Toxic leadership behavior exposed: Qu Jing, Baidu’s vice president, has a stranglehold on her PR team. Now she is losing her job.
The PR manager at Baidu, China’s equivalent of Google, has shared her idea of good work ethic in several videos – now she’s out of her job. As CNN reports, Qu Jing’s views shared on the social media platform Douyin drew criticism, particularly from younger workers. The reason: This creates a toxic working atmosphere.
Among other things, Qu Jing attacked an employee who refused to go on a 50-day business trip during the Covid-19 pandemic. “Why should I consider my employee’s family? “I’m not his mother-in-law,” Jing said in one of the videos, according to CNN.
She also gave the PR department strict guidelines: “If you work in public relations, don’t expect to have weekends off,” she raged in another video. “Keep your cell phone on 24/7, always be reachable.” A short time later, Qu lost her job at Baidu, an anonymous person told CNN.
Before joining Baidu, Qu worked in the PR department at Huawei. According to a former Baidu employee, she brought with her Huawei’s aggressive corporate culture, which led to much of her team leaving the company within months of her arrival.
The PR team should be available at all times and arrive at late-night meetings on weekends with little notice. Qu also introduced the military language of Huawei’s management that the team should be “disciplined” and able to “win battles.”
The American Psychological Association describes a “toxic work environment” as an environment characterized by arguments, intimidation and other affronts that reduce worker productivity. According to the online career platform Stepstone, high termination rates, many sick calls, low employee satisfaction, bullying and poor communication are indicators of a toxic working environment.
As an antidote, Stepstone recommends addressing toxic behavior directly, using the human resources department as a mediator, setting your own boundaries, documenting toxic patterns and promoting a corporate culture in which open communication and employee-oriented working models come first.
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