I took on a senior level role at a company that I knew had some issues. I'm someone who always strives to do the right thing, regardless of whatever perceived ethical dilemmas are attached, and that has always been my guiding light.
i was approached about the role by a colleague and took it on knowing there were going to be challenges- as well as rewards. But It took me less than 6 months to uncover instances of fraud, mismanagement, toxic dynamics/culture, and substantial risks being taken on a daily basis. I really tried my best to communicate the issues in a constructive way, provide solutions, give credit where it was due, and advocate for changes that would add value and effectively improve the company.
It was my impression they wanted to keep certain appearances of being a 1st class outfit, but didn't want to put in the work, make tough decisions, or have the difficult conversations that came along with that. So they got use to simply lying about certain things unbeknownst to their clients and stakeholders.
I made my position clear that committing fraud in any degree, severity, or instance was not something I could be a part of. Being in the field of “corporate governance”, I cannot stress enough how important integrity is in this business.
In the end, I had one final face to face with the owner, and he said it wasn't “working out”. I agreed, but I think he sort of expected me to lick his boots to keep my job. Since I hadn't, he was a bit taken back. But I gotta be honest. It still hurt.
I really wasn't expecting to be let go simply for doing the job I was hired for, but he said I upset alot of people. People that, in my opinion, we're furthering or protecting the schemes to defraud. It was also not a very collaborative environment. A lot of long time employees, with hidden agendas, who had no other value than simply having been there a long time. Alot of other employees were shoe-ins…friends and family of past and current clients that were being done favors. I called it “scholarship”.
ultimately, I did sign a non disclosure and anti disparagement agreement in order to get my severance, so I don't want to say too much here. feel free to ask me anything and I'll try my best to answer.
But here are a couple of things that pissed me off along the way.
1) by the time I got back to my desk from being fired, my laptop had already been taken. Docking station included. like it was yanked out haphazardly in a burglary. As it turned out, the co owner snuck into my office while I was off getting fired. When I confronted him on it, he said they had network security concerns, like I would steal their files. I explained it was in fact the opposite, that I had no interest in “stealing” from them, but that I did however have personal data and files on the laptop drive that I needed to transfer, and that he was free to watch me if so concerned, so he did! He actually sat there and watched me drag local files to a USB.
2) they tried to skimp me on my accrued time off. Believe it or not I had over 2 weeks. They tried to give me 2 days as part of the package. I did the math and said it wouldn't fly. Then they tried to produce this pathetic generic “policy” in word format as an attempt to absolve themselves of any wrong doing since I was an “at will, terminated employee” that apparently wasn't entitled to accrued PTO since I was fired. I said I had never seen, heard of, or agreed to any such terms as part of pre employment onboarding. Now, keep in mind, I had alot of leverage knowing what I know, so they made good. I did get what I was owed in the end.
3) Although they acknowledged the staffing issues in my department and agreed to give me autonomy in correcting it, it was problematic from day one. When I wanted to go to the job boards to find new talent, they didn't even want to pay for premium subscription to post the role on linkedin. A company only gets one free LinkedIn job posting unless they buy a premium and they were already using it for some other role.. So I begrudgingly went to indeed. Lol
4) when I wrote up the post and circulated it for input, owners didn't like that I included the salary. The sentiment was sort of “well why don't we see who we get first and then try to figure out what they're worth”. I disagree. People need to know the salary before they waste their time and ours. I don't want someone above our range feeling short changed, and I certainly don't want to go through the slimy process of haggling with a potential candidate as the hiring manager, since we virtually had no HR department. They also wanted to know why I didn't include more fluff about the company. The owner wanted me to write “62 year old company with an established blah blah and such and such…”. I tried to explain that no one really cares about that clickbait. “Here's the role, these are the responsibilities, here's what we're budgeted for. If you like it, please apply. If you want to know more about the company, Google us.” That's what a job posting should be. End of story. They didn't agree, so I regretfully had to add some of their narrative. But salary range stayed!
5) I met several candidates I wanted to hire. But the attitude of the owners everytime was “well let's just keep looking and see if we can get someone better”. If I found someone 'better', i.e. 1 more year of experience, education etc, it was like “well let's find someone better than that”. As if people with specialized skillets grow on trees. So I was perpetually stuck bringing more people in just so I could say “ok, I've now interviewed 10 people, can we make a hire”. And ironically it was never good enough. I expressed discontent in their process. I gave my final pick, who happened to be the original candidate, to the owners and left it at that. In the end, I was out the door before he was even hired.
6) they did not allow for hybrid arrangements. The attitude and sentiment of the owners was that employees couldn't be supervised closely enough and “being a team means being together”. Barf. First time I had back to back to back calls and meetings, I stayed home to do them. By 10am, I had 2 texts and a call from the co owner. “Hey where are you, everything ok?” When I said “working from home, calls all day” there was this awkward silence and then “oh okay well are you coming in at all”… Why would I?… Next day I was summarily told by a coworker that hybrid arrangements are a frowned upon. I will add, they also didn't want me doing web based interviews for candidates. I still did phone screenings though.
7) they used a PEO, professional employment organization. To those who don't know, you can hire consulting firms to do all those functions no one wants to do- HR, IT, payroll, insurance administration, 401k, etc, so that the company can focus on their core business. So as you can imagine, trying to get answers about your benefits or anything at this company was made extremely difficult and tiresome.
8) they were very clearly concerned about what i had come to learn about the company while working there at a high level. So in came the NDA which was a first for me. I really just wanted to move on with my life, so I had a lawyer friend review, and he suggested alot of the releases, waivers, and anti disparagement clauses be “mutual”, meaning it would apply both myself and the company. And I was happy with that. To those that are gonna say “you shouldn't have signed. You should have sued, etc”.. let's be honest, the money was more important to me than keeping and exposing the secrets of a shitty company, or dragging it out for years in the courts. Life is too short.
There were Some red flags I should have paid more attention to, and maybe these can help you:
-No glassdoor.com profile, no employee reviews on the internet anywhere.
-Alot of young kids, and a few key boomers. Nothing in between.
-“we're not really set up for hybrid work”
-the owner was a very proud man… Proud of very meager accomplishments at that. Pride growth before a fall.
-There were several long time employees in my department that became my direct reports when I was hired. When i initially interviewed I asked why they hadn't promoted one of their own to my role. They said they basically had no trust or faith in any of them. I think this was the biggest red flag; they had no value for our work.