I came across this article yesterday after hearing that the CEO mentioned has officially resigned. I don't know any of the people, but the words "toxic culture" will always have me interested.

Reading through it I had to stop, send it to my colleague and ask "Is this what we dealt with?" regarding our former manager. Examples:

"One senior leader described having a meeting with George, where they made crucial decisions about an upcoming project, only to be sent an email summary 30 minutes later that wasn’t representative of the things the pair had agreed upon.

“That’s a typical example of behaviours of, say one thing, formally write down another,” he said.

Yep.

Another person said they experienced similar confusing behaviour.

“She’d say, ‘I want you to do A, B and C, please’. And so you do it, then the next week she’d go, ‘No, no, no. I ask for D, E and F’.”

Oh yep.

Another person spoke about having “meetings before meetings” to figure out “how to not get attacked” or to get something over the line.

It's like I was there.

In my previous role, we had to manage up to such an extent we'd convince our manager that any idea was hers. We'd plant the right seeds at the right time so she'd come to the same conclusion we came to months earlier, and only then she'd allow something to happen. Fuck, we became some manipulative people. Turning up 20 minutes early to meetings, to plan how to approach the entire conversation - and it was just a weekly check-in!

She finished up last week, I got invited to the leaving drinks and it'd be weirder to not turn up. So I was there with my former colleagues and I could see the tension start to ease as she made her farewell speech; knowing she'd not be back in the office the next day.

Anyway they're picking up the pieces and seeing if people are willing to return. People like myself. But I can't. I enjoy my new job too much and also fuck that noise - not even for the money they'd offer. Eyes forward and all that.

I finally got a copy of House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. Looking forward to tucking into it.