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Oh boy. We’re talking about public radio and @wamu885? This bitch is gonna get messy on main. Stay tuned! 
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Okay, I& #39;m going to stop being a tease and get a messy. Been extra busy launching @TransJournalist this week (check it out!), so appreciate your patience!
Important context: I was not out nor did I know I was trans during my time at @wamu885. If I was, I& #39;m certain I would& #39;ve never held the position of senior news editor under previous or current leadership.
I am white, and at the time I was perceived as and believed myself to be a woman. I can only speak to some of the ways this workplace was toxic. I stand with and fully believe the POC who have spoken up about the racism and anti-Black hostility at the station.
When @jjyore came in, I was a 23 year old working as senior news editor in his newsroom. In our only 1:1 (I believe I was 24 by then), he asked me about my relationship with my father. He did not ask me about my future or my career ambitions.
Anyway, that& #39;s textbook sexism. Young, ambitious journalist running his newsroom, and he& #39;s more invested in what my relationship with my father looks like than my career.https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="✌️" title="Siegeshand" aria-label="Emoji: Siegeshand">
Something else: @jjyore knew about a serial sexual harasser in his newsroom and did nothing about it or at least didn& #39;t do anything about it for years.
He was made aware sometime between during 2014. Our transportation reporter was banned from going to Metro press conferences because he harassed a Metro staff member. @jjyore was notified of this and did not take any meaningful action.
A lot of other people were responsible and enabled his harassment (more on that later), but the buck stops with the head of the station. JJ knew and didn& #39;t do anything.
After the #MeToo https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> movement gained traction, this reporter left WAMU quietly without another job immediately lined up. I suspect this was a result of his ongoing sexual harassment, but this has not been confirmed to me.
Regardless of whether my suspicions are true, it shouldn& #39;t have taken the #MeToo https://abs.twimg.com/hashflags... draggable="false" alt=""> movement to have a reporter who harassed almost every young woman in the local DC press corps to be ousted.
Young women at the station, attending local press conferences and working in PR for local officials deserved better.
I& #39;m now going to turn the "reorg." Basically, JJ came to the station in 2014 and wanted to shake shit up. I don& #39;t disagree the station needed some changes at all or even all of his changes, but he created an extremely toxic work environment.
It& #39;s my understanding that toxic work environment lasts to this day. I think we& #39;re seeing that it& #39;s unquestionable that there is a toxic work environment at the station that has lasted throughout @jjyore& #39;s term.
Going to start with my own personal story. I mostly just tried to keep my head down and do good work. I was having panic attacks almost daily during the reorg. I have never been in a work environment that was more dysfunctional and toxic.
So this is after my 1:1 with JJ. His #2 at the time @andimcdaniel tells me the best position for me with the reorg would be a morning or afternoon producer position, and it became clear to me that the person I was training to run the news desk would be my replacement.
I asked whether this was a demotion. It becomes clear this will be the only place for me at the new WAMU, so I adjust my attitude about it.
I recognize there are ways I can grow as a producer at the station still. And I& #39;m genuinely excited about some of the changes management wants to make even if I don& #39;t agree with all the ways they& #39;re going about it.
So I put a smile on my face, adjust my attitude and see it for an opportunity for growth as opposed to a demotion. I& #39;m a good little worker bee. I believe in public radio.
I learn that my position is being "eliminated" and I& #39;ll have to apply for the producer job. I learn this on a phone call while I am across the globe on a vacation in India. I am so dedicated to my job that I make sure to be on this call about the newsroom& #39;s future.
Clearly I had an unhealthy relationship with work if I was on that phone call. I also was also on call almost every single weekend for 2.5 years. Doesn& #39;t matter how dedicated to or good you are at your job, it won& #39;t love you back. I learned that lesson the hard way.
Anyway, I& #39;m "encouraged to apply" for this demotion that I have adjusted my attitude about. Most of my colleagues supported me, put in good words for me, management said I wasn& #39;t being pushed out...
I didn& #39;t fully believe management that I wasn& #39;t being pushed out. But WAMU was the first place I worked. I thought if I showed I was dedicated enough and did good enough work, they would keep me. I was naive af!
So I produced and edited the first iteration of WAMU& #39;s What& #39;s with Washington project. One of the segments won an award for innovative newsroom content and another one was the top performing local segment IN THE NATION on NPR One.
This was among the most successful newsroom content the year I was pushed out and shows how committed I was to the mission and creating the sort of content new leadership wanted. I also suggested we turn it into a podcast.
Funny thing: they did turn it into a podcast in 2019! Definitely not bitter!
Okay anyway, I applied for the producer gig. Everyone else they were letting go in the newsroom got 2 months of pay where they didn& #39;t have to work + severance. They exploited me to work through those 2 months and lied to me about their intention not to hire me.
So I worked my ass off and interviewed for the job. It was very very weird to do a video chat interview at a place I already worked. Obviously they didn& #39;t hire me. The whole thing was super humiliating!
I negotiated out my NDA. Honestly, I just wanted the NDA to go both ways so they couldn& #39;t say bad things about me. But I& #39;m actually really thankful that went the way it did.
More TK, stepping away for a bit.
Okay, now to the diversity initiative. Whenever JJ talked about diversity, he talked about increasing listenership and numbers.
To me, it seemed less that he valued diversity and serving Black and brown listeners of the Washington region, and more like he just wanted more listeners and success.
I think if he truly valued diversity, we wouldn& #39;t see a culture at the station that& #39;s hostile to POC. I think if he truly valued diversity, he would be stepping down right now to make room for leadership that& #39;s better equipped to create a positive culture for POC at the station.
There was also a LOT of emphasis on our "sound" that included the way certain people sounded. Anyone in public radio who pays attention knows how much of that is rooted in racism and sexism.
I& #39;m not going to go into specifics here to protect folks& #39; privacy, but I will say JJ did not like how certain staff of color sounded and that seemed to play into personnel decisions and to be grounded in racism.
And this one& #39;s rough. It doesn& #39;t have to do with diversity at all. But it does have to do with the impact a toxic workplace can have on people and how important it is to treated our colleagues with respect and care. And the importance of treating employees with dignity.
CN: this and next tweet for suicide + next 1 for depression
One former employee took his own life. I do not know enough to comment on this, but folks who knew this person better say they believe what happened at WAMU had something to do with this.
One former employee took his own life. I do not know enough to comment on this, but folks who knew this person better say they believe what happened at WAMU had something to do with this.
And often the things that lead someone to take their own life are multifaceted and complex. I want to emphasize that and be clear that I am not suggesting or saying anyone is to blame. I do not know what this person was experiencing or the reasons why.
What I do know is that I never experienced depression prior to what happened at WAMU. Not once. Now, it& #39;s something I live with everyday. I know it& #39;s a direct result of what happened at WAMU.
What happened at WAMU changed the way my brain works. It was traumatic.
What happened at WAMU changed the way my brain works. It was traumatic.
Mistreatment in the workplace can have deep, psychological impacts on us. And when I hear about the racism and sexism rampant at WAMU, and the way employees are being bullied, it makes me so incredibly angry.