I saw a thread that said that the most dangerous person in a toxic workplace isn’t the bully - it’s the leader who watches the bully and calls it a personality conflict.
Back in 2017 - 2020 or so, there was a bully in the Law Dept. She stabbed everyone in the back and the front and told bald faced lies about everyone.
Leadership did nothing about her reign of te---r - in fact they chalked all of her shenanigans up to “personality conflicts” and “misunderstandings” when the evidence - emails, calendar invitations, personal interviews - all clearly showed that she was a liar and actively working to undercut colleagues and direct and indirect reports with her Machiavellian ways.
Sadly Aflac didn’t address the bully - only supported her and drove out many excellent lawyers in a mass exodus once they all realized that their concerns were being swept under the rug, with full cooperation and support from senior legal dept leadership and Hr.
Once they realized the full extent of her decimation - everyone leaving - this person was eventually promoted to a new role in the business to get her out of the Law Dept and then eventually was moved out of the company once a business area with guts had the nerve to address her.
It’s disappointing that the Law Dept couldn’t address a blight upon their department and instead had to have many high performing attorneys leave for other roles before the awful lady was addressed.
I dare say that those in the public should know how the law dept leadership runs - saving their own skins and sacrificing their top performers to save face and not taking responsibility or accountability for how they run things. It’s sad.