VP of HR Leaves Toxic Culture to be CHRO of Company Focused on People First

Workplaces with a toxic culture are demoralizing, and a primary reason people leave an organization. A recent client expressed this frustration directly with us.

Leaving a Toxic Culture for Better Job

“I don’t want to be the school principal that doles out punishment,” she said during our initial consultation. “The culture here is borderline oppressive and it comes straight from the top.”

Too much of her job focused on enforcing strict rules, keeping track of write-ups and performance improvement plans. The rate of terminating people was much higher than any other place she had ever worked. “This isn’t why I chose to be a human resources professional,” she shared. “I want to help build a positive culture somewhere.”

For many HR leaders, this is their reality. They don’t have a seat at the decision-making table. They are the disciplinarians of the toxic culture. Too much of their job is focused on risk management and protecting the company from lawsuits instead of training, developing and motivating people.

Our client wanted to be part of the C-suite at a new organization and help shape the culture in a positive way. After a few months, she had multiple offers. Two were good offers but they didn’t quite match what she wanted. The final one gave her a seat at the table of a good company with a culture focused on people first.