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Home Depot Founder Says Woke Generation Will Make Lousy Business Leaders! 

Home Depot Founder Says Woke Generation Will Make Lousy Business Leaders! 

The outspoken 93-year-old retired co-founder of the Home Depot has said that he does not want to see the “woke generation” as tomorrow’s business leaders because they would waste time and money on things like “global warming” instead of focusing on a company’s bottom line. 

Bernie Marcus — who retired in 2002 and no longer has any involvement in the day-to-operation of Home Depot — said during a Fox News interview, “I certainly don’t want to see the woke generation coming up, especially the leaders.”

Not only does he believe that they would waste time and money on social justice projects, but in the same interview, Marcus called the woke generation “lazy,” adding that “nobody wants to work anymore” because of “laziness” and government benefits.

Marcus told the host of Fox’s “Varney and Co.” that he had been following the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos “and they’re recommending spending more money on climate control when we don’t have it. We’ve already overspent. And if anything, climate control has caused most of the problems we have today.”

Marcus continued, “We need leaders who are basically thinking about the shareholders and their employees. And I think today it’s all about woke diversity, things that don’t hit the bottom line.” 

Marcus, who was a major donor to Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, also spoke about the labor market, saying that people “don’t want to work.”

“You can’t hire people,” he said. “Nobody wants to work anymore, especially office people.”

Marcus said that the reason that people didn’t want to work is that “they’re entitled, they’re given everything,” adding that government unemployment benefits were pushing people to stay at home.

“So you get this laziness … and it’s basically a socialistic society,” he said. Marcus also said that people wanted to work “three days a week,” further emphasizing his belief that the current generation in the workforce is soft and lazy.

Marcus made similar comments in an interview with the Financial Times in December.

“How do you have a recession when you have people that don’t want jobs?” Marcus said during that interview. “There are plenty of jobs out there.”

The Home Depot has distanced itself from Marcus’ comments issuing this brief statement, “Bernie Marcus retired from The Home Depot more than 20 years ago and does not speak on behalf of the company.” 

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14 Comments

  1. Mike

    I’ve seen this is lower management positions. Even team leaders. What’s worse you can not evaluated them amongst peers. What I’m concerned with, Is how this will develop into failed companies. now that grades don’t matter, Math doesn’t matter, qualifications don’t matter. If your pretty black or LGBTQ+1 this that’s fine. The dangers in the world will be astonishing. Train crashed, car crashes, plane crashes. If it’s not in the manual or hand book it. It’s not possible.

  2. Tom

    He may not speak for Home Depot but he is correct. He speaks for business leaders.

    • Frank stetson

      He’s 93, that’s who he speaks for. The guy was 70 when the first woke generation went to work, 74 when the first college grad version began their career. He was retired then.

      We think Biden shaky at 80.

      It is what it is. An opinion of an 93-year old true entrepreneur who succeeded after being fired in creating the big box home improvement market and destroying local hardware stores.

      I like his opinion but don’t think it describes an entire generation.

      • BILL L

        I think it very much accurately describes anything or anyone that subscribes to the Communist (DemocRAT) Party of America and all its WOKENESS.

        As the factual statement bears… Go WOKE and Go BROKE.

  3. Bill L

    Can you imagine Communists (DemocRATs) working on and deploying AI Technology that is getting ready to infiltrate every facet of our lives?

    There’s a reason why most of America refers to DemocRATs as wholly Ignorant and Incompetent. Just look and listen to them on a daily basis and receive a dose of arrogant and belligerent ramblings.

  4. Mike f

    It is entirely possible that companies in the future will not make the profits that companies currently do-however if this is the only measure of success we can apply to corporations, then we have a warped set of values. Marcus came of age in a different era when business was all about money. Sadly he hasn’t been able to change with the times and realize that today’s generation sees things differently. They realize that there is more to life than work, and also if we don’t do something to fix the environmental mess that people like Marcus have made, we won’t be here much longer. Sad that people view an out of touch 93 year old as having opinions worth repeating…

    • K Sny

      What you are saying is that in the future that profits will not matter, Tell me how a company will stay in business
      if they don’t care about profits. Losers go out of business. I guess this new generation believes the Government
      should run everything and make sure that they are fed and housed and have all the goodies handed to them.

  5. Darren

    Almost everything in life that is good for people either makes them a better person or improves their or someone else’s lives.
    Where is the improvement for anyone trying to go GREEN!
    Only the ignorant or arrogant actually believe we as people can change the climate of the planet.

    People through programs have made a difference in breathable air in places of low oxygen exchange like valleys and such.

    But only the most of stupid people believe we are the cause of global warming.
    Almost all problems in peoples live stem from a view point we are the ruin of the planet.

    The biggest polluters of the planet is China, and yet fools like Bill Gates want them to expand while we are being told stop
    what we are doing and change our lives FOR THE WORST.

    People not wanting to work and being paid to stay home is just an off chute of all the terrible policies of the Green deals that have taken us to this place of not wanting to work.
    Follow the money, follow the money, follow the money.

  6. Jackie Dukes-Strey

    Whoa there Mike f! At 93 this man is talking more sense than all the “woke” crap too many companies are implementing. A business is in the “business” of making a profit by having employees who are willing to work for the salaries they earn, the benefits they’re given (earn) & a financial success for the investors. Many of us older folks worked our entire lives, saved & invested in these companies to see us into our retirement years. We didn’t depend on the Govt. to give us the majority of our retirement funds but we darned sure do expect the companies that we’ve invested in for our retirement years to produce & make a profit! If young employees don’t see the necessity of working hard to provide for their families & their futures the failure is on them & the company that keeps them employed while not doing the job their paid to do. You need to get from “woke” to “WAKE UP!” & see what this is doing to our country & to YOUR future!

  7. CMWRF

    This man is 100% CORRECT!! While there are exceptions to most things, the majority of the younger generation are EXTREMELY LAZY, EXTREMELY GULLIBLE, EXTREMELY UNRESPONSIBLE, and think everyone-including the government-should take care of them..they are a DISGUSTING DISGRACE to America!!! Sadly, TV, video games, social media, poor schools and poor parenting has allowed them to be indoctrinated to think they should be like this. The Communist party planned this from the 1950s…we are seeing the fruition of their plans…witness the downfall of America as the older generation passes and this EVIL, BRAINWASHED TRASHY younger generation gets older….

  8. Joseph D ORAVEC

    We fokes went WOKE, Crtical Thinking Stopped. If the Woke crowd would use Critical Thinking they would ask questions. Instead of taking anything so called experts tell them. EX: Al Gore or Bill Nye. The left wants us to completely change our energy grid, to use Solar and Wind. But still have a Grid controled by Corperations and the Government. Why is that? So they can still control you and I. Think about it. Anytime Companies, or Government control utilities, they control you. Russia controls Natural Gas and can shut it off to Ukraine, Germany, and Europe. They have done it before. OPEC put the squeeze on America back in the 70’s. That is the whole problem with the “Green New Deal”. It is No Deal for American Citizens. It is ALL about power, to control us. A perfect example is Covid. How our Government ABUSED power to control us. With the excuse of a virus as a reason to destroy the US Constitution. So, you WOKE people want GREEN? Then do away with a plan with a NEW Grid. Just install FREE Solar and Wind for every home in the USA. Totally independent of the FEDS or Companies. But that won’t happen.

  9. frank stetson

    It won’t happen for a reason: economies of scale.

    Plus — how about higher density residential or small business……

    If you so distrust your own government, there is a few solutions for that.

    I am woke, I see the evidence of and believe in climate change, not that that has anything to do with being woke. The New Green Deal is a direction, not a directive, and it’s pretty damned obvious we need to move off fossil fuels — the only question is timing. For other aspects, I would say it’s better to be efficient and effective than wasteful and abusive, thus using less and getting more out of what you use seems like a good investment. And for me —- it already has proven itself. I spend less and drive farther, stay warmer/cooler than before I woke up and smelled the fair trade rainforest alliance sustainably grown coffee before I repurposed the grounds……

    Yeah, I have made these environmental changes because they have put change in my pocket. And that makes cents.

  10. Daniel Mitchell

    There was a time here in America when there was no welfare, no income taxes, minimum government. All the government infusinsions into our lives was because the big boys were mostly acting only in their best interests with no concern for the employee, the community, and the environment. There were some major exceptions to that statement who were charity leaders but it was not the general practice which is very sad because America has a much greater human goal than that negative me,me, me behavior. Marcus is one of the good guys who is just disappointed that we as a nation are not celebrating energy and enthusiasm through being all in on success for all. He is an example of what inspiration, handling risk, confidence and hard consistent work can achieve. Follow Marcus’s leadership and be all in on your present job: whatever it is now. Success breeds success it become a habit for a lifetime. Unfortunately so does dependency and complaining. We are a nation, unique in the would, of millions of people from all over this globe who came here to work in freedom to achieve the highest possible life style for them and their families. That is the secret of America, not dependency on the government handouts. ASk the black Americans who came here as slaves how good it is to be in a culture where it is “yess aa Massaa.”

  11. Robin W Boyd

    Having worked for Lowe’s for 2 years during the planned-emic, I can say just due to the way Lowe’s corporate treats employees, I would never step into a Lowe’s again. Now I have more reason to buy my DIY, garden and business products from Home Depot.

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