I love it when Omid Scobie gets the tea. While I have had moments of stomach-churning agony on behalf of what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are dealing with right now, the situation this week is a lot better for them than the situation in 2018-19, before they sought and found their freedom. These days, they have the freedom to clapback on all of the bullsh-t in the same newscycle, and it makes a world of difference. While the “Meghan is a bully!” story got widespread play, so did Meghan and Harry’s statement about the very obvious and calculated smear campaign. Direct denials are not the only tool at their disposal. They can also chat – or authorize their people to chat – with Scobie or any journalist they want. Which is what happened – you can read the full Harper’s Bazaar piece here. Some highlights:
The Sussexes were expecting something: The couple had been expecting reaction from the palace [before the Oprah interview]. But when the Duchess of Sussex was informed by her team on Friday, February 26, that a small group of royal aides—past and present—had contributed to a “takedown” of her character in a British newspaper, including accusations of bullying and emotional cruelty toward staff, she was speechless, sources say. “Harry and Meghan knew that it would get ugly in the run up [to the Oprah special], but seeing such an obvious attempt at destroying her character was distressing and upsetting,” a friend of the couple tells BAZAAR.com.
Of course those white folks couldn’t handle taking orders from a Black woman: A close friend of the duchess—who speaks on the condition of anonymity—shares their own take on the situation, telling BAZAAR, “I hate to say it, but find me a woman of color in a senior position who has not been accused of being too angry, too scary, too whatever in the workplace. It’s sad that it’s happening, but I’m not surprised. These claims are so far from the woman I know.”
Very curious detail: Though the Times article does not include any examples or details of the alleged bullying, the newspaper does share the feelings of two palace aides—who during moments said they felt “terrified” and “broken” while working for the duchess. However, missing from the paper’s report is the detail that neither staff member made complaints of their own or were aware that Knauf had sent an email to HR citing grievances. “When it became known to [the two individuals], they each asked for the matter to be rescinded and for it to not become an official complaint,” a source tells BAZAAR.com. (Reports that Prince Harry tried to intervene have been denied by the couple’s lawyers.)
The curious case of Melissa Toubati: One of those employees, personal assistant Melissa Toubati, left Kensington Palace in October 2018 after reportedly being “driven to tears,” according to British tabloid reports at the time. An aide anonymously defended the abrupt departure, quickly giving a glowing account of her tenure to the Daily Mail. However, it later emerged in court documents during Meghan’s privacy case against The Mail on Sunday that Toubati had, in fact, been dismissed from her role by the couple due to misconduct (the details of which are known to this author but cannot be repeated for legal reasons). In the Sussex biography, Finding Freedom, sources revealed that it was Knauf’s longtime friendship with Toubati that had led the Sussexes to believe that certain staff, including their own press secretary, were “more interested in protecting one of their own than [Meghan].”
No one ever directly approached Meghan about the “bullying”: One of Meghan’s friends, who has known her for 10 years, adds, “I know that Meg would feel awful if she knew that someone felt that way about working with her, but I also know that no one ever approached her about anything like this at all during that time. I have never known her to be anything but kind and considerate to her friends and colleagues.”
The Sussexes will share their truth: “They have had everything and the kitchen sink thrown at them this week, but ultimately nothing will stop them from sharing their truth.”
Yeah, of course Knauf is compromised, as are many members of the Kensington Palace staff. William’s former private secretary was caught up in a bribery scheme involving his lover and Dan Wootton, for goodness sake. As for Toubati being fired for cause… that’s interesting, as is the detail about how the people who “complained” to Knauf ended up rescinding their complaints and not wanting to formalize them at all. I mean, I don’t even care at this point. I don’t even need Meghan or her friends to do a line-by-line denial. It’s really obvious what Kensington Palace was trying to do.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Hahahaha. That’s all I have to say.
I’ve been bullied at work, and it was flabbergasting when suddenly I was the bad guy. You don’t even know what to say. Luckily I got out of there, and so did she.
I feel your pain. Same here. The way witnesses suddenly turn deaf and dumb. The way some women turn on those tears and weaponise their fragility. It’s a sight to behold. You feel like giving them an Oscar. Luckily they pushed me out to far greater success and that in my opinion is the best revenge.
This is how you win! Rise above the pettiness and hate and focus on your own betterment.
Sadly, this is a pretty typical reaction from bullies, to scream “no, you’re bullying me!” I’ve been there also with a toxic family member. While obviously none of us know all the ins and outs of what M&H did or did not do, the fact that the press and palace are clearly doing this as a response to having their bullying pointed out makes me verrrrrrrry skeptical that Meghan was doing any actual bullying. At most I’m guessing she was communicating clear expectations and then following up on how the staff were doing on meeting them, which I’m guessing they might not have been used to with W&K.
I was bullied at a job where I was a contract worker. When I told the director of the group that she had a major problem with this one employee who often made coworkers cry (I was so lucky it was a 6 month contact- you would not believe how many times a day I caught people crying in the bathroom or break room)- my contract was ended two early. The director is BFF with the bully. It impacts their productivity and attrition rates. Birds of a feather and all.
Happened to me to. These 2 white women at work, looked like they worked for FOXNews, both would try to bully me. I prepared patients for work comp appts. They did the sales part. Anyway they would attempt
to report to my manager if they felt I was moving to slowly or an appt isn’t with a doctor they wanted(yes, insurance companies do that).
They were always loud and wrong. Were it not for my Black manager I would’ve surely have been fired due to their constant barrage of (non)complaints. Once they went OVER my Black manager to her white manager to have me written up for “white women upset” really.
My Black manager quit suddenly one day. At this point I’d been promoted to supervisor. One of those same white women got promoted Tomas manager. Her first act of business? Get the white HR lady in with her and I to demote me. Why you ask? For performance? No! I was hands down the best in our office. Lateness? No.
I was “Intimidating”. I was demoted for being “Intimidating”. I lived in Texas so don’t ask why I didn’t sue. For what? A bill to pay? I just later quit. I never perused another management level job and found a Union job instead. It really left a scar on me.
This looks … horrible. But not just because it’s an obvious smear but because suddenly BP has this HR investigative power and Prince Andrew is just…. out there. Like I know their excuse is that their HR is for internal employees but it looks so bad for them to use these resources knowing that they are housing and protecting an actual preditor.
Like not once has BP issued a statement saying they are investigating allegations regarding Prince Andrew or anything related to that.
Also – I don’t know what they think they are going to stop, the Interview has already been recorded.. its not like M&H can change their statement last minute and Oprah would not cancel, she has done enough *risky* interviews to let her clients know that they can’t resend and M&H wouldn’t do that.
But ALSO (man this coffee has kicked in) they are still making themselves look horrible because Harry just went on James Corden and was perfectly cordial about his family, even bringing up the Queen and her supposed waffle maker… they are the ones making it hostile..
The Sussexes make me angry. Well, not angry, “angry” but they make me feel the same way I feel about Dems maintaining the high road. Me, I immediately hire bots to amplify a hashtag about Andrew and the palace. #wheresPrinceAndrewsinvestigation? Or about the angry black woman trope. Or about the jewels hypocrisy. All you need to do is raise visibility and the young social media users will carry it. Take off the gloves fgs.
@julie I completely agree with everything you said. If they’re going to break, then break. Spill everything and show the world how awful the BRF is.
Nah, the Sussexes’ closeness with Eugene is strong enough for them to not want to go there. And I think they are really close with the queen so they know how an attack on Andrew would affect both the queen and Euge, no they won’t dare wanna go there. But if I were them, I would just throw a little nugget about the Middletons and their shenanigans (or even William and his numerous affairs that he’s so scared about being found out) into some friendly media ear and sit back and watch the sharks go into a frenzy.
I’ve been wondering just how badly Meghan must want to bring up Andrew’s…atrocities seems an appropriate enough word. She MUST want to demand to know why she is being attacked for some imaginary workplace faux pas (or, more accurately, for the terrible crime of taking charge while Black) while he is protected and coddled. As we’ve learned, she’s pretty damn fearless when it comes to calling out the RF, so I have to believe that the only thing holding her back is that she and Harry have maintained a friendship with his York cousins (or at least Eugenie).
I actually found Harry’s interview with James Corden kinda sad, in a way. The fact that he was so cordial…it made me think, this is a man who really wants to be close to his family, who wants his children to have a normal, caring relationship with their grandparents and great-grandparents, and to have an uncle and aunt. It must be heartbreaking for him that all those people who claim to love him refuse to respect the woman he loves (and, by extension, their children). And they don’t just passively disrespect or ignore her, they actively smear her at every turn.
@Miranda: Yes. I felt the same way. Harry’s interview with Corden was lovely, but his very loveliness and warmth made me feel sad for him. This loving, kind person cannot get any love or kindness from his own family. Maybe he does in private from his grandparents but meanwhile the family business s–ts all over him and his wife and their child (soon to be children) daily. So sad.
To your point about Andrew: we know that he raped an underage girl that was trafficked by his BFF Epstein. What are the chances that there have been no sexual harassment complaints about him over the years? The RF has some serious skeletons in their closet. They’d better be careful what they unearth with these smear campaigns.
In 2000 Epstein and Maxwell attended a party at Windsor Castle hosted by the Queen to mark a bunch of royal birthdays including Andrew’s 40th and Prince William’s 18th. Did Andrew ask his skeevy friends to procure girls for William?
Don’t forget that Andrew invited Epstein to his own daughter’s teenage birthday party!
Andrew should really be investigated (but not by HR). If they’re so sure he’s innocent both regarding Epstein and @PitchPalace, why not clear his name? We all know it’s because he’d face jailtime for numerouse crimes.
When it comes to HR investigations; how many staff members have shaked in fear when Will’s been incandescent with rage? How many staff members have breached their NDA when running to the press? How many staff members have had to cover up for the royals affairs and crimes?
The Queen’s personal dresser Angela Kelly once physically assaulted another employee. It was even reported on in the press – and guess what? AK still works for the Queen. I bet she was never investigated or reprimanded. She should have been fire TBH. But the Queen likes her so she can behave with impunity towards other palace employees as well as towards Meghan, a member of the family who employs her. It is absolutely mind-boggling – but it really illustrates how toxic the Palace must be as a work place.
I’ve often wondered if Angela Kelly has some really nasty dirt on the queen. She seems to behave just as badly as some of the queens children but are never fired.
One has to wonder when the Queen dies, will Angela Kelly still have a job? I think she designed a dress for Kate once, but has she ever worked with Camilla?
There’s also the fact that there have been numerous of allegations against Prince Andrew of him being terrible to his staff. Prince Charles was literally accused of choking a member of his staff. Where were these investigations then? Or where were these investigations when palace aides were running to tell the press that they joked about Harry leaving Meghan and that they had cruel nicknames for her while she was pregnant with Archie? I said it on Twitter yesterday but this shows that the palace could have done something about the terrible treatment Megah received while a member of Firm but they CHOSE not to. Instead they let their staff abuse her in the press for years. They don’t get to turnaround now and cry about how they want their side of the story told because they know they are about to be exposed on a massive global scale. They’ve been telljng their side for years! It’s time to deal with consequences of it.
Twitter isn’t having it. There is a real shift going on and I am here for it.
Twitter has been a dream. So many earthed receipts for days. So many people setting their timers to watch the interview with many offering to host watch parties. The audience is going to be bigger than that of The Crown.
This is good to hear. I’m so traumatized from how badly these two are covered that this is the only place I will read about them. I stumbled on a reddit thread yesterday and took a quick peak expecting some sense and the top voted comments were essentially “very good people on both sides”. They acknowledge the racism but think there must be truth to this new smear because I guess retaliation isn’t a thing we should have anticipated.
This entire thing is like the worse case scenario of a new manager coming onboard and the entire department begrudging them their position and banding together to sabotage new initiatives and just generally make the new manager’s life miserable. Just because someone new comes along and wants to change how things are done doesn’t mean the change is bad, and doesn’t mean you’re being bullied. Jason is in this up to his eyeballs, and while I think his deviousness should be made public I don’t think for a second that he is the big mastermind behind all of this – he’s a minion, as is Melissa, and he was doing the bidding for william, who clearly wielded his power within KP to ensure that Meghan was undermined at every turn.
Hear, hear.
Yes and everyone should hold the curtain back and show who the true puppet masters are!! We have seen the handprints on backs of staff for years and there in NO mistaking those anger raging fists!!
I must add that I loved when Harpers Bazaar sent out a newsletter that clearly showed so many people across the US and possibly the pond who were calling out the Times as a BS hit piece on Meghan!! None of them were having it!! It was glorious to see SO many people coming to their defense!! And the BS statement that KP was NOW opening an investigation into the bullying that Meghan had done to the staff 18 months ago?!? Such utter smear and make them disappear is ridiculous!!! F#ck KP, The Firm, PWT and Laziness Keen!!
We never heard of any investigation of the bullying OF Meghan. They call themselves “the Firm”, but didn’t take bulling of a POC woman serious back then.
As I said in another thread. The most I can believe that it was an incredibly stressful work environment. Not because of Meghan, but because employees were working for 4 different bosses with competing agendas and different work styles. With the Cambridges intent on undermining whatever the Meghan wanted to do. The Cambridges probably demanded loyalty to them and the Sussex’s trying to get to the bottom of why they were constantly being undermined. Staff stuck in the middle, frazzled.
Then there is what someone said in another thread that William instructed staff to brief against Meghan once his affair was exposed to use her as a distraction. Which Harry probably figured out and probably cursed William out for, which caused the rift.
I think there was also the issues of staff only reporting to the lazy Willcandescent and his mannequin once a month as opposed to the daily reporting Meghan is used to. I can’t even imagine a PA only reporting to me once a month! How lazy do I have to be??
Reporting only once a month instead of daily briefing? Have any of these people actually ever held a real job before they were hired on at KP? With that work drive, I’d never have gotten anything done. Oh wait, William and Kate don’t actually ever really get anything done. I can see why LIFTING 5 generic questions from an Early Childhood 101 textbook took Kate’s staff 8 years now.
I do think they were told to brief against Meghan to deflect from the affair – I always thought that the press was told it was a field day as far as Meghan coverage went as long as they didnt talk about Rose Hanbury – and that was a HUGE part of Harry wanting to walk away, not just that particular time but because he realized that was going to be how it was for the rest of their lives, it was never going to change, and that’s how it was going to be for Archie. He was “okay” being used like that, but not his wife or son.
But the smear campaign did start a few months before the affair rumors circulated, so there was definitely other things going on behind the scenes.
Meghan clearly went in with ideas and wanted to get things done which was a direct threat to how KP had been operating to date.
Unless presented with evidence otherwise, I can’t believe that the stress and tears the staff were allegedly reduced to weren’t because of actual expectations and trying to balance between competing instructions from WK and HM.
Maybe if we didn’t have a decade’s worth of evidence of the quality of work coming out of KP (low-quality, extremely lazy output), then there would be a question on if M was a mean boss. But the fact that we can’t point to a single piece of quality or productive work that came out of KP in the past decade leads me to believe otherwise.
Sure, they came up with Heads Together, but what does it do? Has it actually done anything? They’ve always just latched onto other, existing initiatives.
@Shazbot – I’m thinking about one of the things the Cookbook, Vogue, Smartworks, Mayhew, CAMFED, etc., etc. had in common. At the time, everyone was talking about “no leaks”. The press had only vague ideas. I think that’s because the Duchess was doing them all by herself. The carnival was too busy juggling grievances about working for a charismatic American black woman.
The smear campaign started as soon as they realized that the Oceania tour was a huge success. They weren’t even back in the UK for a day before tiaragate showed up and that was William and Angela Kelly. It only grew from there, especially once the affair was made more public.
If Jason maintains his position at KP, I think that says it all.
I don’t see how he can stay and I suspect that Harry and Meghan will have a lot to say about him in their interview with Oprah. They may not call him by name but I think people will figure out who they’re talking about.
That’s part of what makes these leaks this week so bad – now Jason’s name is out there. Keir Simmons is naming him on the Today show, along with a picture, two mornings in a row now. He’s gone from being a fairly anonymous staffer to someone front and center in this, and even casual royal watchers probably have heard his name at this point. So now when Meghan says “well one senior staffer said….” people are going to assume that it’s him. He should have stayed anonymous.
The thing that makes Jason’s name being mentioned odious to me, is that it looks like KP is setting Knauf up to be a fall guy. KP will fire Wee Jason and then everyone scrutinizing this horrid mess will nod and say “jolly good, job done” – and not look further into the matter, and the rest of the Courtiers and staffers will be let off the hook for *their* part in this ongoing hate crime against the Duchess of Sussex.
The only way to make the media self-reflect and maybe change their behaviour is to readjust the reality of ALL their “palace sources”.
DeuxMoi posted a submission from someone that was implied to be about Toubati. Apparently, she was wildly under qualified for the job and was hired based on connections. She wasn’t able to perform and was looking out for her connections, not M&H.
Is she the one rumoured to be screwing Jason?
Jason Knauff is gay, non? Personally I believe William is banging Knauff behind Kate’s back. Or maybe Kater participates too, you never know with these people.
no I think it is Christian Jones who is gay and whose bf was selling to Wootten
It was the boyfriend of Christian Jones that was accused of being paid to leak stories to Wootton. Funny there was no lawsuit when that story came out. Those are defamatory things to say if they weren’t true.
DeuxMoi also posted a submission that they received last October saying that Meghan was “rough” (to use the submitter’s word) to work with, just to give the full DeuxMoi story.
Both points could easily be true. And that doesn’t take away from the fact that BP/KP is just so amateur for leaking this this week, as the timing is gross.
And then they also posted another story saying that staff were caught in the middle, the palace actually liked Meghan in the beginning, staff began to leak about Meghan to cover William and that William and Kate are nice but cold to each other and staff.
Thought I’d mention that since you didn’t and you want to talk about the full story.
Ah good addition, I missed that one as I left my phone at home this morning – thanks, please add any others I missed too!
You didn’t. I just wanted to point out that you didn’t know the full story either yet you commented to a poster like they should have known.
Maybe they left their phone at home too and didn’t see the submission.
I saw that “rough” submission and found it interesting in that it ignored the fact that Samantha Cohen, who had worked for the Queen and then been assigned to Meghan short-term, ended up extending her working contract with Meghan to stay on with her longer. Doesn’t quite sound like a horrible boss. The man described in the submission is obviously Knauf, who has been exposed for leaking information to the media and likely helping the Fail with the letter foolishness. The woman is likely his buddy Toubati who he hooked up with the job. And then was let go, which was reported in court documents for the copyright case. So she didn’t leave on her own. I have my suspicions about the source of that particular submission, but whatever.
Well, it’s “rough” to work for someone who expects you to actually work and know how to do your job, if you’re not qualified for the job.
DeuxMoi is hardly a reliable source of correct information.
It’s the “terrified” and “trembling” that makes no sense. Did she pull out a knife or pistol? Tell them she’ll have the Bloods and Crips come get them? Or did she tell them she has the “Candyman” on speed dial?
Right? There’s sooooo much crying at that palace. Kate, multiple staffers. I mean for a nation that once controlled three quarters of the planet by brute force, the British sure are a very delicate bunch.
Aren’t they suppose to have stiff upper lips, and show no feelings!
That’s why they’re losing this, in my opinion. Well one reason they’re losing this. The reactions are SO extreme and there is NOTHING to explain why. No one actually is saying what she did though. Because, no, 5 am emails, hiring a butler, and telling someone to stop being so familiar are not reasons for these extreme physical reactions.
i think we all understand that people CAN have those reactions when you are dealing with an abusive boss. But usually people follow it up with an explanation and concrete examples of why.
These people regularly interact with people like William and Kate, and I’m assuming staff from Clarence House and BP and I’m assuming they’ve had some run-ins with other royals – those people are all sunshine and roses all the time? really?
White people who don’t have any experience of being around black people can be easily frightened.
So terrified were they that they gave her nicknames and leaked info about her to the press without repercussions or reprisals. That’s how terrified they were of her. Still haven’t told us what she did that got them into this state.
People were attacking his article on twitter because of that quote of what black women in senior positions face – people were going all “but white women too!!” one person blocked me after I told her she should read a book and do some learning and stop using terms like “the race card.” It really is so hard for white women to see beyond their own experiences (I say that as a white woman.)
(and of COURSE women in the workplace have to behave differently than men, a man is assertive, a woman is a bitch, etc. but black women have an even harder standard they have to meet and different language is used for them and I cannot believe I have to explain that to people in 2021.)
ANYWAY. This is a mess completely of William’s own making.
Becks1, I know. I am a white woman and I knew from an early age that POC, especially WOC had to work 3x’s harder than white women and are still paid LESS than white women and still have to prove their worth. This has been an issue since the early 80’s when I hit the workforce and I was pissed that white women were earning less than $.070 per hour vs white men. Then to add that WOC earned less than white women $0.55-0.65 vs white women is beyond reprehensible!!
I wouldn’t be shocked if there are bots amplifying the racist responses as well. It’s not like we don’t know about KP buying followers for IG.
There’s a lot more to that Melissa Toubati story. She was fired for misconduct and so her lover, Jason, retaliated against Meghan by running to the Mail with a story about how she quit because Meghan was so mean to her. Jason was also the guy who helped Meghan with her letter and was the person assigned to help with Thomas Markle before the wedding. I believe that the smoking gun has finally been outed. One of them at least.
Jason is the smoking gun but William loaded the bullets and will continue to cover for him. This whole thing is a dumpster fire inside a train wreck and will burn for a lonnnngggg time.
Maybe Jason will get lucky and Thomas Markle will run to TMZ or The Daily Mail to defend him and say how wonderful Jason was in telling him just to stay home, not bother with the wedding, or how he deserved this or that but Meghan had said no to a big house, a stipend, royal title, etc. I’d love to see those two bullies implode on each other. How he was so lucky to have Jason in his corner while his daughter sold him down the River. I so believe, Jason had a huge hand in Thomas and Samantha going full metal jacket on Meghan.
LOL. KP’s attacks are falling apart like a house of cards and BP is trying to cover for them. These idiots don’t see how bad the optics are; not just because of the interview, but also the big CW special they’ve been pushing. Do they even think of how all of this is coming across to black and brown CW countries in particular?
They just should have kept their big mouths shut and looked “regal”. Now they look bad, like they are trying to play catch up.
Yeah, this Magnificent 7 upcoming Commonwealth event is not going to play well in most Commonwealth countries. Maybe one of the 7 will whine on camera about how they tried so hard with Meghan and wished she was still part of them, but she just couldn’t seem to recognize her PLACE. 🤦🏻♀️ I mean, how dare Meghan show up for her own lynching and not bring the rope!
@ Beach Dreams, I read an article about how the actions of The Firm, BP, CH, and PWT and CEO Keen have enforced their beliefs that UK WOC are certainly aware of the racism in their own country because they are subjected to it everyday! They have started sharing that the actions of KP and The Firm were suspected of blatant racism to WOC, but these actions during the years and especially this week are a clear indication that they understand what Meghan has suffered from as they see it everyday as well!!
I didn’t think the smear campaign from KP could get any worse then the “pre-Finding Freedom” campaign, but I was wrong. I shudder to think if how horrible they must have been, when they’re THIS afraid of what H&M tells Oprah.
Jason must be investigated
And that is exactly what they don’t want. I look for him to find “other opportunities elsewhere ” and soon. Big institutions with lots of layers have things to hide and don’t like too many questions. Especially when its all held together by spit and gum.
He breach of privacy in going to the media about complaints that were never actually made and do not relate to him directly is something that normally gets others fired.
I’ll start by saying I don’t believe the bullying story because of the other many reasons we have mentioned here.
But I do want to say one thing here: just because someone doesn’t officially report abuse doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. They could be scared of retaliation. I want to apply the same logic here that we would apply to anyone else claiming abuse in work or personal life who didn’t report it for any number of reasons.
Yes, it’s disheartening when that argument comes up; or the “I’ve known X for X years and have never seen that side of them.” Meaningless, of course. Abusers choose their targets.
But yeah, this accusation needs an entire cargo ship’s worth of salt.
All roads lead back to Jason and KP. Both need to be investigated. I want Jason’s face plastered on these news reports tbh since he put himself out there.
Ignore the pedophile Andrew in the corner…..by all means, let’s investigate Meghan. The Royal Family is such a joke!
It’s exhausting.
I bet if Andrew were younger and actually good-looking and stylish, his story would be way more scrutinised in the media because: human nature. He’d be more of the “god to take down” a la goddess-to-take-down Meghan, and there’d be so many more stories/public interest.
Basically, we suck as a species. (It’s not just the RF-controlled media ignoring Andrew way too much, but everywhere. Maybe they’re Weinstein/Epsteined-out.)
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-42462724
2017
2021- what racism? She’s not Oprah black.
I can’t. I used to be such a royal fan.
Also would not be the least surprised if a dnr happens and they try to blame M.
Thanks so much for the article!! I love how they pointed out that racists twit has a father that was a SS Major Nazi official, racist much Kent!?!
So I think I have it all figured out!
Jason Knauf was shagging Melissa Toubati. Got her hired as Meghan’s PA by falsifying her CV. Melissa sucked at her job and got fired for cause. Jason became pissed and filed an HR complaint. I believe it said that Meghan drove 2 away and undermined the confidence of another. When those other two staff found out that they were dragged into this without their consent, they asked for the complaint to be rescinded.
Yepp! The only thing I would add; he also got pissed because he and Will lost their best source of info they could run to the press with.
!!!!!!
EMPLOYEES: The Black Duchess told us we had to do our jobs and ACTUALLY DO THEM WELL!!
KNAUF: How dare she! *furiously writes email complaint alleging bullying*
EMPLOYEES: Er, no, please don’t do that, we don’t want to have to tell HR that our boss feels our work is substandard.
These palaces are a joke! They’re stumbling are with their fake stories would be comical if it wasn’t painful for Meghan. People see right through them and anyone making excuses for them don’t like Meghan and they never will
I work at a big international law firm based in Asia. The firm has branches out all over the world in the last 30 years. The London office was a mess from the jump. We initially thought it was a Big Law culture clash bc in the U.S. and in Asia, you work 80+ hours a week, nights and weekends and whenever you’re needed. But local staff chafed at taking orders from people of color and there were problems with ‘jokes’ and undermining work. So much work was shifted back to the main office that keeping the London office open was inefficient and it closed. I spent a couple of weeks there once for a deal we were working on and it was… not a great atmosphere. The senior partner on site got complaints from the staff that my team was ‘too harsh’ bc we directly asked them to do specific things on specific timelines and held them accountable when they didn’t have them done. I expect Meghan experienced a similar situation.
The work culture clash sound about right, but I would like to think that people have a right to a work – life balance. 80+ hours a week means not seeing your family, friends, getting exercise, engaging in hobbies, living life. That can’t be healthy. Also, research shows people aren’t productive that long. You are probably getting 60 hours of actual productivity. All that stated, I get the sense that the BRF employees are nepotism – aristo – school chum hires with little desire to work, but love the status of the position.
They do, and you can work for smaller firms or other areas of law. Big Law is a specific thing and everyone knows what that life is before going into that line of work. Big law firms are also mostly nepotism-based. Our London office committed to hiring 50% locally, with 100% of the in house support staff being local and native English-speaking. Between the difficulties with the culture clash in work styles, the racial issues, and the communication barriers, it was a nightmare.
Anyone who has ever been hired into a toxic work environment is smiling grimly and nodding while reading all these “leaks.” This is the exact playbook of every dysfunctional workplace when anyone comes along who threatens the dynamic. And threatening the dynamic can mean “being excited to do the work you’re hired for” or “competent.” Look at Angela Kelley’s history of attacking(!!!) a coworker! And this is the woman who wields significant power. Nothing to do in those instances but cut out the rot or leave yourself.
Ha! No kidding. Flashing back to my own experience keeping my head down while two departments duke it out. Hopefully, the “department” in the right will win as it did in my case!
That wedding photo makes me so sad. As a British person I thought it was a sign that we were moving forwards, maybe becoming a little bit less racist as a society. Clearly not.