New leadership came into Planet Interactive during my last year, which I was excited about at first but it wasn't long until I felt like the new leader decided she genuinely just didn't like me or the existing team. I often felt degraded and spoken down to - for example I was told by this leader that my job must be "too much for me since she can tell I was getting emotional", after I felt like I was manipulated into an emotional conversation where I had to repeatedly defend my employees. In a world of men holding emotion over female leaders' heads, I had never heard this before - so it stung getting it from a fellow female leader.
Within the 10+ years of my career and six years within leadership, I had never experienced anything like the backhanded animosity I felt from her from any other colleague, boss or company. I brought the issues up to my boss and HR and spoke with the leader herself as well to try to come to a resolution, but rather than us both acknowledge our needs for improvement and come to a resolution together, I felt like there was no ownership or empathy and it was clear this was not a healthy environment for me anymore.
I left, and since I left I remembered what it's like to work for a supportive boss and team that believes in your potential vs. baits you for failure. Since I left the majority of the team has been let go or also left on their own accord and it's been documented to upper leadership that there is a toxicity on this team now. Multiple of the teammates that have been let go were high producers and some had the longest tenure on the team. It's clear this person wanted to wipe the slate clean and start over vs. encourage employees to grow.
I also have been told this leader still speaks negatively about me in team meetings, and that she went through my Teams communications after I left to find anything negative I had said, despite there being no productive reason for doing so and me leaving on positive terms, not even reporting to her. That this was allowed made me realize how lucky I was to leave when I did.
It seems like this leader is the kind of person to push others down to get to the top, vs. bring others to the top with her and will manipulate/spin conversations to make herself right vs. come to solutions with the resources available.
May be the right type of environment for some, but for myself, I genuinely felt like the biggest weight was off my shoulders knowing I work with people who believe in and respect me again since I have left.
