WotC Greg Tito On Leaving WotC: 'It feels good to do something that doesn't just line the pockets of *****'

We reported earlier that WotC's communications director Greg Tito had left his 9-year stint managing the Dungeons & Dragons brand for a political appointment as Deputy Director of External Affairs for the Washington secretary of state's office.

Greg Tito Leaves Wizards of the Coast

Greg Tito, formerly the communications manager in charge of overseeing messaging for the Dungeons & Dragons brand, is departing Wizards of the Coast for a career in the public sector. Tito announced that he would be joining the Washington secretary of state's office starting this week, ending an...

www.enworld.org

In a surprising turn of events, Tito criticized his former employers, saying "It feels good to do something that doesn't just line the pockets of a**holes." He later went on to clarify "Sorry. I meant "shareholders".

Tito is now Deputy Director of External Affairs for the Washington Secretary of State office in Olympia, WA.

 

[gban007]

Is interesting looking at discussion, and thinking about what I'd do if recruiting. In lieu of much other information, if I was aware of this (we don't tend to look at social media ourselves when recruiting) I would likely determine based on knowledge of the company being 'bad mouthed' as such - if it is one known to not be a great employer then that will shape it, vs being a great employer. Would also consider what my company is like against what the person has complained about. If my company was also owned by big shareholders using it to get as much profit as possible, then likely would think him not a good fit, whereas if charitable or some other structure in place, may think it a better fit.
In my industry there are a number of companies, all with different cultures. While I like it at the one I work at, I know there are some who have bounced right off it and would prefer one of the other companies. Some have burned their bridges for working here with how they left, and wouldn't be hired again here, but I don't see that that would stop them being able to get a job somewhere else in the industry, or that because they left another company unhappily and were open about it would prevent us hiring them.
Of course if they did something pretty bad, rather than bad mouthing, that would be a different question, but often other processes would have come into play by then.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Interesting comment, given nearly every retirement account in the US is shareholding.....

You can’t possibly think this is an insightful, interesting, or clever, input to the thread.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I don't recall saying I wouldn't hire him. I said it's a red flag, but given how mild it was I wouldn't immediately disqualify him for a position. If I had two candidates who were equally qualified, I will admit I'd probably choose the one who didn't publicly complain about their previous/current employer.

Of course. Anyone who is involved with hiring wouldn’t prefer someone who has a documented history of beefs with previous employers.

In an interview the last thing you ever do is badmouth prior employers. Is this lost lore?

 

[Scribe]

In an interview the last thing you ever do is badmouth prior employers. Is this lost lore?

"No harm burning a bridge you don't intend to cross."

A roughneck offered that up when a coworker went scorched earth on our employer lol

 

[Morrus]

You can’t possibly think this is an insightful, interesting, or clever, input to the thread.

And you can’t possible think that this is a meaningful, interesting, or clever way to post on this forum. But with 16 (wow!) warnings to your name, many for insulting other members, I guess you do, and that’s our bad for letting you get away with it 16 times. Take a few days’ break from the forums and think about whether you’re interested in following the rules here.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I ran a crisis comms shop for almost a decade and he could work for me tomorrow. His work at WOTC was very effective, who do you think got them through the repeated self owns and communication crisis. OGL, AI art, Hadozee disaster etc. Greg did all that.

You’d hire a guy who badmouths his previous employer, in an extremely juvenile and petty way?

I had heard hiring standards have slipped. Guess so.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Maybe it's because I'm Australian. Maybe because I'm an unrepentant lefty who's had a lifetime of terrible employers*. But I don't see anything wrong with calling a former employer an a-hole. Hell, that doesn't even count as swearing where I'm from.

Was it wise for Greg Tito to do so on social media? Probs not, just based on the poll of posters in this thread.

This strikes me as weird, I can't imagine too many Australian employers even looking at a person's social media posts. But hey different countries and the US's work culture is famously... more conservative then Australia's.


*not all of them. Some have been very decent people to work for.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Was it wise for Greg Tito to do so on social media? Probs not, just based on the poll of posters in this thread.

None of whom appear to be in an industry that Tito works for, for the record.

They could also be raging about his lack of a commercial truck drivers license, for all it matters. (Not at all.)

 

[Distracted DM]

So, about the posts in the original thread saying that cynical folk were going to spin Greg getting a new job as "things aren't great at WotC..." This doesn't make it sound like his level of job fulfillment/satisfaction was very high in recent times.

 

[Vaalingrade]

You’d hire a guy who badmouths his previous employer, in an extremely juvenile and petty way?

I had heard hiring standards have slipped. Guess so.

I'd hire the crap out of a guy who expressed my words exactly about working to increase shareholder value rather than actually produce something worthwhile to the consumer and my fellow employees.