Good morning!
After an employee’s grandmother died, they texted their manager that they’d be taking bereavement leave for the funeral. The response became a case study in how not to manage grief.
The manager pushed back, questioning whether the grandmother counted as “immediate family” and calling the timing “terrible” with a big upcoming pitch meeting. The exchange reached millions when George Stern, a former McKinsey consultant, read the texts deadpan to camera, becoming one of his most viral Instagram and TikTok videos.
The outrage from his followers didn’t surprise Stern, who now runs a firm that grows and sells small businesses when he’s not creating content. But the volume of recognition did. Stern says he’s since received roughly 100 more bereavement stories from people who had been treated similarly at work.
“Corporations are losing trust, like every other institution in the country right now,” Stern said. “They’re out of touch with the experience of their employees on the ground.”
Stern has built an audience, he says, by putting that disconnect on display—and he thinks HR leaders should pay attention.
Stern didn’t set out to become the internet’s bad-boss archivist. He started posting management content on LinkedIn two years ago. When employees began sending him screenshots of their own manager horror stories, he switched to video, offering advice on navigating workplace conflict. He now gets up to 20 new submissions a day.
Typically, Stern’s advice is to take workplace issues to HR. But increasingly, followers respond with some version of: “HR is not your friend.” He doesn’t entirely agree, but he sees the skepticism as a sign that HR needs to be more transparent about how it handles workplace complaints. For instance, he’s seen employees lose trust in HR when they raise concerns but lack the documentation needed for HR to investigate. In such scenarios, HR leaders should make clear what employees need to document for a complaint to be properly investigated, says Stern.
He offers professionals the same advice, urging them to document workplace interactions in writing, record conversations when permitted, and send written recaps of meetings that weren’t recorded.
But, he adds, “I should not be the messenger of that to these employees. It should be their HR leader.”
Editor’s note: This newsletter will be off for Labor Day next week. Catch us back in your inboxes on Sept. 14.
Kristin Stoller
Editorial Director, Fortune Live Media
[email protected]
