Political tension in the workplace has been bubbling up in recent months, especially as hot-button issues like immigration enforcement polarize the nation. While business leaders are largely cautioned to prioritize neutrality and inclusion in how they address such topics, what happens when a leader goes astray?
That’s the situation Salesforce is currently navigating.
Company founder and CEO Marc Benioff is under fire for comments he made at an internal conference this week. According to The Guardian, Benioff—whose own ties to the Trump administration have already put him in the crosshairs of political activists—asked international employees to stand during the event and went on to remark that agents from U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement were in the room watching.
Public outcry about ICE’s enforcement actions—particularly in Minneapolis, where federal officials killed two civilian observers last month—has spread quickly nationwide since the start of the year. The situation in Minneapolis prompted a coalition of CEOs of large Minnesota-based companies to issue a statement urging “de-escalation” of tensions.
Instead of the laughs Benioff presumably was seeking, the comment reportedly drew boos from the crowd.
Benioff’s remark—which was followed by another comment criticizing Bad Bunny’s all-Spanish Super Bowl performance—highlights HR’s growing responsibility of managing employee perceptions about leadership in a divisive environment.
“This would be an issue for HR in most companies,” one Salesforce employee wrote on LinkedIn. “But HR isn’t going to hold the CEO accountable.”
Another urged action, saying the company had “outgrown this era of leadership.”
“This isn’t about a single joke. It’s about a pattern of behavior that shows leadership increasingly disconnected from the diverse, global community that makes this platform what it is,” the employee wrote. He went on to note that Benioff may have had the right skill set to get Salesforce off the ground, but that leading a global company in 2026 requires different capabilities: “grounded empathy, cultural awareness and values that aren’t just marketing talking points.”
While employee criticism of Benioff’s comments exploded on LinkedIn, it also gained traction on Slack, a platform owned by Salesforce.
According to Business Insider, Slack General Manager Rob Seaman sent a memo to his own employees acknowledging the “jokes” that happened at the conference.
“I cannot defend or explain them,” he reportedly wrote. “They do not align with my personal values and I know this to be the case for many of you as well.”
The situation comes days after the release of a new study that uncovered soaring demand for stronger moral leadership—but dismal views of its current state by employees.
The 2026 State of Moral Leadership in Business, from The HOW Institute for Society, found that 94% of employees surveyed think moral leadership is an urgent priority—an eight-point increase from six years ago. However, most employees are highly dissatisfied with the moral leadership at their companies: Only 6% say their CEOs consistently demonstrate strong moral leadership, and 9% think the same about their managers.
The study found that organizations with top-tier moral leadership report better business results, employee loyalty and ability to innovate.
For instance, 18% of employees who report to managers lacking moral leadership say they want to leave their positions, compared to just 3% of those happy with how their managers lead. At the same time, less than two-thirds of those with poor moral leaders would recommend their workplace to others, compared to a full 95% of those who report to strong moral leaders.
Dov Seidman, founder and chairman of The HOW Institute for Society, says the “often-stark” differences between the business performance of those with top- and bottom-tier moral leadership make clear the demand for “value-based behavior at work and in society.”
“We believe the single greatest leadership challenge of the 21st century is to nurture and develop leaders who lead with moral authority and ensure that these leaders, and only these leaders, occupy positions of formal authority at every level of companies and institutions in every sector of society,” Seidman says.
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