Shall We Say Corporate America Or...Corporate Hypocrisy??

Land Of The Free & Home Of The Stressed Out!

AT WHAT POINT does work cross the line from purposeful to sacrificial? I’ve called Los Angeles home for 21 years, with 15 of those spent in the pressure cooker of the music industry. My jobs were intense, chaotic, ruthless and exhausting, but at least the rules were clear. If you weren’t producing, you were out. The stress was real, and no one cared about how polished you looked in a meeting or how busy you pretended to be. You either delivered or you didn’t.

I THOUGHT, Corporate America would be the opposite... stable, civilized, maybe even a little easier on the soul. But after five years of testing the waters, I learned a hard truth: Corporate America doesn’t just demand your labor, it snatches your spirit. Not because the work itself is meaningless or the people lack talent, but because the system is about performance theatrics. It’s optics over output. It rewards those who look the busiest, speak the slickest, fake leadership qualities well enough to climb a ladder they don’t deserve to be on. Meanwhile, real talent and real output get buried under optics. And let me tell you, there’s nothing more soul-crushing than watching empty showmanship constantly outrun substance.

I’ve sat through countless meetings that were a waste of time talking about things that had absolutely nothing to do with the work such as debating the color of a slide rather than the quality of the ideas inside it. I’ve watched leaders obsess over the narrative...how they’ll “look” in front of their boss or the board while the actual work that mattered was brushed aside. I’ve seen people celebrated for playing into the politics, ass kissing or for staying quiet and turning a blind eye to bad behavior. Meanwhile, the people who are truly carrying the load get overlooked, burned out, and eventually leave.

NOW...LET'S TALK ABOUT TITLES. Titles in Corporate America are meaningless and handed out as if they’re candy. I’ve seen managers handed promotions just for surviving long enough, even though they had no business leading anyone. Being a manager doesn’t make you a leader. Leadership is about vision, empathy, and the ability to make people feel seen and valued. But in so many companies, those qualities don’t matter. What matters is keeping the optics shiny and the hierarchy intact.

The result of giving titles to non-leaders? TOXICITY. Pure and simple. People don’t leave jobs, they leave managers. I’ve lived that. I’ve stayed in jobs where I loved the work but dreaded coming in every day because of bad management. I’ve seen brilliant, talented, passionate people lose their spark and walk away, not because the role wasn’t fulfilling, but because of the lack of good leadership.

LET'S MOVE ON AND DISCUSS GENDER BIAS. As a woman in Corporate America, you notice quickly that the men form clubs. They promote & empower each other, give each other titles and visibility whether or not the experience is actually there. Meanwhile, women who you’d hope would champion each other sometimes see you as competition. I’ve seen women who claim to be feminists turn on other women, becoming jealous when someone else is acknowledged for her intellect, her beauty & likeability, or the sheer hard work she’s put in. Instead of collaboration, there’s comparison. Instead of support, there’s subtle sabotage. And it stings all the more when it comes from people who should understand how real the struggle is.

THE DYSFUNCTION DEEPENS WITH THE GENERATIONAL DIVIDE. You’ve got baby boomers clinging to positions they should have gracefully stepped away from years ago. They don’t want to be seen as out of touch, so they double down on control. They hold on tightly to titles and power, even at the expense of the Gen X, millennial, and Gen Z talent right behind them who are more than ready to progressively push things forward. It creates a bottleneck where fresh ideas suffocate under outdated egos, and progress is stagnant because someone refuses to admit it’s time to pass the baton.

THE HYPOCRISY IS OVERWHELMING. Companies love to throw around words like culture, inclusive, and employees-first all over their websites, town halls, and social media feeds. But when you’re inside, when you’re actually living it, it’s different. It feels like a lie. Because culture isn’t a non-informative town hall, a wordy newsletter, or ice cream socials, it’s how people are treated when no one’s watching. And too often, the reality doesn’t match the narrative.

CORPORATE AMERICA FAILS, not because the work is too hard or the goals are too ambitious. It fails because the wrong people are put in charge. It fails because managers are masked as leaders. It fails because women are still being held to double standards. It fails because boomers won’t let go, while younger generations are left suffocating beneath their grip. It fails because human beings the ones showing up, giving their time, energy, and health aren’t valued as much as quarterly reports or a polished executive presentation.

AND THIS IS WHY IT FEELS LIKE HYPOCRISY. Because while the Corporate America machine spits out shiny statements about employee well-being and “their employees being their greatest asset,” the lived experience tells a different story. One of exhaustion, disillusionment, competition, and disappointment.

TO SUM THIS UP, I think real leadership still exists it’s just rare. And until companies start valuing actual leaders over career managers, allies over opportunists, and vision over vanity, the disconnect will remain. People will keep leaving. Talent will keep burning out. And Corporate America will keep being exactly what it’s become: not a ladder of opportunity, but a treadmill of hypocrisy.

AND I QUOTE BEYONCÉ... "YOU WON'T BREAK MY SOUL"