-LBS Workers Accuse Fahngon of Autocratic Leadership Style
By Jacob Fahnbulleh
MONROVIA – Workers at the Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS), have among several others, accused their Director General, Eugene L. Fahngon of being verbally abusive to staffers at the national broadcaster.
The workers through the LBS Workers’ Union (LBSWU) President, Joseph O. Sayon, accused Fahngon of indulging in an autocratic leadership style, indicating that the LBS Director General is running the affairs of the state-owned media house with iron fist, and that he’s intimidating, harassing, and verbally assaulting LBS workers on a daily basis.
On Thursday, at a well-attended press conference on the compound of LBS, in Paynesville, Sayon speaking on the current state of affairs at LBS, lamented that workers at state radio and television, in the relatively short period of Fahngon ascendency to the helm of LBS leadership, are feeling the pinche of excesses of the Director General, whom he accused of applying an abusive, manipulative, and dysfunctional leadership style in his managerial role at the national broadcaster.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the press, we have been silent not because we are weak or not because we have not been suffering the effect of Mr. Fahngon’s abusive, manipulative, and dysfunctional leadership style; a leadership style that has painfully subjected employees of LBS to labor abuse, and has unfortunately created a hostile working environment at LBS,” Sayon emphasized.
Sayon stated that it was now time for workers of the national broadcaster to break their silence and expose Fangon’s excesses at LBS, noting that workers at the state-owned media outlet were using Thursday’s press conference to inform members of the public and President Joseph Boakai, about Fahngon’s bad labor practices, his inconsistent leadership style, and his overly controlling behavior, which he claimed are undermining creativity and productivity among staffers at the Liberia Broadcasting System.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the press, fellow Liberians, enough is enough, and gone are the days that workers at LBS would sit and allow Mr. Fahngon to abuse their rights, intimidate, harass, and verbally assault them, all in the name of him having a close relationship with President Boakai,” said Sayon, who disclosed that as of Thursday, LBS workers were giving Fahngon a 72-hour ultimatum to comply with a long list of demands from the Workers’ Union, or the LBS workforce in its majority, would declare a vote of no confidence in Director General Fahngon.
Sayon further accused Fahngon of indulging in missteps, as well as taking poor administrative actions, and draconian decisions, within the period of less than a year of taking over as Director General of LBS.
The LBS Workers’ Union president outlined several anomalies which he said are the LBS Director General’s missteps, poor administrative actions, and draconian decisions, including Fahngon’s alleged unilateral suspension of all benefits for employees and other staff of LBS, as spelled out in the Liberia Broadcasting System’s Human Resource Manual for workers.
He also named Fahngon’s alleged authoritarian behavior, coupled with his lack of understanding and empathy for staff of LBS, which Sayon claimed have led to the creation of a hostile work atmosphere at the national broadcaster, as part of what he described as missteps, poor administrative actions, and draconian decisions on the part of Fahngon.
Sayon disclosed that Fahngon is in the habit of constantly issuing threats and targeting for dismissal, employees and contractors assigned with his colleagues in senior management positions, largely on suspicion of their alleged disagreement with him (Fahngon) over policy matters.
He added that Fahngon’s excesses at LBS include the Director General’s abolition of workers’ year-end bonus widely referred to by staffers and past management teams as “13th Month”, based on Fahngon’s personal preference or choice rather than any objective reasoning or logic, as well as his (Fahngon’s) failure to have provided insurance for workers after making empty promises to do so in less than four months’ time.
Using the draconian Decree 88 A, to suppress free speech and enforce his unethical and abusive leadership decisions at LBS, and his unilateral dismissal of Joshua Clinton, an employee of the LBS Operations Department, are some of the missteps, poor administrative actions, and draconian decisions Sayon also accused Fahngon of indulging in.
In spite of countless pleads from the leadership of the LBS Workers’ Union for Fahngon to depart from what Sayon described as his (Fahngon’s) poor leadership practices to a more adaptive and innovative leadership style, the LBS Workers’ Union president alleged that the LBS Director General remains disappointingly adamant.
“We are even more disappointed because when Mr. Fahngon first took over as Director General of LBS, he made employees of the System to believe that they were sitting on a gold mine but they were being enslaved and that he had come to change the narratives for the better. In Mr. Fahngon words; “The past administration kept employees of LBS in slavery and I have come to take them from slavery. LBS will never be the same,” Sayon noted.
He added: “However, when Mr. Fahngon made the statement that “LBS will never be the same,” little did we know that he was on a mission to erode the gains made by all of his predecessors, as opposed to building upon such gains. Today, Mr. Fahngon’s slogan, “LBS will never be the same”, which has become a cliché largely being used by him and his few blind loyalists at LBS, is clearly being reflected in his autocratic leadership style that is hindering organizational performance and proving to be harmful or detrimental to workers at the national broadcaster. Surely, we now know that when Mr. Fahngon stated that on his watch LBS will never be the same, he did not mean the System would have improved. Rather, he meant that he would use his poor leadership and very poor interpersonal skills to initiate the speedy retrogression of all of the progress he met ongoing at the Liberia Broadcasting System.”
