New Kindred Executive: Venemous Toad?

Strange Tony,

Corporate assigned a new junior executive to our hospice site.  I'll call him Toad.  So far he's been very quiet.  That can be a sign of someone who prefers to watch and learn, but that's been a rare practice of prior Kindred vice presidents.  Toad's predecessors preferred to:

A.  Talk over listening
B.  Jump to conclusions over researching issues
C.  Shoot any messenger raising legitimate concerns
D.  Foster or avoid conflict rather than manage and reduce it.
E.  Play favorites
F.  Beat people up over numbers

Our new VP arrived at a time of incredible division within our hospice.  Conflict increases when leaders use strategies that keep people separated and uninformed. Ninety five percent of conflict can be resolved with one simple intervention, help people complete communication. This solution has been a mystery to Kindred managers who sow division and manage by whim.

Our hospice divide deepened when staff sold their soul to horrific management for the illusion of personal protection and connection to power.  Kindred leaders took information nuggets from soul-selling staff, instantly twisting and misusing them as weapons.  Enough hospice staff made this sick deal that our hospice culture could be terminal.

It will take a sophisticated VP with deep leadership skills and experience to save our historically great hospice.  Such people are rare in today's EBITDAR obsessed, capital optimizing, human abusing, compliance lip service-oriented world of healthcare mismanagement.

Kindred does not have systems to find and employ such leaders.  It's just not in them.  We'll see how bad Toad's venom is.  Will it be more or less toxic than those who came before him?

Anonymous (Waiting for next Kindred axe to fall)

Kindred Sells CFO Farber Home for Huge Loss

Strange Tony,

Kindred Healthcare executives remained mum on their bad investment in high end Louisville real estate.  Kindred flipped the luxury home for a loss of at least $250,000.  Kindred CFO Stephen Farber owned the house and benefited financially from his employer's largess.

Ferber received $300,000 more than the cost of the home and subsequent renovations.  His $250,000 in extra moving expenses came on top of $110,000 Kindred paid for Farber's 2014 relocation.  I'll venture Mr. Farber avoided realtor fees on the $2.15 million Kindred paid for the house, a benefit of roughly $125,000.  Add it up and Farber got an extra $675,000 from his employer for not getting along with his neighbor.

Kindred paid dearly for the deal, the flip loss of $250,000 and the second moving expense benefit of $250,000.  The unknown variable is the cost of the driveway, estimated as high as $360,000.  Kindred is out realtor fees of $125,000, bringing the Farber anger management subsidy to almost $1 million.

This exercise in executive enrichment should become a business ethics case at the University of Louisville.  I suggest it be studied parallel to the next Kindred executive flip.  Will it just be the nursing home division or will top dogs sell the whole company?  The time is nearing for news.  I hope it's not as disturbing as this toxic saga.

Anonymous (from the Kindred level with no raises and declining benefits)

Executive Enrichment Club: Causby's Turn

Strange Tony,

Kindred Homeboy President David Causby had a good week, like Kindred Super President Ben Breier.  The Board granted Pit Bull 57,877 restricted shares of stock.  Causby controls over 300,000 shares after this move.  That means the $1.05 rise in stock price last week gave Causby over $300,000.  That is $150,000 per day for two days.

This is nothing compared to the $1 million check Causby will get for showing up for work on August 1, 2017.  Meanwhile, Kindred employees at our hospice get no raises this year.

Anonymous (from Kindred level where the home work is actually done)

Breier's New Chief of Staph to Protect His Riches

Strange Tony,

Kindred President Ben Breier scored two personal gains recently.  The company deigned he needed a Chief of Staph.  Kindred's Chief Strategy Officer took on the Presidential protector role.  The move further insulates Breier from Kindred's 100,080 non-executive employees, who've suffered from declining benefits and stagnant employee pay under his reign.  Taking advantage of employees is a Kindred corporate strategy. 

Breier's second win was a new stock grant of 272,000 shares.  It will vest one third per year for the next three years.   Recall President Ben's compensation rose to $7 million last year for under performing on promises.  Kindred lost $664 million last year.  Breier earned $1 million for each $100 million the company lost.

Kindred felt generous last week as the rest of the executive team plus the board received restricted stock options.  These are usually convertible to shares in a buyout.  As Kindred stock jumped a nickel less than $1 today, Wall Street might smell another round of rich executives making millions by flipping their company.

Meanwhile, our hospice is hanging together by a thread.  Serial mismanagement left our ship floundering.  Corporate has no clue the damage they allowed to exists for years.  They should have known from the last two PwC employee surveys but Kindred, like Gentiva, shoots the messenger vs. working on causes, focusing on processes and coaching staff.

The PwC survey went the route of wage increases for 2017.  Kindred Homeboy President David Causby finally taught Breier the Gentiva way, where employees have no voice and get no raises.  We have the new Employee Experience, where employees needs for IT support outweighed pay, benefits and horrific management practices.  Did the Chief of Staph or our Chief Peephole Officer come up with that?  Either way, Kindred is culturally toxic. 

The C Suite grows richer by under performing while ignoring abysmal and unethical management.  Ben Breier had a great week personally.  He now controls 1 million shares of Kindred stock.   His holdings went up $950,000 today.  Think about that when you pay the new $8 annual 401k fee, if you are lucky to be able to save for retirement on Kindred pitiful pay.

There are more ways Kindred can throw money at Breier.  The company can buy his house for a premium price, give him additional moving expenses or institute a $1 million bonus just for showing up for work.  The board has done those before for Chief Fleecing Officer Stephen Farber and Kindred Homeboy David Causby.

Kindred executives know how to enrich one another while shafting employees.  I expect any hospice that treats employees as people can raid Kindred of the caring talent that remains.  The work is holy,  but management is hellish.

Anonymous (from Kindredful)