At Sam Zell’s Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt Culture – NYTimes.com

At Flagging Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt Culture (Published 2010)

Under Sam Zell, the Tribune Company was bankrupted by debt, and employees describe a profane and alienating workplace.

Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/business/media/06tribune.html

The new management did transform the work culture, however. Based on interviews with more than 20 employees and former employees of Tribune, Mr. Michaels’s and his executives’ use of sexual innuendo, poisonous workplace banter and profane invective shocked and offended people throughout the company. Tribune Tower, the architectural symbol of the staid company, came to resemble a frat house, complete with poker parties, juke boxes and pervasive sex talk.