‘Learn from my pain’: Ex-Amazon VP on ‘bad bosses’ and how ‘a CEO he worked for seduced his wife’ – Times of India

Retired Amazon vice president Ethan Evans shared his experience of working with “unethical leaders” while recalling an incident of a startup CEO seducing his wife.
In a social media post, the former VP, not revealing the name of the organisation, talked about how a CEO seduced his a wife in “direct retaliation” to his “pushback at work”.
“A CEO that I worked for seduced my wife in direct retaliation for my pushback on him at work.He won. I got divorced and left the company. When I say I truly understand how some executive teams can be political snake pits, I trust you will believe me,” he said in the LinkedIn post.
“Learn from my pain,” he said while offering tips to people to deal with “political snake pits”.

He further advised people to take advantage of the opportunities presented by good managers while cautioning that it’s equally important to identify the “snakes” and that one should observe their actions, seeking insights from colleagues.
Evans also urged people to stay honest and maintain integrity while working. “Don’t become dishonest and take advantage of someone else for your benefit,” he said.
“I recognized early on that my CEO in the divorce story was unethical and dishonest. My mistake was letting fear of a tough economy convince me to try to stay in the job and “win” by pushing back. It cost me far more than I ever thought it could. Action: Do whatever you need to get to a good manager! Leave before the snake bites,” he said going to the situation involving his wife.
“With the CEO I talk about, I had “spotted the snake” – my mistake was staying too long and getting bitten,” he reiterated again in the post while giving tips on recognising good managers and avoiding the bad. “When I think about my many dishonest, political bosses, I realize that they kept me around and valued me while I was producing good work that helped them. On the other hand, they were happy to quickly discard me when I became inconvenient. The key lesson here is that high performance is a survival skill, and it should be a priority even when you have a snake as a leader, he said.