Team of six decides to quit all at once after entitled VP makes the workplace toxic for them

Teamwork is all about having a positive dynamic between various individuals who support and uplift each other. Ultimately, a team of professionals contributes to a common goal of the organization. However, that is not the case with every other employee around the globe. Sometimes, they have to endure a toxic and mismanaging superior too. u/ChickenUsual6622 turned to the Reddit community to seek some thoughtful input on something they had to deal with in their career. The post started with a header that all of the employees working under them wanted to quit because of the vice president of the company.

"I am a creative director and I have 6 employees that report to me," the post began. "I was on bereavement leave and when I got back, they all told me they wanted to quit and some are already interviewing. Why? Because of our VP." The creative director admitted that their VP was not a nice guy either and he constantly delayed projects by not respecting deadlines given to the employees by other departments or even by the CEO. The VP's actions put the creative director in a horrible position because it was their job to manage the timely execution of the projects handed to them.

The Reddit user elaborated that not only did the VP play games on his phone during team meetings but he also ridiculed the designers for their ideas. The VP hardly worked on creating an actual marketing strategy and relied on playing office politics instead. The creative director had chosen to quit their position as well but the CEO of the company offered them a pay raise to stay. "Long story short, we were about to launch a new fitness brand and the VP sat and did nothing for months about it. He then made it the creative team's problem a week before the CEO gave a hard deadline," the post continued. So the team of designers worked hard to create compelling logos and packaging and even came up with a marketing strategy. 

The employees worked overtime and one person even cancelled their vacation to work on the project. At last, all the necessary deliverables were sent to the VP for presentation. "The VP did not present a single one of their ideas, he actually did not invite the designers to the meeting with the CEO," the post mentioned. "Even though he didn't even have an idea for himself to present. Even though the CEO specifically wanted the designers to present their ideas. This was the last straw for my team." All 6 members decided to quit at once and two of them even started actively hunting for a job position.

"They love everything else about their job except for the VP and his politics. These types of antics happen all the time. He is on a sort of probation with the CEO and COO already, so I am surprised this is even happening. So I took all of this to HR, they are now launching an investigation with each of the team members," the post added. The creative director has tried to solve this problem directly by getting in touch with the VP but there were no positive outcomes. "I try to never involve HR when it comes to conflict management, but when your whole team is threatening to quit, I didn't know what else to do. The big question I have for Reddit: Did I do the right thing, and what sort of outcomes should I expect?" the person concluded.

Some of the Reddit users dropped in to provide some quality advice on this issue. u/TucsonNaturist suggested, "Talk to the CEO. Don’t be the go-between those leaving and the VP. People are often too afraid to escalate problems when they reach a turning point. HR is not always the solution to management issues." u/oldcreaker warned, "Get your own resume updated - you likely have a target on your back at this point. If VP can throw you under the bus to save themselves, that is exactly what is going to happen." u/kangaroomandible added, "You should tell them you’ll give a great reference for them and then start your own job search."