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.

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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.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

There is nothing slanderous in this article.

If it's a lie, and bad mouthing, it's slander.

[O.city]

I just feel as if change had to happen.

And it sucks for those who have been there and been a loyal worker, but it is what it is.

Again, they have probably gone a little to far with this, but coming in and seeing what the franchise was they probably seen it as being needed.

[FringeNC]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

Wow. A few months ago, I talked about Penn State and the kind of fear of God that university can put on a person trying to blow the whistle. This is exactly why. What you're suggesting goes against everything this country is trying to do to encourage whistleblowing, even when companies are bullying their workers to keep their mouths shut.

And again, most of the stuff in this article is fact. And Mark Donovan or Clark Hunt either confirmed it was true, or defended the practice. Who the **** knows why Pioli chose not to participate. That's the part that continues to be a head scratcher for me.

Who cares. It's at-will employment. I could care less WTF is going on there if the on-field product is good. The discussion needs to get back to whether this management style and commitment to secrecy yields positive results. I don't think it will. So this story is a pretty big f'n deal in my opinion -- just not for the moralizing aspect of it that belongs in the DC forums.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Sitting there like a Soviet political commissar, and you don't think that's a bit weird? And why not with all of them Scott?

People have PR guys during interviews all the time. This is not something abnormal. I don't think it's a bit weird.

Sounds like common practice for a lot of organizations and people to me. When a Celebrity does an interview and their PR guy is near, does that make it evil as well?


The PR guy being there is no big deal IMO. Like i said, I'd be more surprised if there wasn't a PR guy there.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by ChiefsCountry

People on the business side have nothing to do with the players on the field. Its two seperate business operations. The overlap on the two is actually very minimal other than sharing the same building and getting a paycheck from the same place. Pioli's CIA operation is just ****ing stupid. Run the football side if you want that way fine but some of the other bullshit is just that bullshit. Basically it proves that all Pioli has been under is just football. Every level of football is run in a dictatorship type form. Business is not. Stupid thing on Pioli's part is the business side is the people who have to go out and cover your ass with the public for the shitty product you put on the field. They are the ones who deal with the fans every single day. They are the ones who deal with the business owners in the community. Not to mention the Midwest mentality is not to be closed up about anything. Us Midwesterners are friendly people by nature. You might be able to get away with secerts and other bullshit on the East Coast but it won't fly in the Midwest.

This is very true.


And that business side was fantastic at filling that stadium when the football side produced mediocre teams.


But with new management comes change. I don't really like that part of it but it happens.

And the secrets part is bullshit, but it all boils down to W's and L's.

Put a winning franchise on the field and this town and fanbase will be excited.

[ChiefsCountry]

Also it shows to be that Donovan is a weak ****er in the business side of the things as well. If he had any stones he would tell Pioli to **** off and let me worry about the business side.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

It seems like you think they're threatening to sue because they wanna scare people, when in fact they could be threatening to sue because the newspaper is stating slanderous statements w/o merit.

Your opinion: "OMG, KC STAR, if you write this article and release the truth, we'll threaten to sue you....for what, i don't know, but we will!" -Chiefs

My Opinion: "OMG KC Star, most of this shit is lies, and if you write lies about our organization, that's grounds for a lawsuit" - Chiefs



See? It could go either way. So why assume?

Newspapers have a ton of protections against slander. You don't want to open up a precedent where newspapers aren't allowed to express opinions or have to have absolute 100% confirmation of fact before publishing. There is no way the Chiefs would come close to winning and they know that.

I'm sure the lawsuits they are threatening are more related to nondisclosures.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

If it's a lie, and bad mouthing, it's slander.

No, it is not. It's about malicious intent to lie. That is, that the person is making up stories intentionally to sabotage the reputation of the person. It seems pretty obvious that Haley believes the story to be true, even if that makes him look like a paranoid lunatic.

[Dave Lane]

Originally Posted by Detoxing

People have PR guys during interviews all the time. This is not something abnormal. I don't think it's a bit weird.

Sounds like common practice for a lot of organizations and people to me. When a Celebrity does an interview and their PR guy is near, does that make it evil as well?


The PR guy being there is no big deal IMO. Like i said, I'd be more surprised if there wasn't a PR guy there.

Scott, take it down a notch or you are gonna blow your cover.

Unbelievable, I'm done wasting my time with apologists.

[ChiefsCountry]

A major newspaper like the Star wouldn't run a story like this if it really was slander. I worked in the newspaper industry and you have to good proof to run to a story. Our reporters always had to have mulitple sources on any story just to be published.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by FringeNC

Who cares. It's at-will employment. I could care less WTF is going on there if the on-field product is good. The discussion needs to get back to whether this management style and commitment to secrecy yields positive results. I don't think it will. So this story is a pretty big f'n deal in my opinion -- just not for the moralizing aspect of it that belongs in the DC forums.

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.

[Messier]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Scott, take it down a notch or you are gonna blow your cover.

Unbelievable, I'm done wasting my time with apologists.

Hey! I thought I was Scott.

Unless you think it's a muti, Mrs. Haley.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by O.city

I just feel as if change had to happen.

And it sucks for those who have been there and been a loyal worker, but it is what it is.

Again, they have probably gone a little to far with this, but coming in and seeing what the franchise was they probably seen it as being needed.

Completely agree, and I can relate a bit to the article.

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.

Truth is, the change was needed. And she held us way more accountable then our previous boss, and the Theater actually started making money and cutting expenses under her watch.

Most people loved our old GM so much. She let people take smoke breaks whenever they wanted, she was real nice. Let everyone kinda do as they pleased. A real soft, nice lady.

New GM comes in and demands that employees aren't standing around talking. She demanded that employees were contstantly working. She demanded that no one could use the phones unless on a break, and even then that was sketchy. She demanded a whole lot more.

And everyone hated her for awhile. Everyone felt un easy.

Some quit. Most talked shit. But our new GM never actually did anything wrong, just made everyone work and got on their case when they didn't.


This article is almost EXACTLY like that.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

Scott, take it down a notch or you are gonna blow your cover.

Unbelievable, I'm done wasting my time with apologists.

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.

[FringeNC]

I forget whether it was this article or an article about this, but it pointed out that other teams who change GMs don't have a complete purge like occurred at Arrowhead. Clark and Pioli completely gutted the organization. Isn't that what we wanted? The thing burned down? Carl's cronies shit-canned. That's what Clark did. Unfortunately, it appears that Clark Hunt and Scott Pioli may not have a clue what it takes to build a winner. This preoccupation with secrecy seems asinine, and a waste of resources.