So. I work for a non-profit in the US. We’ve been really looking at a lot of our internal DEI work over the last two years, causing some people who have been with the org for a long time to have some mixed reactions. Our former CEO was one of these people. One meeting after the next he was putting his foot further and further into his mouth with insensitive, bigoted, close minded comments, and he took every chance to “fix” any of it to just make it worse. Dudes been here for years so despite repeated staff complaints, he sticks around until he’s finally tired of getting called out.
We then go through a 6-9 month process, hiring consultants, having all staff meetings to discuss what we want in a new CEO, etc. This whole process ends with us hiring a (now) former board member to become the new CEO. Had hopes to begin with, he understands the org but brings outside perspectives, has had quite the track record of success in related work, and he has great industry connections. However, on our first staff call since his beginning, he was even worse than the former CEO! He made comments about bags under our HR directors eyes, made jokes about alcoholism, said no one in our organization should feel burnt out and all we need is a pep talk from from if we’re struggling. He made several comments that also seem to show a huge disconnect between what staff are working with and what he thinks is going on on the ground. If this was the former CEO everyone would have been up in arms, but these comments just brought awkward chuckles and side glances on the faces on screen.
Really just truly flabbergasted that we can spend this much time and effort on selecting the right candidate for them to be this openly awful in their first two months… Guess I just needed to come here to vent. So sick of more of the same! Ready for the next thing