On August 16, 2021, the New York Times published Kate Conger’s “Culture Change and Conflict at Twitter.” The piece said that soon after Dantley Davis joined Twitter in 2019 as vice president of design, he told staff in a San Francisco conference room that Twitter was “too nice” and that he was there to change it. It said he asked employees to go around the room complimenting and critiquing one another; that the session lasted about two hours; and that several attendees cried, according to three people who were there.
The Times described a company diagnosis — that a collaborative culture had calcified and that workers were reluctant to criticize one another — and said executives believed Davis was part of the answer. It reported that he repeatedly clashed with employees. Business Insider’s same-day recap said the paper spoke with about a dozen current and former employees; that some described a culture of fear; that employees said his treatment led to multiple human-resources / employee-relations investigations and complaints to then-CEO Jack Dorsey; and that one of the more recent investigations had been launched earlier in 2021. Those are unnamed-source allegations relayed by newspapers. They are not a court caption and not a conviction.
Business Insider also reported, still as a recap of the Times, that employees said Davis quickly resorted to criticizing, demoting, or cutting people, and that he said he would take a step back to reconsider his management style. This file does not invent a quote from Davis that it cannot open. The Times later summarized the episode, in its December 3, 2021 departure story, as a culture change that “some employees criticized as bullying.” “Bullying” in that sentence is the employees’ criticism as the Times restated it. It is not a legal finding.
Identity fact from the same August story, labeled reporting: the Times said Davis was 43. No official birth record is cited here.