When Bosses Cause Disruption In The Workplace - 2

We've been talking about how bosses can cause disruption in the workplace. Last time I shared a personal experience at a small company at which I once worked. Here's an experience at a big - and well-known - company. (I'll leave out the name of the company.)

First, the rest of the entry in the Rule. Not surprisingly, the conflict between abbot and prior in the monastery creates lost of trouble in a monastery:

"...Hence arise envies, quarrels, detractions, rivalries, dissensions, and disorders. For while the abbot and prior are at variance, it must needs be that their souls are endangered by this dissension. And their subjects also, currying favour with this side or that, run headlong to perdition. The responsibility for this dangerous state of affairs rests ultimately on those whose actions caused such disorder." 

In that big company, all the above spread. And it was over a pretty extended time line. The inception of the troubles was under-performance by the company as a whole. Then followed a senior management shake-up. 

The company created and sold consumer products. It once dominated its industry and the products had a touch of what you might call glamor. The guys (and it was mostly men) who were shook up were as rule pretty much arrogant, preening sorts. But a newcomer to the industry began to eat their lunch - hence the under-performance and subsequent trouble.

I joined the company at the tail end of its run as dominant player. I witnessed the fall. And the guys I reported to were now taking incoming flak - and worse - from their bosses, the shareholders, and the Board of Directors.

As you might imagine, a high degree of finger-pointing erupted. None of these erstwhile "stars" of the industry accepted the changes to their exalted company, which naturally undermined their exalted personal status. Had they been more business-person rather than movie-star (slight exaggeration), they might have managed the situation differently. They could have focused on re-tooling the company in light of the new wave of competitors and products that caught the public's fancy. But they did nothing of the sort. And so the normal (and sometimes healthy) rivalry of ambitious executives looking to further their careers became trench warfare.

Envies, quarrels, detractions, rivalries, dissensions, and disorders became the rule, as St. Benedict so astutely summarized above.

So it wasn't just the two top bananas in the company going at each other. It was basically the entire top layer of bananas.

This dragged on for months and months. As performance continued to suffer and the stock price tumbled, the company became fodder for the financial engineers who, at the time, were just fine-tuning the art of hostile takeovers with the (then new and innovative) "junk bonds" that they created to fund their schemes.

As for the top banana, he cleared out of Dodge with what at the time was an unheard of "Golden Parachute" arrangement. (In fact, I think it was the first of the genre.) That's where the top guy, if forced to leave, gets paid millions upon millions of dollars. (Nice work if you can get it.)

As for the people to whom I reported, after months of quarrels, detractions, rivalries, dissensions, all were moving targets. Eventually they were all jettisoned at various times in various ways.

I kept my head down throughout all and didn't get sucked into taking sides, or showing preferences as the game was hunted down (who, by the way, became much more approachable and friendly during the whole ordeal; I guess they wanted allies or at least a friendly face - whatever).

And, of course, after witnessing their demise, the taking over of the company, and the new management assuring everyone that all was well, I was summarily dumped as well. So goes life in corporate America.

As for who was responsible for this whole mess, stability in the workplace really wasn't at the top of their list. It was all about their personal gain a/k/a greed. To the extent anyone stood in the way of their quest for treasure, well, too bad for us.

If you've never worked in such an environment, great. But if you see something like this brewing, beware.