The FDIC’s Culture Is a Toxic Relic That Shouldn't Exist
An insular club of managers who protected each other.
FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images North AmericaOne shocking thing about the independent review into the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s workplace misconduct and culture is that it seems to describe an even more toxic environment than the Wall Street Journal reportage that prompted the inquiry last year.
Reading the 200-plus-page report is like looking far back through time. It describes a management culture that frankly would have sounded anachronistic to me when I entered the workforce roughly 30 years ago. The lawyers at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP who produced it recommend a whole set of remedies. Suffice to say, the organization needs a complete structural and cultural overhaul to end the sexual harassment, discrimination and astoundingly juvenile interpersonal misconduct revealed by the report.