Toxic work environment, high turnover, complete lack of leadership, inappropriate behavior - Graduate Student FC Tucson Employee Review

Current personnel consists of very unprofessional executive staff who have displayed discriminatory behaviors and made insensitive remarks in the presence of other staff. Such egregious behaviors include outing an LGBTQ staff person and intimating the sexuality of others to coworkers, gaslighting female employees, making homophobic/transphobic remarks, disrespecting minority staff, gossiping and spreading false rumors among management, making demeaning statements of former employees to new staff, consistently showing up to the office in an obviously altered state, and fostering a generally toxic space. Ownership is regularly kept from the truth regarding daily operations, staff relations, and conflicts stemming from the executive level. Staff is regularly abused under the guise of a fast-paced sports world. Rather than acknowledging the hard-working staff's and team's daily efforts, top management will claim every victory for themselves, which is a total detriment to any sense of real leadership or collaboration. All this while practicing performative allyship by stating that "Black Lives Matter," but that the role of transgender athletes is still too controversial for the team to get involved in. Also, feigning altruism by claiming to care about the LGBTQ community but demanding to know what partner organizations within this community are doing to help the team while hosting "Pride Night." Allowing a handful of minority staff to be mistreated while promoting a theme night to celebrate Hispanic and Indigenous heritages. Ignoring opportunities to engage in meaningful conversations with fans who question the team's performative activism. It is not an exaggeration by any means to say that homophobia/transphobia, racism, sexism, and substance abuse were common occurrences at FC Tucson. Thankfully, the players were distanced enough from the front office personnel that the toxicity seems not to have negatively impacted their ability to succeed on the field. However, anyone who truly cares about the future of this team and its fanbase should make the necessary changes at the presidential, vice-presidential, and human resource levels to enable front office staff to excel at a similar level. Otherwise, it will be no surprise when this information and these behaviors become widely-known and tarnish the reputation of an emerging and well-deserving team and the city it represents.