Our Commitment To Stand Against Racism

A Note From Our Founder

Please find below a letter from Wayfair’s CEO, Niraj Shah, to all Wayfair employees on racial injustice, sent June 1, 2020. The message underscores our stance that racism in any form is unacceptable. We remain steadfast in our commitment to fairness and equity for our employees, members and communities.

Hi everyone,

As I write this note to everyone in the Wayfair community I’m at a bit of a loss for words as I am struggling to understand and process what is going on in our communities. The events of the last few weeks and senseless deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and countless others, have left me worried and angry about the state of our larger human community. I know from our conversations that many of you are also feeling this way and do not know what to do; it is painful to see tragedy play out and not feel there is a way to do something to stop it.

I think there are a few things we can do together:

We can reconfirm our belief that racism in any form (explicit or implicit) is unacceptable in our community, both at Wayfair and the communities in which we live. We need to keep saying this, more loudly and even more often. And, we must confront, and change, any examples we find. While I believe that we have always tried to do this, I think the early success of our internal efforts from the last year, and the plans of things to come, show that we can and should do more.

We need to recognize that not just these events, but the entire situation, has an even greater, more personal impact on many of our colleagues and we need to support each other. Part of that support is our willingness to say out loud to members of the black community at Wayfair that we see you, we are here for you, and want you to be able to share your feelings and know that we, your entire Wayfair community, will listen carefully with intention and compassion.

We need to take this opportunity to more regularly and more passionately talk about these issues at Wayfair. We have leaned in to our DEI work over the last year, but there is still much more to do. I am proud of our ERGs, and, more than ever, we need to find a way to really share the experiences that they have highlighted among all of us. It is only by learning about the differences that make us unique that we can become truly more inclusive. I believe this for Wayfair, and I believe this for our larger communities as well.

One thing that we can all do is help is contribute to the causes that support ending racism, hatred and violence in our world. For some that contribution may be financial, and to support them, for the next 30 days, we will double Wayfair’s match. For some that contribution is with your time through volunteerism and here too we will double the program that offers paid time for volunteer work.

Last, but not least, we all must exercise our right to vote. Steve and I have always been extremely strong believers that everyone should vote. This is a right that is highly underused, particularly in local elections, and yet it is in many ways the most direct thing we can do, which is to select our leaders. I urge everyone in our Wayfair community to do this, to vote. And we recently specifically changed our policies to create PTO for every person at Wayfair to vote.

All of that said, I fear we are going to continue to experience some very difficult times ahead and I am extremely worried about the state of the world in general. I tend to be very “action oriented” therefore the list above of things “to do”. But the most important thing for all of us to do today is support each other, take care of each other. This is true here at our Wayfair community and this is also true in our other communities, with our families and friends, places of worship, towns and cities. Each of us can be there for each other, listening and learning and it will make the world a tiny bit better.