Woman Calls Out "Toxic Leadership" After Being Denied Promotion, Then Asked to Train New Hire

You know what's annoying? When you've been a loyal customer to an internet service for years and around every 12 months or so, the ISP tries to sneakily increase the cost of your monthly fee, even though you're receiving more or less the same exact internet speeds you've been experiencing all along. Meanwhile, new customers get to pay way less just because the service is trying to acquire new clients.

It feels like a slap in the face. Here you are, paying your bills on time without issue, but the second they've got the chance to lock someone else into a contract, they're willing to offer all types of incentives. Unfortunately, this is a common phenomenon.

We all have those friends who treat new pals like they're the best thing since sliced bread, or a boss who would much rather give higher-paying jobs and promotions to external candidates instead of just promoting from within their organization. A TIkToker who posts under the handle @sarahssparksproject went viral for calling out her own company for doing just that.

Sarah posted a stitched clip in response to @coach2elevate's question: "What's the most toxic thing a leader at your company has ever said to you?"

She responded, "Oh have I been waiting for this one. Three years ago I tried for a promotion at my job. I thought I had a pretty good chance and I was actually told by the hiring director that I was the top pick."

However, she didn't get the job. "Ultimately, an executive got in the way and the whole story behind that is for another day," Sarah said. The job went unfilled for six months and then one day she says they were told "a new person was coming in from an outside company."

She added, "And weirdly enough we were told this on March 12, 2020, and you know what happened the next day, and the next few weeks it got to be pure chaos." She is of course referring to the start of COVID-19 lockdowns. "So. when this new person came, they were jumping into a very fast-moving stream — but a stream that was going very, very well."

Sarah says when the new manager started "I really tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. I was still a little bit bitter about not getting the position but wanted to start things off on the right foot, especially cause things were so crazy. But that's not how it went."

Sarah delineated the problems that ensued. "She immediately clashed with everyone, not just me, everyone."

In a follow-up TikTok, she explained that, prior to the pandemic, although her team was really successful, they still managed to have a lot of fun while doing their jobs.

But the new manager "did not like the close bond that [they] had." Sarah also said the new manager "didn't like a lot of the processes that we did, there was a lot of 'Well in my old world,' trying to get us on to whatever processes she supposedly did in her past world, but the thing is, I don't know if any of us learned anything from her."

Sarah also said there were tons of communication issues with the new manager, who wouldn't relay important information to the team in a timely fashion. It seemed like the new hire wasn't the best with time management, either. "A lot of us began to question, 'why is she here? What is going on?' And the thing is it wasn't just annoying, it was also affecting the business."

To make matters even more complicated, the new hire's inefficacy came at during the busiest time period the company ever experienced, because there was an uptick in business during the pandemic.

"Through all of this I tried to be very honest with my director about what was going on," Sarah continued. "The thing is, he wasn't just hearing it from me, he was hearing it from other team members, from other partners on teams that we worked with. It was very clear that things were not going well, but he kinda continued to defend her."

All of this culminated in the "toxic" portion of Sarah's story. During a meeting where she asked her director what she could do to help the situation, she says he asked her to help the new hire become a better manager.

In other words: teach the dysfunctional how to do the job Sarah herself was denied.

Other TikTokers' responses ranged from shock, confusion, and empathy, as many said they experienced similar scenarios.

Have you ever been in a bind akin to the one Sarah was in? How did you handle it?