Netflix Executive Sues After Being Fired for Sharing Personal Details at Retreat
Netflix employee fired for sharing personal details in retreat trust exercise
Kevin Baillie, a former vice president at Eyeline Studios, is suing Netflix after being terminated following a company retreat. Baillie shared his experience with physician-supervised ketamine therapy during a vulnerability-trust exercise, which the company later cited as a factor in his firing. While the investigation also touched on alleged profanity and alcohol use, experts warn that encouraging openness without clear boundaries can severely damage workplace trust and employee morale.
A retreat may feel more relaxed than the office, but it is still a workplace, and the power dynamics don't disappear.
- ionwake
I know some of the younger folk may not realise reality is stranger than fiction, but I too have been on a "work mandated drink alchohol bus" where I remember even though I was young, I was terrified the whole time wondering why we were being forced to drink infront of C suite; forced on a hell ride through the black country ( Thats a region in England).
One might think it was naive and odd for me as a young autistic person to be so scared and negative, but sure enough, the next day the best contractor in the company was fired at 9am for calling the CEO an "alright c*nt" during the pub crawl.
The C word being used a token of affection around these parts, was perhaps not the true transgression which was, not to understand, that it was NOT a social function, but a horrifying legal flexing of soft hierarchical power, for purposes of satiating C suite ego, and humiliating everyone beneath them.
- Johnny555
Offsite retreats seem like a bad idea in general, I've never been to one where I felt the team or company worked together better afterwards, and I've seen some spectacularly bad results... like the time the facilitator tried to get to the bottom of tensions between the CTO and head of sales (the classic problem of "Engineering isn't shipping features fast enough" and "Sales is selling features before even consulting with engineering"). The discussion quickly turned shockingly personal and within a month after the retreat both the CTO and head of sales quit. At least they called an end to the retreat early.
- rdtsc
> Adam Mendler, a workplace expert, told Inc. that this kind of exercise carries real risk when companies invite openness without ever clarifying how that vulnerability will be treated afterward.
I always felt that those trust exercises, "bring your whole self to work", "let us pay for a personality test so we can know each other better" are all ruses to find the most gullible people and then take advantage of them or get rid of them.
- wxw
> He had been warned during his performance review that he should “drop one or two less f-bombs but don’t stop entirely.”
> It goes on to say that at the same retreat Baillie drank a Guinness standing on his head, after sharing that he had learned the trick from his former father in law during a conversation inspired by the trust session.
> “His colleague immediately asked for a demonstration, rather than withhold the openness that the session had encouraged, he performed the trick,” the papers say.
This reads like a sitcom.
- reactordev
Your company, your coworkers, are not your friends. HR is not there for you, it's to protect the company from you. Do not disclose personal information to those who control your livelihood. Once you leave or if you build up a personal relationship with a coworker, outside of work, then maybe. Even still. I will never divulge what I have been through simply because corporate wants to be "inclusive".
- archibaldJ
What if he only took it before his career, or before joining Netflix? And is it because his role is not an engineer/designer/etc so the history of having taken medically prescribed ketamine could mean greater risk during the operations designated to him that are of business-type nature?
What if my engineers microdose on ketamine for productivity? And will the HR decides differently if it is lsd, dmt, etc? So because of Steve Jobs these naturally have better "branding" to them?
What if Kevin Baillie made a documentary film out of this and became "the Steve Jobs of ketamine"? Do things on this planet work this way?
- strictnein
" including one incident where Baillie performed a Guinness-related party trick after colleagues asked him to show it off."
Is this just splitting the G? If so, it's the most mundane thing in the history of alcohol related party tricks.
- riddlemethat
Last retreat I went on the CFO drove drunk around 350 miles to get there. The CEO insisted on heavy drinking for everyone. Then he ordered one of everything on the menu the next morning at a Cracker Barrel for himself and wasted a ton of food. I found out he had a cocaine addiction about a month before the company was acquired. They also had orgies in the office break rooms and gave out a machete to everyone as a Christmas gift. Amongst the many crazy times…
My fraternity was more tame and we used to have guys gazing each other in the main room during parties.
- tchalla
Remember this story the next time someone says "join our mission" or "bring your whole self to work". They all come with asterisks.
- johndubchak
I cannot see this ending up well for Netflix. It sounds like it personally offended someone's sensibility and they decided to fire the guy. I expect Netflix to lose this lawsuit, but more importantly, settle it before it ever goes anywhere.