New York's Worst Bosses: Faith Popcorn
With your help, we've ID'd 14 of the potentially worst bosses in New York. We'll be parading them in front of you daily, and when we're done, we'll all decide together who's the worst. Feel free to shout out your suggestions if any of these tales joggles a traumatized (or happy) memory!
In the early 90s, Faith Popcorn was called the "Nostradamus of marketing" by Fortune and published a bestseller, The Popcorn Report, which she would follow with several more books about trends, business, and the future of pop culture. She was widely perceived as a pretty happening lady! She tried to brand Baltimore even! She adopted a Chinese baby before it was cool! She collected Cowboy and Indian paraphernalia! ("It's all so sweet and normal," she told the Times). But like a lot of things that were popular in the 90s, Popcorn's seen her star dim a bit of late.
Well, it's not all sweetness and normalcy over at her firm, BrainReserve. Far from it, according to one tipster, who accuses nice Ms. Popcorn of trying to "rip employee's heads off and shit down their throats." Harsh! (Also: entirely metaphorical!) "Her employees have taken to referring to her firm as the Titanic," says the source, who says she's a micromanager who spends too much time "ordering around her entourage of personal assistants, servants and sycophants that are leeching away the firm's profits." (Well, that's pretty much every executive, but still.) And BrainReserve still has big clients! Their website lists American Express, Avon... Milk-Bone....
But there must be a silver lining, right? Some kind of reason that people still work there? ""Where's Faith?" we sometimes ask. 'In her office, losing her touch,' comes the inevitable reply." S/he also says that HR bristles when prospective candidates ask about the"culture" of the place."
Of course, that's just one guy's opinion! And we're open and eager to hearing more about the legendary Ms. Popcorn, both pro and con. (First in fairness!) But brace yourselves, babies. That's just the tip of the bad-boss iceberg.
