Classic example of pretending to listen to employees. @WNYC held multiple listening sessions with staff, asked their opinions, and then tossed those opinions out and did what they wanted to do anyway. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/nyregion/wync-audrey-cooper-staff-revolt.html

The same is happening at @AtBennington, where faculty and students are in an uproar, outraged over the appointment of Laura Walker, and the board claims to listen but says they have no intention of reconsidering their choice.

I teach executives all over the world how to listen. One of the very first lessons is to stop all the performative listening. If you allow workers to voice their opinions and tell them you value their views, that doesn't mean anything unless you act on their views.

In fact, engaging in performative listening is a sure path toward increased resentment and cynicism among staff. They know you weren't listening because their views didn't change your actions at all.

New York's public radio station has no excuse for hiring and retaining all-white leadership in the newsroom. Only two POC have direct reports IN NEW YORK CITY. That's outrageous.

Years have passed since the leadership had WNYC supposedly had a reckoning because they had supported male sexist staff members who bullied and harassed women. They held discussions and thought deeply about their actions, we were told.

And yet, there were essentially no consequences. Laura Walker, the most culpable of all, was allowed to depart a year later and is now going to become the president of a college.

The news leadership at WNYC is still all-white and the board thinks that's perfectly acceptable in a city that is ~25% black and ~30% Latino.

As with so many other companies, they offered empty words of regret and then waited out the outrage so they could go back to business as usual. There were no substantive changes made and no real reckoning.

The new staff at @WNYC asked for 3 things in a new leader: they wanted a POC who knew NYC well and was experienced in radio. @audreycoopersf might be great, but she is none of those things. The leadership at @WNYC did not listen to workers and has shown no respect for staff.

What's more, there seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about how the station became the kind of environment where WOC could be bullied out of their jobs, harassed and assaulted for years under their watch.

Dear Board of @WNYC, you landed on the front page before because you didn't listen to your own staff. You remained there because you didn't respect their views. You're in the paper again because you're still doing it. If you want to retain the trust of the public, be better.

As someone who had to bear the brunt of the abuse at WNYC for years and was unemployable for a long time after they left me go in order to retain John Hockenberry, I'm sick to death of executives thinking they are not answerable to anyone.

And @nytimes and @GiniaNYT, I find it remarkable that there is no mention of Laura Walker in your piece. She was instrumental in creating the toxic environment that has led WNYC to this moment. Journalists often dig deep to find dirt, how could you have missed this?

Allowing her to walk quietly off stage after damaging the lives and careers of so many POC, is a big part of why executives who behave egregiously are then able to move on to even more prestigious positions. Where is the motivation to make better choices?

To be clear, I'm sick to death of talking about this. Having to discuss, over and over, the worst three years of my life is exhausting and traumatic. But I feel like I'm the parole officer for those who abused me, constantly having to keep tabs on them.