I want to share my experience with a corporate team leader at Humana who exhibited extremely unprofessional behavior. I hope that by sharing my story, others may feel less alone and that companies like Humana can be held accountable for such toxic leadership.
When I joined Humana fresh out of school, my line manager went on maternity leave shortly after I started, leaving me in an unsupervised role. During that time, I had no guidance, and I was expected to navigate complex tasks on my own. It wasn’t long before this unaccountable director A left me vulnerable to blame.
It all started with a project I was assigned to complete with A. I finished my portion of the work a few days before the submission deadline, and all that remained was A’s review and sign-off. I followed up with A multiple times, but received no response. On the day of the deadline, A’s manager emailed both of us asking for the completed file. I nudged A again, and only then, at 9 PM on a Friday - did A reply, saying he had just gotten off a call with CenterWell. A call with CenterWell at 9 PM on a Friday? Really?
That night, A finally started reviewing the materials and proposed several edits, asking that they be completed by 10 AM the next morning, Saturday. I stayed up late to meet the request and delivered the revised version on time. But A didn’t show up Saturday. He didn’t show up Sunday either. He reappeared on Monday morning to sign off—by then, it was too late, and the project was submitted after the deadline.
At one point, A even emailed my line manager, who was on leave, at 2 AM, attempting to shift the blame for his own delays onto me. When I tried to raise my concerns and share the full context (I had even compiled Teams chat screenshots clearly showing I had done my part), I was completely dismissed. My line manager didn’t review the evidence and instead chose to take A’s word for it, effectively endorsing his behavior. It became painfully clear that I was being set up to fail.
Over time, the two of them grew increasingly bold in their criticism, often nitpicking trivial matters - like my accent, words used in my emails (my line manager even scheduled a 1:1 just to go through an email line by line, despite my having graduated from a top-tier university), and even my country of origin. Minor, irrelevant issues were inflated into major concerns, and I was repeatedly made to feel like an outsider. These weren’t just professional disagreements - they were microaggressions rooted in bias. It was deeply hurtful to feel targeted because of who I am, and frankly, this kind of behavior is unacceptable in any workplace.
I ultimately had to leave because I could no longer function in this environment. The emotional toll it took on me was immense, and I’m sharing this so that others who may face similar challenges know they are not alone. No one deserves to work under these conditions, and companies like Humana must take responsibility for ensuring that their leaders foster inclusive, respectful, and fair work environments.