4 March 2021: What's It Like Be Part of Team Cuomo and What Kind of People Are They?

"It's The Cuomo Way": Former Staffers Describe Toxic Workplace Under Governor's Relentless Thumb

Andrew Cuomo has been New York's governor since January 2011. Given the Governor's breaking sexual harassment and personal abuse scandals, how did he manage to keep a lid on them for nearly all his decade in power? This article answers that question by confirming Governor Cuomo surrounded himself with people who were willing to remain silent regardless of any wrongdoing they observed.

Nearly a dozen current and former staffers of Cuomo's office who spoke to Gothamist/WNYC this week said Cuomo has cultivated an intense work culture that was brutal for some, traumatic for others. We are withholding all of their names, including Sarah's, because they fear professional or personal retaliation from the governor and his senior staff. Many still reside in New York where Cuomo's reach extends far and wide....

"There's no right or wrong way. It's the Cuomo way," one former staffer said she was told when interviewing for the job. "He wants people who are literally going to fall on the sword for him, and they all will." As Sarah told us, "We all would have taken a bullet for the Governor. He was the most important person."

Implementing disastrous policies that resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of additional deaths of vulnerable nursing home residents from COVID-19 took teamwork. As for Governor Cuomo's other stories, the article confirms the abusive environment within the Cuomo administration was an "open secret". Which means it was only a secret from the public.

One more excerpt explains their primary motive in remaining silent:

"I hate the fact that I viewed it as a professional, personal failure that I couldn't survive because of how f----ed up and mean and nasty everyone was," she said. "Power was the number one goal. It wasn't really about making things right or making things better for New Yorkers."

It never is, is it?