As some may know, KPMG US is making significant cuts to its Marketing organization — voluntary and involuntary. After many years here, one thing has never been clearer to me: the level of politics and cattiness on certain teams has been nothing short of corrosive.
I've witnessed director-level incompetence that makes you question how some people got the job in the first place. I've seen talented people made victims of passive aggression that quietly blocked their path to promotions and compensation they'd earned. And I've watched "fearless leaders" reward loyalty to them over loyalty to the work.
Plenty of those people are being shown the door this week.
I spoke with someone who felt impacted by one of those exits. What they said felt like a perfect microcosm of what's been happening:
"When the new head of APEX came in, I was genuinely excited — I thought we'd finally start operating like a real agency. But over time, that excitement faded. Processes were added, sure, but nothing that truly moved the needle. When we needed someone advocating for innovation, we'd find her on calls obsessing over window motifs or talking poorly about some of the most talented people on the team.
She reportedly told other higher-ups that the only Black man on the team was 'hard to work with' — which, if you know him, is laughable. A he-l of a lot of us would say the exact opposite. It's also a label that carries a particular weight when put on a Black man in a corporate environment, and that's not something you can just gloss over.
When I found out she got let go, my only surprise was the timing. When your job is to make a difference and all you've managed to spread is drama — it's only a matter of time."
It appears brighter days are ahead under new leadership — but I hope the directors exiting this week take this moment for genuine self-reflection. There is real room to grow, both as leaders and as people.
One last thing this person said — and I think it's worth putting on record in case a hiring manager comes across this:
"It's a damn shame they let Rick [Lavoie] go. When there was nothing but confusion, he was the one higher-up who showed up with answers and solutions. I can't count how many times I wished he was the one leading APEX. That was a leader worth following."