Written by As someone from New England, anything that has to do with bad news for New York sports teams generally makes me happy, especially if it has to do with New York’s American League baseball team. However, this time the news involves their National League counterpart, the New York Mets, and this is more about the culture that exists within the organization than scores or reports of the teams losing.
Recent reporting across various platforms has revealed that the culture within the Mets organization was more toxic than a chemical waste dump. Strife with inappropriate comments, text messages, and unsolicited advances towards men and women within the team from leaders at all levels are part of the problem. When allegations of these incidents were brought to top officials within the team’s human resources department, the appearance was that these officials were more concerned with keeping team ownership happy instead of investigating and taking appropriate action against the named individuals.
Former Mets manager, Mickey Callaway, was reportedly known to send lewd photos to members of the media and make inappropriate comments. Unfortunately, these actions were not confined to his time with the Mets. Callaway was known for his predatory behavior towards women going back to his time in the minor leagues in 2010 and intensified it during his time with the Cleveland Indians in 2013 as the team’s pitching coach. Callaway was also involved in a “consensual extramarital affair” that started during his time with the Indians and progressed into his time with the Mets. The Indians released a statement in 2017 stating that they spoke with Callaway and were satisfied when he informed the team that the relationship was “consensual and outside of the workplace.” When the Mets confronted Callaway, he stated that the affair had come to an end and that he was working to repair his relationship with his wife. Yet even with all of this information, Callaway continued to work within baseball. He was also continuously promoted to positions of greater responsibility with more opportunities for misconduct and inappropriateness.
Going back to the Mets organization as a whole, the human resources department for the Mets, led by Holly Lindvall, seemingly was no help at all. Former employees stated that they were concerned about reporting anything to her for fear of retribution and its impact on their position within the organization. The situation with HR dissolved to the point where employees started taking a Vanilla Ice approach to their issues, “If there was a problem, yo, I’ll solve it,” instead of trying to work with Lindvall.
Mets owner, Steve Cohen, recently hired the law firm of WilmerHale to investigate the culture within the team hoping to create an “open, communicating environment.” Whether or not this results in organization-wide changes, or if anyone even listens to the report remains to be seen.
The troubling part of all of this is the culture within both the Mets and Indians organizations, resulting in employees not feeling safe to report incidents of sexual harassment, misconduct, or discrimination issues. When any size organization becomes this toxic at senior leadership levels, it can lead to a feeling of a hostile work environment where individual performance can be significantly affected. Once word of this comes to light, it can also impact an organization’s reputation. Employees should not ever feel uncomfortable coming to work or feel like they are going to be approached inappropriately at any time. The other side of this issue is the culture at leadership levels that allowed this type of behavior to continue without any repercussions. In Callaway’s case, he continued to be promoted even with the reports of misconduct, harassment, and his extramarital affair. This had to have left other employees wondering what it would take for someone of his stature to be relieved of his duties and subsequently fired. It could also create a culture where employees may feel like the only way to progress is to conduct themselves similarly.
This all begs the question of what we can do to stop this kind of behavior and say that working within an environment with culture this toxic is unacceptable? In the case of businesses, the knee-jerk response is to try and hit the business in the pocketbook more often than not. Unfortunately, as has been seen time and time again, unless a major financial contributor to the organization decides to pull their funding, individual boycotts tend to not be effective. However, calling out leadership who allows, and even condones, this type of behavior and fosters a toxic culture can be more impactful. Calling these individuals out, and then preventing them from being promoted or placed into positions of authority is more of the right move, even though it will not be the easiest thing in the world to do. Holding senior leadership to the proverbial fire about taking action regarding the individuals who are creating the hostile environment is the first step. We must also remind these leaders that even inaction is an action and can have consequences.
An organizational culture that allows sexual misconduct, discrimination, and sexual harassment towards anyone is unacceptable. With the increase in social media presence, it has become easier than ever to publicize these types of organizations and inform others that while specific organizations may look great on the surface, they can be hiding a bubbling toxic mess underneath. Shedding light on the toxicity is the first step towards instituting change. We all know to stay away from physical toxic waste, so why is it so hard to stay away from cultural toxic waste? It also begs the question of why it seems to be easy for organizations to overlook toxic traits within leaders simply because the leader gets the results the organization wants? The “win at all costs” mentality has helped breed the level of comfort these toxic leaders have since they know their sins will be forgiven by the organization as long as they keep winning. Once the organization as a whole can stop with this mentality and look at reforming their organizational culture, only then can we start to make solid forward progress.