Many years ago, I heard about an underground newsletter inside an organization called The Grunt.
It wasn’t a company publication. It wasn’t approved. It was created in secret on a mimeograph machine and circulated among employees.
And it wasn’t exactly filled with birthday announcements and crossword puzzles.
The content was blunt, critical, and often harsh. It reflected frustrations that people apparently didn’t feel comfortable expressing directly to leadership.
When leaders discovered it, they had choices.
They could have ignored it.
They could have gotten curious and asked what was driving the frustration.
Instead, they chose a third option: they went looking for the people responsible so they could punish them.
That story happened decades ago.
What confuses me is that versions of The Grunt still exist today.
We know far more about leadership, emotional intelligence, engagement, motivation, and performance than we did back then. Yet many organizations still struggle to create environments where people feel safe speaking honestly.
Why?
Why do employees still stay quiet when they see problems?
Why do some leaders still react defensively instead of curiously?
I’m genuinely curious.
If you’ve experienced an organization that made the shift—from silence and fear to openness and productive conversation—I would love to hear about it.
Watch the video and share your thoughts over on my LinkedIn post. Maybe we can learn something from each other.
About the Author, Rick Maurer
