"I’m ashamed to be part of this company today"

Electronics manufacturer Flex has come under fire for an email that it sent to its Israeli team in response to Hamas’ October 7th massacre of Israeli civilians which included the murder of 1,400 people and the kidnapping of more than 200 hostages by Hamas, and the subsequent war it has triggered.

The original email states, “Recently, we have witnessed the devastating impact of the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, where we have thousands of colleagues in multiple Flex sites in Israel. Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected and we wish to extend our support.” They added that they have established three fundraisers in partnership with Doctors Without Borders, The Red Cross and Save the Children, “to support those affected by the conflict.” They will match donations that they raise by up to $10,000 per charity.

Flex's company-wide email responding to the October 7th Hamas attack.

This was viewed as a grossly insufficient and offensive response from a company that has 4,000 Israeli employees. On top of that, Flex Israel, like the rest of the country, has been directly and brutally impacted by the horrific massacre: two employees were murdered at the Nova music festival and other employees are still missing, believed to be dead or even held hostage in Gaza. Many employees have friends and relatives who are missing or murdered, and numerous employees have themselves been called up to reserve units or have children serving in the army now.

“I exploded when I read this email,” says one employee who prefers to remain anonymous. “What is this?! I didn’t expect them to feel exactly the same as us, but I expected something. But it doesn’t matter to them.”

“We were in complete shock,” said another employee. “I’m ashamed to be part of this company today.”

In response to the claims Flex wrote in a statement: "Unfortunately, the initial message sent to the company's employees was misleading and worded incorrectly. Shortly thereafter, a revised update came out from the company's headquarters, including a sincere apology for the stress caused by the original message. The CEO of Flex, Ms. Revathi Advaithi, held a conference call with 200 Flex managers, in which she also expressed her regret for the initial text that was sent and emphasized her full commitment to the employees of Flex Israel in these very difficult times. Flex donated $200K dollars to Soroka Hospital and will continue to donate to other organizations in the coming weeks. The CEO of the company and the entire senior global management are proud to stand by Israel and do everything they can to help Flex Israel in any way possible."

Employees are outraged by what they called “a nothing response” that makes no specific mention of Israeli victims and that the company chose to raise money only for organizations working in Gaza and none that support Israelis. Israeli employees say that they’ve heard from many fellow Flex employees across the world who expressed their shock and outrage as well.

They emphasized that Flex has commented on other geopolitical conflicts before and say that there is a clear double standard. “When Russia invaded Ukraine, they immediately sent out an email without any conditions, saying ‘We stand with Ukraine.’ It’s not like they haven’t taken stances on geopolitics in the past,” said one employee.

Too little too late

The email unleashed a cascade of responses from Israeli employees, with numerous emails being sent to management expressing their anger and shame at the company’s response. Part of their anger comes from the fact that Israelis have played an enormous role in the development and success of this company. “I can’t describe how significant Israelis were to this project. We’ve made millions and millions of dollars for this company from Israeli business. All of the clients are Israeli, the subsidiaries are Israeli,” an employee said.

Of the $30 billion in annual revenues Flex earns every year, nearly $2 billion comes from Israel. Many of Flex’s clients and customers are global companies with Israeli operations including NVIDIA and Applied Materials, many of whom have privately expressed extreme outrage over Flex’ response. “I won’t be surprised if clients leave,” said one employee.

Flex is a global multinational electronics company that employs about 200,000 people across 30 countries, including 4,000 employees in Israel. Flex's Israeli subsidiary was established in 1997 and acquired by Flex in 2000. The company has established a notable presence in Israel through its multiple facilities and operations in the country, and has enormously benefited from its Israeli branches.

Several employees said that following changes in leadership in the past five years, there has been a steady decline in the management’s relations with its Israeli team, despite how central the multiple Flex sites in Israel are to its success. “There were once many Israelis in leadership and management roles and today there are none. There was definitely a process that led to this, something lurking in the background, but we never imagined this kind of response.”

Following the large number of responses from Israeli employees Flex sent a second email to its Israeli employees only expressing their sympathy and informing them that they have decided to donate $200,000 to a hospital in Southern Israel - a paltry sum for a company that earns $30 billion in annual revenues - which has been viewed as woefully insufficient by the Israeli team. “The least that we asked was to send this follow-up email globally, which they’ve refused to do. For us it’s too little too late.”

“They now know that they’ve made a mistake,” one employee says. “They didn’t understand that for a country this small and interconnected, where every casualty feels like a family member has died, that it’s enough for one person to describe what has happened and quickly everyone finds out.”

One employee says that some employees feel such a sense of betrayal that they can no longer remain at the company. “People are looking and as soon as they find a job they’ll leave.”