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We've been asked by a number of readers over the last few weeks what the departure of Vince McMahon has been like for the average person working in Titan Tower. Rather than do repeated Q&A answers to similar questions, here is a breakdown based on what we have heard from speaking to multiple people in different areas of the company over the last several weeks:
Much like the change to the new management team has energized the WWE locker room and the production team (as we've previously noted), the average energy in WWE HQ in Stamford has been much better for a very different reason - the balance of employees having a life outside of the company vs. their work responsibilities has been much better. Under Vince McMahon, there was always something of a fear that if you put yourself before the company, eventually you were going to place yourself in a situation where that would come back to bite you and could hurt your standing. Before, it was a feeling of "keep your head down" and if the boss was going to work insane hours, that meant you were likely going to be asked to do so as well and you should never, ever turn off your cell phone because the further up the corporate ladder you were, the more likely you'd be fielding calls at all hours of the night.
Under the current regime, that level of stress has lessened, as the belief is that under Nick Khan, Paul Levesque and Stephanie McMahon, employees have settled into a new groove where they can do their job but not feel that "level of stress" that used to exist and more importantly, not feel guilty if they leave the office at a normal hour. There's a far better balance of work life vs. real life outside of WWE for the employees, at least right now.
There's also been a feeling that if employees cross paths with the new management team in the elevators or the cafeteria or the hallways, they can have polite conversations with them about their families and personal interests as well as concerns about the company, where previously everyone, as one staffer commented, "knew running into Vince was like running into the T-Rex from Jurassic Park, you didn't want to call attention to yourself." While the cell phones still stay on, there's now room for staffers to breathe, enjoy working there and know that it doesn't need to be their "unending purpose in life", as the same staffer described. It's been a far more positive working experience of late.
We've been asked a lot about the creative team. There's also been a night and day impact there as well, in large part because under Levesque, they are no longer "hurrying up to wait" for Vince McMahon meetings that start hours late or focus on small, "unimportant things" for long periods of time. The meetings are more streamlined and regimented and there's a feeling that by not wasting so much time, the team has been far less "worn out by the grind" and can focus more on creative pitches and longer-form ideas. Where before it was about reacting to Vince McMahon's whims of the moment, there's a feeling that they are building a foundation of being proactive and building for the future. There are re-writes as part of the process but it's very rarely a situation where everything is nuked and they are racing against the clock the day of the broadcasts to come up with new ideas, one of the reasons why endless rematches have disappeared from Raw and Smackdown.
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