We had the most s-xist Group Lead on our team a few years back and the VP knew about it and so did everyone else. Many complaints were made to managers and other group leads, but people were afraid to go to HR because the feeling was they would just tell the VP that you were complaining and then it was a strike against you. Finally one woman had enough and did go to HR and complain. It took a lot though as it was constant layoffs so everyone was afraid. Also he was tight with the VP so she had a lot of guts to make the complaint.
They had these leadership reviews where you talked with your group leads manager but you knew if you said anything negative it would go right to the group lead and they would know who said what, the managers also really didn’t want to hear anything negative. And again if you said anything negative well you were a complainer and a strike against you.
Even as a guy you would see what he was doing and just shake your head, and I am ashamed to say we all just kept our mouths shut. The women on the teams all knew it as well and kept quiet. It was non stop layoffs so no one wanted to rock the boat ever and we all knew HR was not there for us.
End result was the next round of layoffs he was gone but only because finally HR forced the VPs hand.
My point of the story is that there are many who should not be in charge of people but it seems they have always protected their own to the detriment of the company. All the mangers knew what was going on but none of them ever spoke up about it. So it’s no surprise they would keep a manager or group lead and let an employee go.