Politico is out with an exposé of allegedly toxic work culture at the centrist group No Labels, which for well over a decade has sought to revolutionize American politics by turning us all into David Brooks — but without the hotheaded outbursts about fancy sandwiches, which some people find overly divisive. No Labels, under the leadership of founder/CEO Nancy Jacobson — incidentally, Mark Penn’s wife — has been at the forefront of efforts to promote bipartisan cooperation, like encouraging Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to block the passage of Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill because it didn’t include Republicans — although honestly, neither senator needed to be pushed on that.
No Labels is also working to get itself on state ballots as a third party for 2024, in case it needs to find someone more centrist than Joe Biden in case of a rematch between Biden and Donald Trump, yes really.
Politico’s story explains that the true believers in No Labels’ mission are deeply driven, deeply committed, and not terribly worried about niceties like running employees ragged:
Interviews with 14 former employees—including five who left in the last few months—and four other people familiar with No Labels reveals a cutthroat culture, one where staffers are routinely fired or pushed out, have little trust in management, and believe the workplace environment can be difficult for minority and female colleagues.
Sounds like a terrific place to work! Not surprisingly, No Labels senior staff explained — in Zoom calls arranged by the group with Politico reporter Daniel Lippman — that the former employees’ accounts of discord at the organization were little more than the complaints of “aggrieved ex-workers” who couldn’t cut it at a very mission-driven organization that’s busy saving America from partisanship.
“There’s a sense of urgency at the organization. There is a sense of tension in the organization because we want to get this stuff done,” said retired Adm. Dennis Blair, a longtime No Labels board member, who called the group’s work in Washington a “David vs. Goliath” story. “This kind of work is not for everybody, and I think some of the people you talked to simply did not adapt to that approach.”
Other No Labels insiders added that maybe the disgruntled ex-staffers were disgruntled “because they could not fully commit to being non-partisan and that others didn’t share in the dedication to the cause.” Mmm-hmmm. As for those who thought maybe it was a bit excessive to get 65 work emails before 9:00 on a Saturday morning, many with requests for immediate action, we suppose it’s just fair to doubt their commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Lippman also notes that as he was working on the story, he started getting lots of messages from nice No Labels volunteers and state organizers — 18 in three hours one day — telling him that No Labels was the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful organization they’d ever known in their lives. Hilariously, someone leaked an email from Blair, the retired Admiral, that told volunteers and others to please contact Lippman to “share your experience with No Labels and our team and why this work is so important to you” in hopes that maybe evidence of all the happy No Labels true believers might “prevent this story” from being published.
Good to know. We’ll be sure to keep an eye on the comments here.
Among the complaints from former No Labels staff — as ever, you really should go read the whole thing for all the deets — were there stories of Black employees being singled out to offer their opinions on issues involving race, since wouldn’t they know all about it? A former outreach manager, who’s suing the organization, said Jacobson had assigned her to recruit more people of color to work at No Labels.
She found the request offensive since she was one of only two Black staff members at the time.
“I understand the necessity of having diverse representation at all tables, but this request was performative – make the only Black staffer we have on this side of the house responsible for our lack of Black engagement,” she said. “What they were asking me to do is be their token.”
No Labels contends that there was nothing improper about the request, because after all the woman’s job was “outreach,” and if recruiting new employees isn’t outreach, then what is? They also said the employee was just not a very good worker who was out to get money from the group.
We also learn that not everyone in the organization was wild about the hiring of two very fine centrist gentlemen who’ve been credibly accused of sexual harassment. One, former Rep. Tom Reed (R-New York), resigned from Congress in May after allegations last year of sexual misconduct against him; Reed says No Labels is “the only beacon of hope that is bringing people together,” and he apologized to the woman who’d accused him, so that’s just peachy.
In 2021, No Labels also hired Mark Halperin, who lost his MSNBC gig in 2019 after he was accused by multiple women of being a grabby sexual harasser pervert who rubbed his penis on women just sitting there in his office, like what.
Read More:
GAME CHANGE: Mark Halperin Can’t Stop Rubbing His Gross Penis On Women, Allegedly!
Frottage Perv Mark Halperin REFUSES To Take His Gross Penis And Go Home
Apparently, though, Halperin is such an “incredibly brilliant” communicator that No Labels simply had to have him, and in fact he’s the group’s highest-paid staffer, getting almost $260,000 in compensation in 2021. He’s worth it, according to No Labels Co-Executive Director Liz Morrison, who told Lippman that the group had taken employees’ concerns seriously when they objected to having Rubby McHarasser on staff. Besides, there haven’t been any complaints about sexual harassment at No Labels, so everything’s swell. Err, fine.
But one employee POLITICO spoke with expressed discomfort at having to work alongside Halperin and two others criticized management’s handling of the situation.
A former employee said that staffers were told by their bosses they could ask Halperin about the accusations on an introductory Zoom call. The forum became “very weird,” according to a person who was on the call. “What am I going to say to this man?”
All in all, it sounds like a really great place to work because clearly No Labels cares so much about fixing America, and if you can’t get behind its radical centrism and put your shoulder to the wheel, maybe the problem is YOU, the end.
[Politico]
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