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Every workplace seems to have one. A manager who goes silent for days, then suddenly reappears in the team chat the moment senior leadership checks in. Theyll swoop in to take credit for the work they hadnt touched, and say, “Oh yes, weve been addressing that.” This type of boss shows up when theres an audience, then vanishes as soon as the higher-ups leave. Ive started calling them the performative manager, because thats exactly what they are. The rise of the performative manager To performative managers, actually leading isnt really the point. All they care about is looking like they’re leading. Performative managers care more about optics than outcomes, and their favorite project is themselves. It sounds like something out of a bad office comedy, but its a reality thats become easier to spot as more work happens online. A Resume Genius Report found that 62% of Gen Z employees face high performance expectations but little support, and more than half rarely get feedback from their managers. That’s not a small problem. Gallup research shows that managers shape roughly 70% of how engaged a team feels, which means one bad boss can drag an entire department down. Think your boss might be a performative manager? Here are five signs to watch for: 1. They promise support, then ghost you the second you need it If your boss is great at saying “Im here for you” but never proves it, you might be dealing with a performative manager. They love looking supportive, but rarely follow through. One of my friends, lets call her Sarah, learned this the hard way. During her first one-on-one at a banking firm, her manager said all the right things, such as “If theres a problem, well work through it together.” It sounded reassuring at the time. But when client requests started piling up and Sarah was drowning in email, that same manager was nowhere to be found. Sarah eventually figured things out on her own and sought help from her coworkers instead. What to do: When your manager disappears, get scrappy. Ask teammates for insight, look for past examples, or test a solution yourself. The more resourceful you become, the less youll need to wait around for someone elses “guidance.” 2. They only come to you during performance review season If your boss suddenly remembers you exist right before review season, chances are theyre preparing for their evaluation, not yours. Youll recognize the signs: more one-on-ones, warmer Slack messages, and maybe even a surprise “training session” that conveniently proves how engaged theyve been all along. What to do: Use that sudden burst of attention to your advantage. Bring up projects youve led, the impact youve made, and what kind of support would help you grow next. Document your achievements (and keep them visible) so theres a clear record of your work. If your success makes them uneasy, dont shrink back. Instead, play it smart: share wins in ways that highlight the whole teams progress, for example, mentioning how your idea helped everyone hit a deadline or made a process easier. 3. They repeat your solution verbatim in meetings You share an idea with your manager, and its crickets. Later on, your manager repeats the idea word for word in a meeting, and suddenly its “brilliant.” Its not that they dont hear you. They just save your insight for when it benefits them most. What to do: As tempting as it might be, resist the urge to confront them mid-meeting. Instead, start putting your ideas in writing where you have a clear trail in emails, shared docs, or Slack channels. If your idea suddenly reappears in a meeting, jump in with calm confidence: “Yes, thats exactly what I was exploring earlier, and heres how we could take it further.” Its respectful, direct, and makes it clear that the idea started with you. You might also want to consider looping in higher-ups and collaborators so that it becomes more difficult for anyone else to take credit for your contribution. If you can, build relationships with other managers or team leads who notice your work. Good leaders can spot performative ones, and having someone credible to back you up helps protect your reputation. 4. They never admit they’re wrong My former colleague Dan used to lose his mind over his previous manager. “Hed ask what I thought about a problem,” Dan told me, “then immediately cut me off with, No, thats incorrect, even when I was literally describing the right solution.” Performative managers cant stand being wrong because they see it as a threat to their authority. They prioritize looking competent over actually improving. And when something does go wrong, theyre quick to turn the spotlight elsewhere. If higher-ups are asking questions, that miscommunication or missed deadline suddenly becomes your fault. Over time, this can slip into gaslighting. You might start replaying conversations in your head, trying to figure out if you really missed something. You didnt. What to do: When disagreements come up, reframe your input in neutral terms, like: “Lets test both options and see which one works best.” Staying outcome-focused protects your time and mental health. If your manager pins the blame on you, respond factually and calmly. Reference what you had agreed on or shared: As mentioned in the update last week, I followed the plan we discussed. No one really wins an argument by losing their temper, but you can by keeping receipts. 5. They turn mentoring into a show of ego If “never admitting theyre wrong” is annoying, this is its final form. My friend Sarah called her manager “a walking pop quiz” who acted like everything was already his idea, and “everyone else was just trying to catch up to his galaxy brain.” For Sarah, every one-on-one started the same way: “So, what do you think went wrong here?” followed by a smug Nope, regardless of what she’d say. Performative managers enjoy playing teacher to remind everyone how smart they are. Beneath the surface, its less about teaching and more about control. What to do: Try to make these interactions short and focused. If they interrupt your work with “learning opportunities,” politely acknowledge them, give a brief update on your progress, and find a natural way to end the conversation. You can always wrap things up with a soft exit like, “I need to prep for my next meeting, but Ill send you an update later.” Performative managers rarely fool people for long. The corporate world has no shortage of them, and knowing how to navigate them without losing your sanity wll help you work smarter. Your power move isnt calling them out. Let them perform. The real professionals are too busy getting things done.
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E-Commerce
After Viagra came to market in 1998, women began clamoring for a drug of their own. But it has taken decades for the medical community to take women’s sexual health seriouslyand even longer to develop and approve a drug that improves women’s libido. A new documentary called The Pink Pill: Sex, Drugs, and Who Has Control, premiering at the DOC NYC film festival, explores the fight to launch Addyi, a drug known as the female Viagra. Directed by Aisling Chin-Yee, the film follows Cindy Eckert, the founder of Sprout Pharmaceuticals, who worked for five years to bring Addyi to market, which she managed to do in 2015. But just as fascinating, the film explores society’s perception of women’s sexuality and whether women have a right to sexual pleasure. The film also has an unusual backer. Knix, the underwear startup known for its period panties, provided the capital to bring this film to completion, and Knix founder Joanna Griffiths serves as an executive producer. It’s an interesting strategy that allows Knix to be part of a broader conversation about women’s rights while also potentially introducing the brand to new consumers. Joanna Griffiths [Photo: courtesy Knix] The Governments Effort to Block Addyi Low libido is a widespread problem among women. In this film, women talk about how their desire for sex can suddenly dry up, harming their romantic relationships and lowering their quality of life. But while men’s loss of sexual desire is treated as a medical problem, women’s sexual problems have been dismissed. Women describe their doctors telling them to drink some wine or read a steamy romance novel to get themselves in the mood. Then, in 2009, a German pharmaceutical company stumbled across a breakthrough. A medication originally developed to treat depression was found to improve women’s sexual desire. But when the company tried to bring it to market, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration rejected the drugciting concerns about its effectiveness and side effectsand it was abandoned. Enter Eckert, a pharmaceutical executive who had struggled with low libido herself. She believed it was worth taking on the FDA. She bought the drug from the German company for $5 million and went back to the federal agency to ask what trial data was required to approve it. But as she met the FDA’s demands, it kept coming back to her with new issues. Chin-Yees documentary makes the case that the FDA had a higher standard for Addyi than it did for other drugs because it was meant for women. For instance, one side effect of Addyi is sleepiness, which is true of many medications on the market. But the FDA wanted to block Addyi out of concern that a woman might take the drug at night, then fall asleep while driving her kids to school the next day. In response, Eckert poured more than $1 million into a driving study that showed women actually drove better after taking Addyi, likely because they slept better. “[Their concerns were] very much about protecting women because they might not make good choices,” says Dr. Anita Clayton, an OB-GYN professor at the University of Virginia whose clinical practice and research focus on womens mental health and sexual dysfunctions. Eckert was confronted with other FDA roadblocks for five years, and kept working to meet the organization’s requirements. During this period, the fight to launch the drug became a broader movement around a woman’s right to experience sexual pleasure, with many women’s organizationsincluding the Black Women’s Health Imperative and Jewish Women Internationaladvocating for the FDA to approve Addyi. There was also backlash. People argued that the drug wasn’t necessary because women are physically capable of having sex even if they aren’t aroused, whereas men cannot. Others argued that its normal for women not to enjoy sex after its no longer required for reproduction, such as after giving birth or entering menopause. In the end, however, Eckert managed to jump through every last hoop, and the FDA approved the drug for use in 2015; it became widely available in 2017. But the drug has had disappointing sales and has not become as successful as Viagra. In December 2024, however, Eckert’s company received $45.6 million in late-stage VC funding, and is currently generating revenue. So there’s hope that more women will feel comfortable talking to their doctors about low libido, and that doctors will prescribe Addyi. [Photo: courtesy Knix] When a Brand Becomes a Film Producer Knix founder Griffiths fell in love with The Pink Pill when it came across her desk two years ago when Chin-Yee was in the final stages of filming it. “It raises so many important questions about women’s sexuality,” she says. “It sparks so many further conversations about everything from our political climate to the role that sex plays over the course of a woman’s life.” In 2023, at the Banff World Media Festival, Griffiths announced that Knix was partnering with production studio Catalyst to launch Docs for Change, a project that would identify promising female documentary filmmakers and finance, develop, produce, and distribute their films. A large number of filmmakers applied, but The Pink Pill stood out because it shed light on an area of women’s health that has long been overlooked. The topic of the film isn’t directly related to Knix’s business, which is selling high-performance underwear and clothing, like period panties and teen bras. But over the years, Griffiths has tried to weave the brand into broader conversations that affect women. In 2021, for instance, the company launched Life After Birth, an art exhibit and book that documents how women’s bodies change after childbirth. Projects like this aren’t necessarily designed to market products, but rather to associate the brand with broader ideas. “We want our customers to know that we are advocating for them,” she says. [Photo: courtesy Knix] Frida, a brand for babies and new moms, did something similar when it recently commissioned a statue of a postpartum woman that is currently being exhibited around the world. Griffiths believes funding films and art is more rewarding than many of the other things that consumer brands spend their marketing budgets on, like expensive dinners and influencer trips. “You can spend $90,000 on a fancy dinner with beautiful florals for just small groups of celebrities and influencers,” she says. “But a film is by definition designed for a mass audience. The goal is to get as many people as possible to watch it.” To that end, Knix will help disseminate The Pink Pill via free movie screenings in the U.S. and Canada, and is working to find streaming services to carry it. Knix is also going to launch “screening kits” so people can host parties in their homes where theyll watch the movie with friends and then have a conversation about it with discussion questions. It’s a novel approach to marketing, but Griffiths believes its already paying off. “We’re already part of so many big conversations about women’s health,” she says. “We want to continue doing so.”
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E-Commerce
Three years ago, Patagonias founder Yvon Chouinard made an unprecedented move: he and his family gave away the company. Instead of selling the multibillion-dollar retailer or taking it public, they created a new trust and nonprofit that would use the companys profits to fight climate change and protect nature. In a new report that looks at companys impact over its 52-year history, Patagonia shares how the change has amplified its environmental work. While the companys day-to-day internal work hasnt changed significantly, were giving away a lot more money to protect the planet, says Corley McKenna, Patagonias chief impact officer. [Photo: Ken Etzel/courtesy Patagonia] The company has a long history of environmental giving. It pioneered an Earth tax in the 1980s to give 1% of its profits to environmental causes, later formalized as 1% for the Planet, an organization that thousands of companies have now joined. But the companys new structure enables giving at a much greater scale. Each year, as much as 98% of its profits can now be spent on climate action, after subtracting any funds needed for reinvestment in the business. (The company hasnt shared exactly how much cash goes back to the business itself, but it needs some funds for building retail stores, buying inventory, and having some money in a bank to weather unexpected events like a pandemic.) The remaining 2% of profits fund the companys purpose trust, designed to ensure that the company makes all decisions in line with its purpose to help save the planet, even long after Choinard and his family are gone. It’s really designed to lock in the values of the company,” McKenna says. A future CEO “can’t go rogue and take the company in a totally different direction.” Wetsuit repairs technicians Buddy Pendergast (left) and Hector Castro (middle) at our 2023 Wetsuit Forge repair event in New Hampshire. [Photo: Ryan Struck/courtesy Patagonia] Since the company restructured in late 2022, Patagonia has given $180 million to the Holdfast Collective, a group of five nonprofit trusts that the company created to fund environmental work. Thats compared to the $10-$15 million a year that the company gives away through 1% for the Planet. The funding has enabled many more of the type of projects that the company already supported. In Alabama, for example, it contributed $2 million this year to help conservation groups buy 8,000 acres in Georgias Okefenokee swamp, a unique ecosystem with rare and endangered animals, which was at threat for development of a new mine. In Alaska, it spent $3.1 million at a critical moment to prevent the development of another mine in the Bristol Bay watershed. In Australia, it helped purchase 92,000 acres of land. [Photo: Tim Davis/courtesy Patagonia] As Patagonia issues dividends to the Holdfast Collective, the funds are essentially spent right away. The goal is for hold fast to move that money to urgent needs quickly, says McKenna. A lot of philanthropies are creating endowments and they want to really save that money. The Chouinards feeling is the planet needs the money now. So [Holdfast] is trying to move it as quickly as possible. All of this adds to the work that Patagonias environmental activism team was already doing to support grassroots nonprofits working on issues like land protection, sustainable agriculture, and climate. That team works closely with the nonprofits, looking for ways not just to give money but for the company to elevate specific issues to get support from its customerslike helping establish Bears Ears National Monument, and then fighting the first Trump administration when it shrank the size of monument. Patagonia employees at the Protect Our Parks rally at Channel Islands National Parks Visitor Center in March 2025. Ventura, California. [Photo: Tim Davis/courtesy Patagonia] The environmental activism team is strategic about what it supports. This year, it worked with a coalition to fight against part of the reconciliation bill to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in the U.S. “That was a big win at a tough time,” says McKenna. “I think we wouldn’t be able to have these successes if we were tring to do everything, if we were trying to win every battle. We just can’t do that.” The company also continues to work to reduce its own environmental footprint, though the report acknowledges the challenges it still has as it reaches for climate goals. (Some 2025 targets, like a goal for half of its synthetic fabric to be made from waste, won’t be met on time.) It’s critical, the company says, for other businesses to also focus on climate actionboth in internal operations and in philanthropyat a moment when politics are moving in the other direction. “What we realize is it cannot just be Patagonia out here trying to do business differently,” says McKenna. Digging in at the Frontline Action on Coal camp in Queensland, Australia, where Patagonia Global Sport Activist Belinda Baggs (left) and friends rolled up their sleeves. [Photo: Emma Bäcklund/courtesy Patagonia] Businesses “definitely need to exist to do more than enrich a handful of individuals,” Choinard writes in the report, as he says that he’s been “working harder than an 87-year-old should” since giving away Patagonia. Companies can and should exist to solve problems. Corporate influence already crosses borders and shapes government policy everywhere. Imagine what could happen if interest groups and lobbyists prioritized planetary and human health over environmental deregulation. Or if even just a few multinational mega-corporations dedicated some of their profits toward doing good beyond what can be written off their taxes. Similarly, if enough companies join together and decide our planet takes precedence over profit, we can change the world. We could change capitalism for good.
Category:
E-Commerce
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