Caveat Pre-emptor

“If something seems too good to be true, it probably is”:

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new social media director has quit — saying in a scathing Facebook post that he had to do it to save his own “health and sanity” from an office full of “political hacks plus a boss who just couldn’t get it.”

Scott Kleinberg, who came to New York from the Chicago Tribune, was announced as City Hall’s new social media director in a May 3 memo that boasted that he and his team would “infuse personality and engagement into the social media channels for the Office of the Mayor and City government as a whole.”

Just eight weeks later, Kleinberg said he was out.

“Well, that was fast,” he wrote on Facebook Tuesday night. “I moved to NYC for a dream job and that’s not what I got.

“I tried to stick it out, but it was impossible,” he continued. “I don’t even know the word quit, but for the sake of my health and my sanity, I decided I needed to do just that. Now, for the first time in my life, I’m unemployed… I’ve learned a lot in the past several weeks, including something I’ve ignored in many a fortune cookie: If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

[. . .]

“I’m sure it’s impossible for someone of your caliber, with your work ethic and honesty, to survive in a sea of cut-throat political hacks,” one friend commented.

Kleinberg responded with thanks, adding, “I ended up with political hacks plus a boss who just couldn’t get it. It was a bad combination for sure.”

Another wrote that he was impressed Kleinberg had stayed with the job as long as he did, adding, “It clearly was not as advertised.”

A third commented, “Well, you are not the only one to be disappointed with our mayor’s office.”

[. . .]

“New York City government is a tough, fast-paced job that is not for everyone,” Andrea Hagelgans, head of de Blasio’s communications team, said in a statement. “We wish him well.”