{"id":2201,"date":"2012-03-19T23:36:43","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T23:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bme2.flywheelsites.com\/blog\/greg-smith-or-when-to-kick-your-employer-in-the-social-media-shins\/"},"modified":"2020-06-05T20:14:37","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T20:14:37","slug":"greg-smith-or-when-to-kick-your-employer-in-the-social-media-shins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benchmarkemail.com\/in\/greg-smith-or-when-to-kick-your-employer-in-the-social-media-shins\/","title":{"rendered":"Greg Smith, or When to Kick Your Employer in the Social Media Shins"},"content":{"rendered":"

A number of high profile, highly-placed executives have been lambasting their former employers in the press, among them software engineer James Whittaker, who posted on an official Microsoft blog how Google+<\/a> has decimated the company, dismantling innovation and entrepreneurship in favor of a failing attempt to clone Facebook.<\/p>\n

Yet the most damaging of all was Greg Smith, who leveled a volley of damaging accusations in The New York Times<\/i> at his former employer Goldman Sachs, accusing them of a bottom-line mentality bereft of \u201cmoral fiber\u201d that sacrificed the best interests of its vast client base (who are internally referred to as “muppets<\/a>“). These public slaps in the face to former employers seem to be growing in popularity, but does the employee-writer-publicizer actually gain any advantage or is it counter-productive to the rest of their careers?<\/p>\n

Very Few Lessons Learned from Lehman\u2019s Implosion<\/strong><\/p>\n

A twelve year veteran of Goldman Sachs, the former Executive Director (similar to Vice President) Smith provided a troubling insight into the behind the scenes world of Wall Street and the generally dismissive attitude that these firms have for the customers who provide their very livelihood. In his article, Smith claimed that Goldman Sachs employees scoffed at the intelligence of clients who were eagerly purchasing financial instruments that the firm heavily promoted in order to unload them. Smith\u2019s revelations are not entirely new, as Mark Dempsey\u2019s Robbing You Blind<\/i> and Fred Schwed\u2019s Where Are The Customers\u2019 Yachts<\/i>?<\/em> provide a number of disquieting examples of how the single minded pursuit of profits at all costs trumps the imperative to look after the customers\u2019 best interests in a broad range of top financial firms.<\/p>\n

It seems that very few lessons were learned in the executive suite by the Lehman Brothers\u2019 greed-driven implosion and the rest of Wall Street\u2019s shenanigans which plummeted the entire world into a nasty, stubborn, long-lasting recession. Smith\u2019s letter drew considerable fire against Goldman Sachs, but a roughly equal amount of vitriol against him and his motives. It was especially telling that his resignation to the firm was tendered exactly 15 minutes before his article conveniently appeared on The New York Times<\/i>\u2019 website.<\/p>\n

Hollywood Loves Whistleblowers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The world loves whistleblowers, as the popularity of Hollywood movies about them has proven:<\/p>\n