Follow Up: High Level Government Official Forced to Resign For Bullying and Harassment

Hi: Thank you for tuning in! 
 
 This episode is the follow up to a story I talked about in the second half of the last podcast. The story was about a top government official in Canada who was forced to resign from her job when accusations of abusive behavior and maintaining a toxic work environment forced a workplace investigation which became public. 

Information I cover in this episode include: 

-what current and former staffers said about the work environment the official presided over;

-the resulting report by an outside consulting company that investigated the allegations;

-the reaction by the official to the reports of her behavior;

-lack of thorough vetting that could have predicted her performance related to how she led staff in the job;

-how exceptions to policies can backfire in a costly way;

-how protecting poor managers can be costly.

I posted a bit more on my blog some of the information that I discussed on the podcast: https://workplacefairnessanddignity.blogspot.com/. Do stop by.

MUSIC: The Soul of Motown, by Bobby Cole; Slide the Guitar, by Neil Cross; Fun, Retro, Upbeat, by Vladyslav Krotov; Snap, Swing, by Diego Martinez; Swinging Lounge Bar, by Neil Cross; Bizet’s Habanera, by Keith Anthony Holden; Geminiani Concerto Grosso Classical – Worldwide Public Domain; Snap Swing Stinger, by Diego Martinez

Transcript

MUSIC: The Soul of Motown, by Bobby Cole

Hello and welcome to Workplace Fairness and Dignity. My name is Cecilia Akuffo, and I am from the Boston area.  I worked in Human Resources for approximately 10 years as a staffing recruiter, until I was fired … from a job I loved, because I spoke up about abusive behavior. I created this podcast as a platform to promote the normalization of workplace fairness and dignity, and to promote organizations that are committed to employee fairness and dignity.  

 On today’s episode, I am following up on a news story from my previous podcast. 

 In that podcast from Sunday, January 24th, in the second half of the podcast I talked about the governor general of Canada who resigned her post when accusations of abusive behavior towards her staff came to light. 

The allegations came from current and former staffers who said that she led an environment that was toxic and that she bullied staff. Additional information on this story is also in my January 25th blog post at workplacefairnessanddignity.blogspot.com. The title of the blog post is “High-level government official forced to resign due to bullying and harassment in the workplace." 

In a letter to the editor in The Globe And Mail, on January 26th a male reader wrote in that in his 50 years of practicing employment law he never saw a male leader lose a job for treating staff badly. He makes the point that bullying behavior is always unacceptable, but his ultimate point is that penalties are applied unevenly. The writer does have a great point. It reminds me of a common belief that men who are considered heels in the workplace are just considered hard-driving, and women who are heels are considered – well, they would be called a very sexist word that I don’t use, but to limit the options that could come to the listeners’ imagination – such women would be considered … a word that rhymes with dish. 

MUSIC:  Slide the Guitar, by Neil Cross

I do recognize that women get penalized for certain behaviors in a way that men don’t. My feeling though, is that a heel is a heel whether in male or female form. Actions of treating people with dignity and respect, or conversely demeaning them shouldn’t be associated or credited to a gender. I have also learned in my studies about organizational behavior there are men who do get penalized in certain environments for not coming across as aggressive or dominant enough. 

On January 27th The Globe And Mail published an article online written by Robert Fife and Kristy Kirkup, titled, Review into Julie Payette’s tenure as governor general details allegations of aggressive conduct, public humiliations.  

Regarding the former lawyer’s comment that such behavior doesn’t lead to men getting fired, it’s a shame on us as a society that that behavior is tolerated.  If that behavior is considered unacceptable from a woman but normal coming from a man, we have a long way to go towards being enlightened. 

 MUSIC: Fun, Retro, Upbeat, by Vladyslav Krotov

 Under Canada’s equivalent to the United States’ Freedom of Information Act or FOIA … The Globe And Mail obtained the report prepared by Quintet, the company that investigated the allegations about Julie Payette’s behavior.

The resulting report included reports of “yelling, screaming, and aggressive conduct, demeaning comments and public humiliations”. 

The report said the following, according to The Globe And Mail:

·       The review team conducted 92 interviews, including current and former employees

·       The terms used by participants described the workplace environment during Payette’s tenure, they use terms that include the following: 

­Hostile  

Negative  

Toxic

Poisoned

Climate or reign of fear or terror

­ Walking on eggshells

Other descriptions said the conditions included: “Disrespect, a non-inclusive workplace, employees were stressed and worn out.” Additionally, during Payette’s tenure many employees left; 13 people said they took sick leave because of the work environment. Staff turnover was at “record levels” – 16 people left in less than 6 months. Quintet said the stories were so consistent regarding the negative environment that it was a “serious problem” that “required immediate attention”. 

MUSIC: Snap, Swing, by Diego Martinez

I mentioned in the previous podcast, and in my blog post, Payette’s public statement included the following observation:  "We all experience things differently, but we should always strive to do better and be attentive to one another's perceptions." 

This supports the idea that Payette doesn’t understand why her behavior was unacceptable because it seems she thinks workplace abuse and bullying, it’s about the perception of the people on the receiving end of her behavior. 

One of the complaints lobbed against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who appointed Payette to the post, is that Payette didn’t undergo a thorough background check, according to some sources. The sources said that no one reached out to speak with previous colleagues who would have known her in the capacity of manager. 

I did read in another article where one fellow astronaut spoke about her as a great colleague and of her professionalism when they worked together. This doesn’t surprise me, I have seen too often people who treat what they consider “underlings” with disrespect but who behave in a different way around those they consider their equal in rank and therefore people worthy of their respect. 

MUSIC: Swinging Lounge Bar, by Neil Cross

Prime Minister Trudeau, for his part said that the vetting of Payette was rigorous. Yet, another article talks about how he disbanded a non-partisan committee of which the duties included recommending nominees to be hired into the governor general position. Trudeau was wowed by Payette’s star power. She had dazzling credentials: A Former Chief Astronaut of the Canadian Space Agency, Payette had an Engineering degree, attended McGill University, speaks six languages, performed with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

If they had vetted just a bit more, they would have learned that in 2016 she “left as head of the Montreal Science Center” when employees there complained about her verbal abuse. Now Trudeau has to explain how that wasn’t previously discovered. The other explanation is that he or his team may have been known of the information, but the information was ignored. There were similar complaints, The Globe And Mail said, from when she served on the Canadian Olympic Committee. 

MUSIC: Bizet’s Habanera, by Keith Anthony Holden

One of the morals to this story is that policies should be applied equally. If an organization has determined a hiring policy, then it should apply to everyone. When I worked in a previous Human Resources role, I was the person who ensured that hiring managers completed all steps of a background check, including the credentials and professional references. I angered at least one vice president by insisting that I could not authorize a hire on behalf of the organization until the background check was completed according to the organization’s policy. In addition to self-preservation – meaning that I knew who would be blamed should there be an issue post-hire, and that would be me – so in addition to that self-preservation it’s just so much more expensive and disruptive to oust someone who started a job if it’s discovered that they misrepresented their credentials. And I’ve heard about those stories in the news media (including about college presidents who didn’t have an undergraduate degree and who lied about that in the hiring process, but the appropriate checks weren’t completed by the hiring organization).

MUSIC: Bizet’s Habanera, by Keith Anthony Holden

While the Prime Minister says that the background process was followed, quote-unquote sources said that an application-based process was not. So, as the former “background check police” what I hear is … Payette was so important and so high level that an exception was made to the normal processes.  As I asked last time: Are there human beings organizations are willing to sacrifice for an individual with the right pedigree who is allowed to treat others poorly, with little to no accountability? 

Quintet’s report cost close to C-$400K dollars. As I said in the last podcast, it costs a lot to protect bad management. 

MUSIC: Geminiani Concerto Grosso Classical – Worldwide Public Domain

The lessons are many, but here are my takeaways: 

·    The people hired to do the job of vetting should have been allowed to do their job and to do it thoroughly.

·    If you have a policy, it should be applied fairly and equally; if you make exceptions, such as, with checking a background, you should be transparent about why you’re making an exception and be sure you can defend the exception.

·   Your rank-and-file workers keep the organization running, and who you choose to lead and motivate them matters; hiring someone who denigrates and doesn’t care about your employees is gonna cost you more in the long run. 

CLOSE: That’s the segment for today, tune in next time. 

MUSIC: Snap Swing Stinger, by Diego Martinez

MUSIC: Swinging Lounge Bar, by Neil Cross