Rebuild NYRR - Group starts petition asking for removal of NYRR Head Michael Capiraso

1) The problems predate the layoffs, and have only been made public now because of continued inaction from leadership. Staff collectively brought these complaints to leadership months ago. Leadership has had time to make changes, or at least demonstrate that they truly understand the weight and urgency of the problems.

2) The problems at NYRR go beyond what can be conveyed in Instagram posts. These stories point to a larger pattern which makes the workplace dysfunctional in ways that hurt both the company and employees, and negatively affect the NYC running community.

3) Current employees, like myself, are as frustrated and disappointed by the failures of our leadership as employees who were let go. The problems being brought forward are coming from current employees as well as former employees.

4) Have you considered that it may be easier for former employees to speak up now because they no longer have to fear retribution?

If all the things you claim are accurate, the current movement for reformation is not a good way to go about it. Those IG posts that someone linked on page 1 are absolutely pathetic. Frankly in your shoes I'd be as upset at the "leadership" of that group as I would be at NYRR leadership because they are making a mockery of the goal.

Not sure I understand your concerns John. If you care to elaborate or suggest a better approach, I'd be happy to hear it

"guilty or innocent" laid out some of the criticisms fairly well when he posted them. If you don't see any problems with those vacuous posts then I don't think I can explain it to you.

John, that previous post you mention simply states that they aren't a big fan of the type of language often used by people advocating for social justice, expresses incredulity at one of the particular accusations, and suggests that two of the other posts seem irrelevant.

Keep in mind there are dozens of posts on the Instagram account. They collectively highlight problematic patterns, but the posts themselves are just small pieces of the bigger story.

Some people seem bothered by the fact that the picture being painted is selective. But if you have a specific perspective you're trying to illustrate, and that specific perspective has been repeatedly ignored, misunderstood, and reframed, it only makes sense to paint a picture that selectively highlights the problem.

out of curiosity – NYRR employee why do you think this is the way this is being handled, anonymously and through the internet? shouldn't someone just reach out directly to the board and go head to head if they think it's THAT big of an issue?

making some instagram account about people's experiences at work is NOT going to rally the masses... and is not going to affect NYRR's bottom line because there are no races right now anyway. the vast majority of people really don't care about this either – the company provides them with races and that's all they want. people don't care about what happens behind the walls of the runcenter as long as they get their medal and bagel

This doesn't need to become a major news story for the organizational problems to be appropriately addressed. NYRR's staff aren't interested in dragging the company's reputation through the dirt. We're interested in making sure that the real internal work that needs to be done to improve the company actually happens.

The board has certainly been aware of the problems (no one within the organization is unaware of the problems). But prior to this going public, the board was not responsive to staff. It may be premature to say this, but I'm optimistic that things will move in a better direction for the long-term good of NYRR now that the board has been forced to take the situation more seriously.

I have been on the board of several businesses and currently am vice-chair of the board of a moderate sized non-profit (>$50M per yr). When you say "the board was not responsive to staff" do you mean they failed to listen to your concerns, or that they listened to your concerns and disagreed about the significance of them?

As a board member, in the past I have fired a CEO because a staff member brought a credible claim of sexual harassment to the board. I also have listened to and dismissed multiple claims of disgruntled staff members and former employees about CEOs who took appropriate actions based upon facts presented to the board.

If you expect the board to take your concerns seriously you have to give them something more than vague subjective distress about culture and sensitivity of the CEO.

Appreciate hearing your perspective.

The complaints are credible, substantive, and wide-ranging, and include the nature of the board's relationship with the CEO and staff.

Current NYRR employee wrote:

wejo, if you read through all the stories on the Instagram account, you will notice that they are primarily about workplace culture, not specific actions by Michael (although there are a few of those as well). To reframe my point above: there is a difference between saying someone is a blatant, intentional racist (which I haven't heard anyone saying about Michael) and, alternatively, accusing them of enabling racism, sexism, and harassment in the workplace by failing to address it and hold HR accountable to properly handle instances of employee abuse, which is exactly what has been happening on his watch. A person with bias is usually blind to their own bias. That doesn't mean their bias isn't a serious problem that can have extremely damaging and hurtful effects on others, particularly if they are in a position of leadership or social importance.

I understand what you are saying but to me some of the examples and language did not give the impression you were trying to say Michael was some guy who just was a poor leader. The letter said he ‘he fosters toxic, discriminatory, and systemically racist work culture at NYRR.’

Not that he was just blind to legitimate employee complaints.

I guess maybe it depends on how people view some of the terms you are using. To me’systematically racist work culture ‘ is a big deal and really bad. However if you are the type of person who thinks nearly every work culture is systematically racist then perhaps saying one is systematically racist to you actually isn’t as bad as if I said a work culture was systematically racist.

It’s clear we may define those terms differently.

I think I and the vast majority of people would have no problem with there Nyrr working with the police. The police have their issues but they are a reflection of society hat has issues as well as Peter Walsh pointed out on our podcast this week.

I think leaving out some of the kitchen sink complaints would have made the argument stronger but there are things that should be investigated.

Current NYRR employee wrote:

To be clear, the Nazis persecuted and systematically executed oppressed minority groups.

White men in America are not an oppressed minority group, nor are they being persecuted, let alone subjected to genocide. They are simply being held accountable for actions which, especially as leaders and public figures, can reinforce existing patterns of oppression.

Awesome reasoning:

Nazis killed minorities.

You are a minority.

You are not getting killed by Nazis.

Michael Capiraso is not a minority.

He is not being killed by Nazis.

Therefore we should fire Michael Capiraso.

LOL

the more threads I read the more stupid americans appear to me. of course an organisation that organizes races has to fire staff in a situation like now. and all you racism is very strange. what skin colour someone has should not be considered at all. Speaking a common language is the most normal thing in the world.

Now I am reading comments about the fact that Michael have his own daughter took part in national anthem singing at NYRR events which could have been given this spotlight to other people who were more deserving, especially people of color. I do not know how toxic or what to judge since I do not work for NYRR but I want we all to think about this point for a second and see if this is legitimately something that we need to complain about?

If the mask don't fit wrote:

Current NYRR employee wrote:

To be clear, the Nazis persecuted and systematically executed oppressed minority groups.

White men in America are not an oppressed minority group, nor are they being persecuted, let alone subjected to genocide. They are simply being held accountable for actions which, especially as leaders and public figures, can reinforce existing patterns of oppression.

Awesome reasoning:

Nazis killed minorities.

You are a minority.

You are not getting killed by Nazis.

Michael Capiraso is not a minority.

He is not being killed by Nazis.

Therefore we should fire Michael Capiraso.

LOL

I apologize for the confusion. What you quoted was a response to the post that preceded it, which attempted to compare the Black Lives Matter movement, and advocacy for social justice in general, to Nazi Germany. My post should not have been read in any context other than as a refutation of that poster's statement.

If the mask don't fit wrote:

Current NYRR employee wrote:

To be clear, the Nazis persecuted and systematically executed oppressed minority groups.

White men in America are not an oppressed minority group, nor are they being persecuted, let alone subjected to genocide. They are simply being held accountable for actions which, especially as leaders and public figures, can reinforce existing patterns of oppression.

Awesome reasoning:

Nazis killed minorities.

You are a minority.

You are not getting killed by Nazis.

Michael Capiraso is not a minority.

He is not being killed by Nazis.

Therefore we should fire Michael Capiraso.

LOL

Also, it's interesting to me that you assume I am a minority. I am a straight, cisgender, white man (and benefit from other significant privileges on top of those I get from falling into these categories).

My hope is that the conversations that are happening--both internally at NYRR, and now in the public sphere--will help more people recognize the damaging effects of prejudice and bias in our society, as well as in this specific community. The fact these phenomena are nuanced is not a reason to avoid working towards something better for everyone.

Then you need to understand that blindly playing the race card with zero evidence other than broad generalizations has the opposite effect. You are not helping and, in fact, hurting your stated intent of “recognizing the damaging effects of prejudice and bias.” Nobody cares what you think when you present in such a puerile and clearly biased manner. Any male who identifies as “cisgender” needs a good kick in the nuts to wake him up to what he really is no matter how many woke freaks tell him otherwise.

I would like to help you understand. You seem to be writing with a lot of anger, which is a difficult place to understand another person's perspective from. If you care to discuss this more, I would be happy to do so, but I'll let you take the lead.

And if you're curious what the term cisgender means: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender

Who would have thought that a bunch of employees with literally nothing else to do (no races) - Have resorted to tired social justice nonsense.

No one in the running community cares bout your boring neo-liberalism.

Get over it and work on putting on races. Don't like the company? Get a different job.