A company I used to work for decided to consolidate three technical writing groups under one manager. An out-of-state person was selected to be the new manager, and he started flying in every two weeks to whip us into shape.
He got off on the wrong foot with us, making wrong assumptions and being condescending. Some of the writers looked for other jobs. Within a month half the group had resigned or transferred to other groups in the company.
After six of the 12 writers had left, I drew a large thermometer on the whiteboard in our conference room. I put 12 lines on the thermometer and colored the bottom half of the thermometer with red marker. Next to each of the bottom six lines, I wrote the name of one of the six writers who had left — in the order they left. There were six unlabeled lines left. Next to the thermometer I wrote, “50% gone. Help us meet our goal of 100%”.
The thermometer was up for several weeks before the new manager returned and saw it. (I had drawn it after his previous visit.) When he returned, he held a staff meeting in the room and saw the thermometer for the first time. He told us the thermometer was not appropriate and reflected badly on us. He told us to erase it after the meeting, which I did.
The group never recovered. The manager was eventually made redundant when we were consolidated with yet another technical writing group, whose manager became the new manager. Over the next 3-4 years, the manager's position was refilled numerous times. The position attracted increasingly ambitious, ruthless people. I never understood that.