doing, to which he replies: “I’m not that great because I find this to be frustrating.” This, of course, I have to imagine refers to the union’s choice of photograph, in which Carlson appears as menacing as an adult man who was probably pushed into a locker one too many times in high school can muster. Bummer that he’s mad, though!
“Who are you all?” Carlson then asks. “I’m one of your reporters,” a woman replies, before explaining that he’d recently laid her off. Carlson then proceeds to play stupid—or worse, actually doesn’t remember her.
“You’re not my reporter,” he responds, smiling, which I suppose is technically true given that the woman goes on to inform him that Insider recently laid off her entire team.
Before she can properly articulate that however, Carlson pedals away from the group and, in plain sight, continues tearing down more fliers across the street.
A spokesperson for Insider told the Post: “Nicholas is a big boy and can handle attacks made on him on social media, but he was quite alarmed to see the posters plastered all over his neighborhood, including especially around his 7-year-old son’s school.” Of all the phrases to communicate emotional and mental maturity, this person well and truly went with “big boy.”
“To be clear, Nich is not responsible for Insider Inc’s selection of healthcare providers! Also, Nich is not annoyed at the union—after all, it was only a handful who participated in the stunt,” the spokesperson added.
In his reporting, Tani noted that members of the union had disagreed on whether to share the video of the confrontation as they thought it “wouldn’t advance the union’s goals.”
In January 2022, Carlson announced on Twitter an upcoming Insider series that would “demystify people’s salaries.” When asked about his own salary, he responded: “Fun question! I’d rather not say publicly for lots of practical reasons I’m sure you can imagine.” He never had to, though; Gawker reported that at the time, he was making $600,000 with a $600,000 annual bonus.