Arrowhead anxiety: Turnover off the field causes concern

[Dr. Gigglepants]

Secrecy, intimidation, fear and a watchful eye have become hallmarks of working for the Chiefs, say some current and former employees.

BY KENT BABB THE KANSAS CITY STAR

Todd Haley walked into the public relations office at Chiefs headquarters on a Thursday in early December. Four days before he was fired as the team’s coach, he wanted to talk about what life was like inside this organization. But he didn’t know who else might be listening.

continued...

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/14...nover-off.html

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This article goes into a lot of detail on the changes that came into effect with the Pioli regime. Sounds like a shitty ass place to work now.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I care because I believe an organization that functions this way, one that has a tremendous amount of distrust of their own employees, and one that creates a tremendous amount of distrust with people who are supposed to be on the same side as you... is extremely toxic.

I agree.


However, as we have seen, an organization that runs well the way this one has for 4 decades can get really complacent.


I think it needs to be balanced. Scott and Clark need to figure out that middle ground.

Have some Taco Tuesdays or Casual Fridays or something.

In the end the thing that makes Pioli good at player evaluation and drafting is gonna be the end of his first GM job if he isn't careful.

[gblowfish]

The Chiefs have hired a new PR Person to provide corporate spin this week. Meet him here:
http://tinyurl.com/8e4xo

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Ok, so because they whiffed on a QB they should just just let the rest of the franchise rot, right?

It's not just about the QB. You think it's great that Clark and Pioli are demanding accountability of those below them. Who is demanding accountability from THEM?

Originally Posted by Laz

definitely agree with this

and if the Chiefs don't win all this stuff is going to implode into a giant fiery ball of shit. Just like Rex Ryan ... Just like Haley

Pioli may succeed, may fail ... doesn't change the fact that all this he said, she said speculation is just rumor mongering that is getting eatan up by the people who ALREADY DIDN'T LIKE PIOLI.

This is just PR fodder

I hope you're not talking about me. Because I was one of the guys running around here 3 years ago having Pioli-gasms. I couldn't have been more excited.

I'm not upset about this stuff because I already didn't like Pioli. Stuff like this is the REASON I don't like Pioli in the first place.

Originally Posted by Detoxing

Which is why i'm not ready to crucify Hunt/Pioli until ALL of the facts come out.

And therein lies the problem - we'll NEVER hear the Chiefs side of the story. The fans can't know too much, they might give secrets to the enemy.

[Brock]

Well, at any rate, I don't see anything very unusual about this when compared to the way corporate america runs, and I daresay that if the team was winning, nobody would give a shit about any of it.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by O.city

I agree.


However, as we have seen, an organization that runs well the way this one has for 4 decades can get really complacent.


I think it needs to be balanced. Scott and Clark need to figure out that middle ground.

Have some Taco Tuesdays or Casual Fridays or something.

In the end the thing that makes Pioli good at player evaluation and drafting is gonna be the end of his first GM job if he isn't careful.

This.

Produce a winner on the field and most of the people in the thread would be defending Pioli/Hunt.

That's the bottom line.

Win.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Brock

Well, at any rate, I don't see anything very unusual about this when compared to the way corporate america runs, and I daresay that if the team was winning, nobody would give a shit about any of it.

Bingo.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

This.

Produce a winner on the field and most of the people in the thread would be defending Pioli/Hunt.

That's the bottom line.

Win.

This.


Just start Stanzi, produce a winner and all will be fine.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

When I was a Manager at a movie theater and we got a new GM, we had SO many people threatening to quit, talking shit about our new GM behind her back, etc.

This isn't about people being unhappy with change. Did your new GM at the theater lock people into the movie so they couldn't go to the bathroom, for fear that they might wander the halls and see next week's top secret release?

There's nothing even remotely the same about the two scenarios.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

This.

Produce a winner on the field and most of the people in the thread would be defending Pioli/Hunt.

That's the bottom line.

Win.

You certainly won't hear much criticism from me if they start winning.

See, I'm not bitching about this because they aren't winning.

I'm bitching about this because I think it PREVENTS THEM FROM WINNING.

[O.city]

htis, I think you are a little hung up about the reporters being locked into the room?


Again, this sucks because I don't really see the point of it in that what are they really gonna see, but again......

If the Chiefs win, no one cares.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

How am I an Apologist? Because I don't believe everything the media tells me w/o hearing the full story? That makes me an apologist?

And you keep saying Scott, when it's been stated numerous times that this is believed to be Hunt's handy work.

oh, i don't know ... maybe because Mr. Lane was on the Hate Pioli side of things already.

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

I'll kill myself if we take a guard at 11. But not before I kill Pioli first.

I may not sleep tonight

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

If they franchise Orton I'll get a sandwich sign that says Fire Pioli and stand out in front of Arrowhead for a week.

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Wrong "F" word.

Fire Pioli.

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

He fired Haley because he wanted to. No other reason. Dude won the division last year has major injuries and get no help in FA so Pioli can shit can him.

**** Pioli. The sooner he's fired at this point the better. If he brings in a piece of shit coach like that worthless tick Fischer, I'll surgically remove his testicles.

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

That was the rumor a few weeks ago. Haley out McDaniels in. Step 1 has happened now will the other shoe drop?

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

This isn't about people being unhappy with change. Did your new GM at the theater lock people into the movie so they couldn't go to the bathroom, for fear that they might wander the halls and see next week's top secret release?

There's nothing even remotely the same about the two scenarios.

The entire article IS about people being unhappy with change.

Are they going overboard with the secrecy thing? Probably. But I doubt the secrecy thing is the reason so many got fired, and why so many are upset.

[O.city]

We have too many threads going on about this and I can't remember which one I said it in, but say we don't lose 3 of our best players to injury and Cassel stays healthy.

Would you guys agree that with the way the schedule played out, we probably win 9 or 10 games and win the division.

Would all this be coming out if that had happened?

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by O.city

htis, I think you are a little hung up about the reporters being locked into the room?

Again, this sucks because I don't really see the point of it in that what are they really gonna see, but again......

If the Chiefs win, no one cares.

I'm hung up on it because it's a 100% concrete, verified example of what's going on at Arrowhead.

And again, the reason I care is not because they aren't winning. I care because I think they think they NEED to do this stuff TO win.

If that's the case, they're not going to win because they don't have a clue what it takes to do so.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by O.city

Just curious, but what in the article do you see as so heinous?

The accusation that there was a heavy amount of monitoring, and the way they were using that monitoring against people. It's not been confirmed, but there's an accusation that the team used months of Denny Thum's phone and e-mail logs against him. There is talk about private conversations being monitored--I don't think I've ever heard that before in any company. For Haley or other associates to be that paranoid about monitoring, to me, likely means that they have personally experienced or saw instances where conversations they worked very hard to keep private were somehow discovered. 2-3 years after the fact, knowing how clamped down the organization was on secrecy, you'd have to think that this isn't just about some floozy sending out a facebook post she wasn't supposed to send. This sounds like these were people who despite being careful, were still getting caught. Maybe some of that is okay because it prevents info leaking. But that, to me, gets into a disgusting feeling that you can't hold a single private conversation in the building or talk about your personal life, etc... without somebody hearing every word of it. That's Big Brother-esque. So what evidence are we seeing? We're seeing Haley obviously paranoid, as if he's been heard before. You have employees that believe the organization is so intent on enforcing non-cross functional lunches that they are actually watching cars to make sure they don't leave at the same time. And by the way, Pioli deserves some of that reputation. He came from an organization that was caught monitoring things he wasn't supposed to be monitoring, in a very, very unethical way.

The accusation that the team is fostering a siloed business environment where co-workers distrust members of their own team.

The accusations that the level of detail goes beyond any strategic connection. You understand why they cut the price of coffee. Reeming somebody for referring to him by his first name or for not taking the right path to the gym? Seriously?

I largely love what the Chiefs have done on the personnel side. And I knew Pioli was going to bring that expertise in. What worries the shit out of me, is that across both the business and personnel side, that this will quickly become an organization nobody works for. And again, as I've said before, talent is absolutely everything. Our Director of Scouting is being heavily vetted by other teams. We have coaches we have to hire in light of these stories. We are losing employees (and will then have to re-hire other employees back).