Staff reports dating back a decade have described working conditions under now-Vice President Kamala Harris as “unhappy” and “toxic” in new reports from Business Insider that follow up on previous reporting from Politico.
“So many people recognized themselves in [the Politico article], or recognized treatment they had seen or treatment they had heard about and dismissed,” one former staffer told Business Insider, adding that they had sent a link to the story to their therapist with a note that read: “Rarely in life are we publicly vindicated.”
NEW: Inside Kamala Harris’ toxic office culture: Ex-aides say the VP in previous powerful jobs has been unpredictable and demeaning, churned through interns, and demanded a certain kind of pen. by @rbravender ($) @thisisinsider https://t.co/uBZUXwZv2g
— Darren Samuelsohn (@dsamuelsohn) July 14, 2021
They aren’t just texting their therapists either.
“They’re texting one another and having flashbacks about their time working for her,” says Business Insider of former staffers who read the Politico reports. “The news spread fast around the alumni network of Vice President Kamala Harris’ ex-staffers in California and Washington after a string of unflattering stories were published late last month about management problems in her White House office.”
Business Insider interviewed 12 former Harris staff members, some of whom said they “loved” Harris, but described her management style as “demanding”.
Included among Harris’s misdeeds were hanging up on staff members who didn’t have information quickly enough, and changing appointment times without telling staff members and then berating the staff for not knowing the changes.
“If she called in to talk, and then changed her mind, she would just hang up the phone on you,” said one former staffer.
Critics called her office environment “toxic” with employees “shell-shocked” by the behavior of Harris when she didn’t get what she wanted quickly enough.
The combination caused “a sense of paranoia in that office that you never knew when she was going to snap at you.”
This is not the first time that Harris’s management acumen has been called into question.
When Harris was California state attorney general, she was blasted for a sexual harassment settlement that was thought to help protect her career with a massive, taxpayer-funded payout.
