True or not, none of it surprises me..

[Dback Jon]

Its a take. He's Vice Chairman of the Arizona Commerce Authority. Seems odd he would hold such a position if he was widely not respected.

You know that’s just basically a title, right?

 

[cardpa]

I'm just not understanding those who are downplaying the article and saying it has no meat to it, no specifics, no facts. Almost everything in it is first person accounts of what went on in the organization. Are the naysayers saying these are just unhappy, disgruntled employees? All 100 of them? As for no set rules, I've worked in plenty of places where there were no specific written rules, but you sure as hell knew about them and you didn't break them or ignore them just because they weren't written down.

Great example, I worked for a large chocolate company and one day I wore my bump cap over to the factory backwards, and I was only crossing a street into a company parking lot. Well when I got back, I got my ass chewed big time for doing that because some bigwig happened to look out his window when I happen to be walking over to the factory. No specific rule against it but an unwritten one for sure. The reason for the chewing, I looked unprofessional even though the street was a side street with little traffic and no pedestrians.

 

[Dback Jon]

So...just because a person inherited means they are undeserving?

Curious.

No. But it doesn’t mean they earned anything.

They have to prove it and so far Michael has not

 

[unseenaz]

None of the information in this article is new, why is it recirculating now?

We all know Michael is an a-hole. What is the Athletic's angle here?

 

[ASUCHRIS]

None of the information in this article is new, why is it recirculating now?

We all know Michael is an a-hole. What is the Athletic's angle here?

Did you not read the article, because it sounds like you didn't read the article.

Is April 2023 not recent enough?

"When McDonough’s allegations made headlines in April, the Cardinals held an emergency all-staff meeting to reassure employees. Later that month, every employee received invitations from Mayo and Tina Givens, senior director of people operations, to attend another listening session.


The April listening sessions took place in the executive conference room in the center of the second floor. The shades were lowered, but the location was public — anyone in the office could see who was coming and going. In at least one case, the session ended before the employees were done sharing their concerns.


Sixty minutes wasn’t enough time."

 

[oaken1]

I would love to hear you explain how inherited wealth is deserved.

Wow. Y'all are just overflowing with unsweetened haterade.

First, his family earned it. They invested in the team and built the business.
Mike? Mike could have chilled on his laurels and simply enjoyed life as a trust fund baby. Many do.
But Mike, Mike went to work. He went to law school...he then passed the BAR... Mike didn't sit around and let hi.self be kept.
Law school and the BAR...that's hard work. I have never done it but I know several who have. If you know anybody you should ask them.
Being a prosecutor didn't really prepare Mike to run an NFL team... but in a business that has dozens of active contracts not inclusive of players specifically knowing what all the heretofore and wheretofors mean when they are joined with a few words in latin...well that has to have value.
Then you throw in all the work on nfl commitees...
Mike is a dufus. I'll grant you that without argument.
But when it's abundantly clear he has worked his ass off for years...to say he is undeserving is just hatespeach and should be disregarded as such.

 

[oaken1]

No. But it doesn’t mean they earned anything.

They have to prove it and so far Michael has not

He has proven he isn't great at putting a winning team on the field. However, being incompetent does not make him undeserving of taking over the family business.

 

[JohnnyCakes]

He has proven he isn't great at putting a winning team on the field. However, being incompetent does not make him undeserving of taking over the family business.

alot of owners ( especially the family owned ones ) tend to put the team operations in the hands of "yes men" instead of the best men.

Its been an ongoing trend for decades in most major sports.

When you have a sole owner, one that doesnt have to line the pockets of other family members and investors, you can see their tendency to put the best people in charge at the helm.

 

[daves]

I'd never heard that the team gym was closed to female employees.

Kalyn Kahler isn't some aggregator. She's a real reporter who talked to 100 current and former employees. This isn't made up stuff.

From the article, "The team eventually closed off the weight room to all non-football staff and offered employees discounted memberships to a local gym." A good reporter would've checked whether this is standard practice among all NFL teams. Seems as though allowing female employees, or any non-football staff, in the players' weight room is begging for a sexual harrassment / hostile work environment lawsuit, given the certainty of "locker room talk" taking place there among the players.

Fair points. Maybe I judged the article too harshly but it sure felt to me like there was a lack of specifics. And no timeline, nothing to indicate whether these are historical issues or whether they are still continuing right now.

In some cases the article did note that the problems occurred pre-COVID, and that they have been addressed one way or another since. E.g. "Employee wellness initiatives announced in February of 2020". The new "Chief People Officer", Shaun Mayo, was hired in July 2021. "In 2022, the team renovated an unused office into a space for nursing mothers." There is now an HR director and "fully-staffed HR department".

It should've never come to this or taken this long to create a modern billion dollar corporate environment, but the article would've been more informative if the reporter had written about how employees feel about the changes and the current situation, rather than just talking about how much things sucked prior.

 

[oaken1]

From the article, "The team eventually closed off the weight room to all non-football staff and offered employees discounted memberships to a local gym." A good reporter would've checked whether this is standard practice among all NFL teams. Seems as though allowing female employees, or any non-football staff, in the players' weight room is begging for a sexual harrassment / hostile work environment lawsuit, given the certainty of "locker room talk" taking place there among the players.

In some cases the article did note that the problems occurred pre-COVID, and that they have been addressed one way or another since. E.g. "Employee wellness initiatives announced in February of 2020". The new "Chief People Officer", Shaun Mayo, was hired in July 2021. "In 2022, the team renovated an unused office into a space for nursing mothers." There is now an HR director and "fully-staffed HR department".

It should've never come to this or taken this long to create a modern billion dollar corporate environment, but the article would've been more informative if the reporter had written about how employees feel about the changes and the current situation, rather than just talking about how much things sucked prior.

Agree.
It is a hit piece...probably written by one of these guys under a pseudonym

 

[kerouac9]

Wow. Y'all are just overflowing with unsweetened haterade.

First, his family earned it. They invested in the team and built the business.
Mike? Mike could have chilled on his laurels and simply enjoyed life as a trust fund baby. Many do.
But Mike, Mike went to work. He went to law school...he then passed the BAR... Mike didn't sit around and let hi.self be kept.
Law school and the BAR...that's hard work. I have never done it but I know several who have. If you know anybody you should ask them.
Being a prosecutor didn't really prepare Mike to run an NFL team... but in a business that has dozens of active contracts not inclusive of players specifically knowing what all the heretofore and wheretofors mean when they are joined with a few words in latin...well that has to have value.
Then you throw in all the work on nfl commitees...
Mike is a dufus. I'll grant you that without argument.
But when it's abundantly clear he has worked his ass off for years...to say he is undeserving is just hatespeach and should be disregarded as such.

LOL. None of that means that Michael earned the leadership of a multi-billion-dollar company. He didn't earn any of that.

I'm the son of two attorneys. I've known a bunch of attorneys. There are lots and lots and lots of dumb attorneys.

He doesn't deserve any of this. No inherited wealth is deserved and pretty much all of it is immoral.

From the article, "The team eventually closed off the weight room to all non-football staff and offered employees discounted memberships to a local gym." A good reporter would've checked whether this is standard practice among all NFL teams. Seems as though allowing female employees, or any non-football staff, in the players' weight room is begging for a sexual harrassment / hostile work environment lawsuit, given the certainty of "locker room talk" taking place there among the players.

In some cases the article did note that the problems occurred pre-COVID, and that they have been addressed one way or another since. E.g. "Employee wellness initiatives announced in February of 2020". The new "Chief People Officer", Shaun Mayo, was hired in July 2021. "In 2022, the team renovated an unused office into a space for nursing mothers." There is now an HR director and "fully-staffed HR department".

It should've never come to this or taken this long to create a modern billion dollar corporate environment, but the article would've been more informative if the reporter had written about how employees feel about the changes and the current situation, rather than just talking about how much things sucked prior.

1) I agree that either all non-football staff should have access to the weight room or none of them should. Doesn't change the fact that closing it to non-female employees is deeply toxic behavior.

2) Finish reading the article and you'd find (and it's been quoted on this tread multiple times) that the Chief People Officer just held a new series of listening sessions and the employees didn't have time to share their concerns and complaints before the 60-minute meeting time ended. And the note that it was clear who was walking into that meeting, which is an invitation for retaliation.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

LOL. None of that means that Michael earned the leadership of a multi-billion-dollar company. He didn't earn any of that.

I'm the son of two attorneys. I've known a bunch of attorneys. There are lots and lots and lots of dumb attorneys.

He doesn't deserve any of this. No inherited wealth is deserved and pretty much all of it is immoral.



1) I agree that either all non-football staff should have access to the weight room or none of them should. Doesn't change the fact that closing it to non-female employees is deeply toxic behavior.

2) Finish reading the article and you'd find (and it's been quoted on this tread multiple times) that the Chief People Officer just held a new series of listening sessions and the employees didn't have time to share their concerns and complaints before the 60-minute meeting time ended. And the note that it was clear who was walking into that meeting, which is an invitation for retaliation.

Such is life that some people get things that are "undeserved". The people that built that wealth do deserve to pass it down to future generations of their own family though. That includes passing down control of a major sports team.

 

[kerouac9]

Such is life that some people get things that are "undeserved". The people that built that wealth do deserve to pass it down to future generations of their own family though. That includes passing down control of a major sports team.

I encourage you to justify this statement.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

No inherited wealth is deserved and pretty much all of it is immoral.

I get what you are saying

But 2 questions for you

What are you going to with your inheritance?

Will you leave your money to your kids?

 

[oaken1]

I encourage you to justify this statement.

Damn k9... I know you like red, cardinals fan after all. But reel in the communism...wow...

Wait....screw it...where is my cut of Steve Jobs bank account?

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

I'm fairly sure that nowhere in the world are people that are disliked or not respected in their area installed in the top 3 positions of their industry associations.

I think there's enough to dislike Bidwill for without making things up.

I don’t think you understand how these specific boards work. Not like it’s a BoD for a Fortune 500 company or a unicorn startup.

Michael just attends a meeting or two a year, shows up at some events, and votes how the executive director tells him to.

 

[Dback Jon]

I don’t think you understand how these specific boards work. Not like it’s a BoD for a Fortune 500 company or a unicorn startup.

Michael just attends a meeting or two a year, shows up at some events, and votes how the executive director tells him to.

And the board likes having a Pro Sports owner on the board because he gives them tickets to games, access to events, etc.

 

[Krangodnzr]

LOL. None of that means that Michael earned the leadership of a multi-billion-dollar company. He didn't earn any of that.

I'm the son of two attorneys. I've known a bunch of attorneys. There are lots and lots and lots of dumb attorneys.

He doesn't deserve any of this. No inherited wealth is deserved and pretty much all of it is immoral.



1) I agree that either all non-football staff should have access to the weight room or none of them should. Doesn't change the fact that closing it to non-female employees is deeply toxic behavior.

2) Finish reading the article and you'd find (and it's been quoted on this tread multiple times) that the Chief People Officer just held a new series of listening sessions and the employees didn't have time to share their concerns and complaints before the 60-minute meeting time ended. And the note that it was clear who was walking into that meeting, which is an invitation for retaliation.

Yup!

 

[Russ Smith]

Meh. All old news. Nothing in here that's post covid. Most of it 4 years old.

And they kinda lost me when they thought not having a dedicated room for nursing mothers was a big deal. Who has that?

It's a federal law.

Where I work we have "mothers rooms" all over the place.

 

[Russ Smith]

Yeah it's pretty common but I don't know how big of a deal this is as the article isn't very clear. I know it can't be in a bathroom but "an area near the showers" tells us very little. Did the organization actually designate an area or are women just finding space where they can? Does it allow for privacy? Does it have a table, chair and sufficient space? And, if it's not in step, is it still going on or has it been resolved as legislation continues to address this for workplaces?

The purpose of the law is equal opportunity employment. If companies don't have a mothers room it can make it more likely they're going to discriminate in hiring women. I know it's the NFL but women still work for NFL teams.

 

[Russ Smith]

The US is weird man. I've never heard of this anywhere in the UK or Europe.

I just looked it up and the US Gov website says,

"No employer is required by law to provide a permanent lactation room, although many do. If you don't have space for a permanent room, consider using an existing office, closet, or storage area on an as-needed basis, screening off an area in a larger space, or providing a car windshield cover or a single-person pop-up tent."

So I have no idea why the article is complaining that women only had a disused office.

Federal law (FLSA §7 ) requires employers to provide reasonable break time and safe place for a non-exempt employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year. California law (LAB §1030) extends these protections to any employee for as long as employee is nursing her child.

 

[Russ Smith]

Apparently Arizona doesn't have the law at the state level they have a no discrimination law which it's assumed covers them on the mothers room laws but no idea if anybody has ever actually challenged it.

 

[AzStevenCal]

The purpose of the law is equal opportunity employment. If companies don't have a mothers room it can make it more likely they're going to discriminate in hiring women. I know it's the NFL but women still work for NFL teams.

I wasn't minimizing the importance of the mother's room itself, I was questioning how out of line they were based on the article. To me, it wasn't clear. From everything we've heard about Bidwill and management, I suspect the worst but it wasn't clear to me if they'd allocated acceptable space near the showers or whether they were forced to find their own way and the area near the showers and the conference rooms were their best options.

 

[kerouac9]

I get what you are saying

But 2 questions for you

What are you going to with your inheritance?

Will you leave your money to your kids?

1. I don’t expect much of an inheritance. My folks are busy traveling to Europe for three months at a time. Whatever I get will likely go to a down payment on a home I can’t afford to buy myself or paying college tuition for my kids so they’re not also crippled in debt when they graduate.

2. See above. Don’t expect anything meaningful to have to pass along to my kids because the boomers pulled the ladder of opportunity up behind them.

Even then, comparing the thousands of dollars (maybe a million—like most American families, we don’t talk much about money) to literally multi-billion dollar estates is a category error. If we as capitalists believe that building wealth is the engine for innovation, it makes no sense to encourage the rent-seeking behaviors of inherited wealth.

There should be no estates greater than $10 million.

 

[Russ Smith]

I wasn't minimizing the importance of the mother's room itself, I was questioning how out of line they were based on the article. To me, it wasn't clear. From everything we've heard about Bidwill and management, I suspect the worst but it wasn't clear to me if they'd allocated acceptable space near the showers or whether they were forced to find their own way and the area near the showers and the conference rooms were their best options.

Yeah my guess is they felt the no state law covered them against the federal law requiring it.

Ironically my prior employer was based in Arizona, I worked in California and they required mothers rooms in all their buildings, no matter what the state, even in Arizona because it was a federal law.

I worked at a company before that was so small when I started we had one woman. We didn't have a mothers room (2010) because we didn't know the law. At one point I was trying to expand a janitors closet into a mens bathroom and in researching that found out that was illegal. We could only add a unisex bathroom the law, California, is you can't have more toilets for me than women. At the time I think we had 25 men and 1 woman(almost all physicists very male dominant).

We expanded into the other half of the building, picked up 2 more bathrooms(mens and womens rooms) but as part of the expansion we HAD to create a mothers room. Was a city code requirement. The 2nd woman hired was my best friend in the company for a couple of years and she was the first person to use the mothers room, she was quite surprised at the history of it she was very surprised we had one. So I was actually quite happy we'd done all that work in advance so she got the benefit of it.

But the primary idea is not you have to treat pregnant women well, that's true of course but the PRIMARY idea of the law is that it makes it less likely a company will discriminate in hiring.

I have to assume the reason the Cards had that situation is they had no dedicated HR staff to tell them what the federal law was. I would also assume the reason they had no dedicated HR staff was they didn't want to have to follow rules.