Shannon Ford: All Things A Hiring Manager Should Expect From A Female Narcissistic Employee – And Tips On How To Better Manager Them

I mentioned in my previous post that Kristin Cavallari had an employee work for her company, Uncommon James, named Shannon. Her full name is Shannon Ford, and she was in charge of managing all of the store’s social media channels, as well as the newsletter. She appeared on seasons 1 and 2 of ‘Very Cavallari’ until Kristin fired her for poor performance and a lack of work ethic and accountability. She was fired by Kristin during the season 2 premiere of the show, and according to her, she was supposed to stay on the show after being fired, but didn’t. In 2021, Shannon revealed what her relationship was like with Kristin after her firing. On an episode of the ‘Click Bait With Bachelor Nation’ podcast, she said, ‘I haven’t spoken to her since the day I walked out of the office. She did message me, like, once and asked for some password. And I was like, ‘No, I’m out of office at the time. Sorry.’’ It extended past just being fired from the job. It got kinda personal. That’s what happens when you’re tin charge.’

Shannon was actually the second person she hired to work for her at Uncommon James, and she had fairly nice things to say about Shannon when the show just started, with the exception that sometimes you had to light up a fire in her in order for her to do her job. Shannon was 23 years old when the show just started, and I think it’s important to mention that young. A young, carefree blossoming woman who just got her first ‘real job’. And on top of it, she was on reality TV show. She was thriving. She loved the attention she was getting. She did say at the very beginning that the job was perfect for her because she didn’t have to work hard, whereas Kristin said that Shannon has the most important job out of all of her employees at the company.

The best way I could describe Shannon, or at least the ‘Very Cavallari’ version of her, is immature. She was taking her newfound success for granted. She didn’t actually care about Uncommon James. She cared about her own success and how the show benefited her. My previous post about Kristin Cavallari talked heavily about spotting narcissistic behaviours in a parent, romantic partner and a friend. Truth be told, employees can be narcissistic too, and that was definitely Shannon. She was deflecting, questioning and undermining everything Kristin was saying to her. Shannon was lacking at her job that she was hired to do, and instead concentrated on her own image. She was working on her own social media campaigns and modelling aspirations when she should’ve been really concentrating on Uncommon James.

Kristin gave Shannon chance after chance after chance before finally firing her. Any other person wouldn’t tolerate as much as she did, and I think it had a lot to do with the trauma she’d endured at the hands of her father and ex-husband, Jay Cutler by having them be narcissistic abusers in her life. And let’s not forget her former friend, Kelly Henderson, who also played a major role on the show, even when she didn’t appear in it. Shannon seemed to have gotten her sh*t together after multiple warnings from Kristin. As soon as the cameras stopped rolling, she went back to her old habits and didn’t do anything to help the company thrive, but rather use the stranding she got from appearing on the show for her own benefit. Brittainy, another Uncommon James employee at the time, labeled Shannon’s work as a ‘Brand Suicide.’

In hindsight, Shannon and Kelly had something in common – they both used Kristin for their own greater good. Obviously, the loss of Kelly was more heartbreaking for Kristin. Even though friends come and go, she didn’t think that Kelly would be the one to go. She thought she’d be her life-long friend. But it wasn’t meant to be. Henderson, on her part, said on episode on ‘The Domenick Nati Show in 2020 that she wasn’t actually sure why the friendship was over. She said, ‘I got a text from her a week before filming started that she was upset with me. Then I didn’t even understand or know [what] was going on.’ She added that she thought her busy schedule contributed to the ending of the friendship. ‘Unfortunately I think it played into they needed a story line for a show. I think that’s interesting that after she said all of the stuff that she said about me on national television and things that were not true that she expected me to reach out. At that point, I felt extremely betrayed and not like we were friends. I probably didn’t reach out either because I was getting so blown up by tabloids because of what she put in people’s minds about an affair that was not ever true, nor did it happen. So yeah, I wasn’t very happy with her. It didn’t feel like the right thing for me to reach out. I was not in a place to do that.’

It’s really funny to me that she said that, because on the latest episode of ‘Let’s Be Honest’, Kristin said that the only reason why she wanted to do ‘Very Cavallari’ was to promote Uncommon James. She didn’t want her personal life on the show. She didn’t even want to appear on the show. She only wanted her employees and the office work sphere to be the core of the show. It just sort of happened that executives favoured her to be a part of it; the face of it. It was a marketing technique, and it worked. When season 1 of ‘Very Cavallari’ aired, Uncommon James sold out on all their inventory very quickly and unexpectedly. Kristin’s glimpses into her personal life were just a bonus. Uncommon James was the focal point of ‘Very Cavallari’, and if Kristin wasn’t actually hurting because her friendship with her best friend ended, she had enough material there to release that had to do with Uncommon James. When I watched Kristin grieve the end of her friendship with Kelly, I couldn’t help but empathize with her. All I wanted to do was give her a hug, because I know exactly what it feels like to lose a friend that way. So, I’m sorry Kelly, but you lost that battle.

Also on the latest episode of ‘Let’s Be Honest’, Kristin spoke of her first years of Uncommon James and the employees that worked for. She said that at the time she had employees that weren’t necessarily right for their specific jobs as they were more interested in being on reality TV. They might’ve done their part in the pre-screening process, like include all the right things on their resumes, as well as say all the right things during the interview process, but then as soon as they got employed and were featured on ‘Very Cavallari’, they’d slack off. She never named any of the employees by names, but it’s pretty safe to assume that she was specifically about Shannon. In contrast, Brittainy, the Director of Information Technology at Uncommon James, who also appeared on ‘Very Cavallari’, was extremely serious about her job. She was practically Kristin’s wingman. Without her, I don’t think Uncommon James would be where it is today. She cared about the business’ success just as much as Kristin did, which made her such a great employee.

Shannon was definitely not the right person to be hired for the job at Uncommon James, at least at the time. She was too young to comprehend the seriousness of working for Kristin and seeing her as a boss. The thing about social media is that recruiters, hiring managers, business founders and CEO’s prefer to hire the younger generation because they know the most about social media, and what they don’t know, they’re always willing to learn in fast and easy ways. Maybe that was why Kristin hired Shannon in the first place. She did say in a clip from ‘Very Cavallari’ that she was impressed by what Shannon showed she could do with social media, and she was practically hired on the spot. When she was hired, things became different, especially once filming started. She was acting as though being part of the Uncommon James team was one big party. I think the biggest mistake she made while being employed at Uncommon James was lie to Kristin and say that she was capable of doing a task she actually didn’t know how to do.

If you don’t already know, Shannon has her own podcast now available on YouTube. It’s called ‘Probably A Podcast’. What a weird name for a podcast, but…it wasn’t me who chose the name. Obviously, she talks about the show that made her, and one thing I do actually respect about her is that she didn’t shy away from saying that it was the show that made her and that it was only thanks to the show that she found the success that she now has. During an episode of the podcast that aired months ago, Shannon opened up about the time that Kristin gave her a promotion when she worked at Uncommon James. That promotion was to be in charge of the newsletter. When Kristin asked if she had any experience working on newsletters before, Shannon lied and said she did when she actually didn’t; not even once.

There was a storyline on ‘Very Cavallari’ where Shannon’s best friend, Taylor, was interviewed by Kristin to work for Uncommon James. She was previously by Kristin, but said that she wasn’t interested in working there. When Kristin questioned why she was suddenly interested in working there, Shannon said it was because her friends worked there and she saw how much fun it was. Even though Brittainy already told Taylor she could work there, Kristin backed up and was very clear that she was the one making the final decisions and no one else, and she was very hesitant and concerned of Taylor’s motives in wanting to work at the company. As Kristin said, this was a business, not one big gigantic excuse to party. She was resistant to meet with Taylor for an interview, but agreed nonetheless after Shannon’s persistence.

When Kristin met with Taylor for an interview, Taylor didn’t seem serious about potentially having the opportunity to work at Uncommon James. When asked why she wanted to work there now, Taylor’s response had to do with the fact that it wasn’t fun anymore to rely on her dad for money. The answer just wasn’t good enough for Kristin, and when she saw she didn’t like the answer, she hesitantly said she thought she could be really good at the job, all while not showing her confidence in her answer at all. It was evident during the interview with Taylor that Kristin wasn’t going to hire her, and she was straight with Taylor that they wouldn’t be moving ahead with the recruitment process. It wasn’t just the fact that she had an interview before and wasn’t interested then, but now suddenly is. It was also the fact that Taylor was best friends with Shannon that sealed the deal in Kristin’s decision. It seemed to be the primary reason as to why she didn’t want to hire her rather than Taylor’s flakiness. Kristin knew exactly what her issues with Shannon were and wouldn’t trust her word in recommending someone to work for her and the company. When Shannon found out about this, she went to speak with Kristin directly in tears trying to discuss the situation and potentially change her mind about how Kristin viewed her, as well as to agree to hire Taylor after all, but to no avail.

In a recent interview with Bustle, Kristin revealed that the entire storyline was completely fake. Taylor was already an employee at Uncommon James, and making up the set up of the interview was an excuse for Taylor to get more screen time on the show. Nevertheless, even with it being entirely fictional, the storyline gave a very good insight on good leadership and intuition. The thing about Kristin is that she’d been a part of the reality TV world for over two decades. Reality TV is what made her so well-known. So when news broke that she started her own company, the whole world doubted her. I’m not even going to deny the fact that I was one of those people who doubted Kristin’s abilities to run a business. I almost laughed at the mere idea of her running an entire business. After watching ‘Very Cavallari’, however, I realized just how much I underestimated her. She knows what she wants and needs for the business to thrive, and she’ll do anything for it; it has no meaning to her weather anyone, particularly her employees or anyone else in her circle agree with her or not. She still had the bad b*tch vibe that she had while she appeared on ‘Laguna Beach, and it helped her in her business.

Before I continue talking about Shannon, I want to speak of another Uncommon James employee whose journey we saw unfold on ‘Very Cavallari’, and that’s Kaylee. We, as the audience and viewers, were initially introduced to Kaylee in season 2, after Shannon was fired from the company. Though Kaylee was new to the show. She wasn’t new to Uncommon James. She’d previously worked for the company, but was fired for unknown reasons while Kristin was away from the office. Those reasons weren’t fully explained to Kaylee herself. She wasn’t given any details as to why she was being fired, nor was she given any warning. As a leader, Kristin found it to be utterly unfair and re-hired her on the spot to work for Uncommon James. She was a good employee; a great employee. According to Kristin, she had a lot more to show than some employees who were still working for her. Kristin’s employees at Uncommon James were very vocal about the fact that they didn’t like Kaylee and didn’t want her to work there, to which Kristin practically said, ‘Either deal with it or f*ck off.’ She did what she wanted and didn’t let a single person walk all over.

My precious post heavily discussed narcissism traits in a parent, a spouse and a friend. But did you know you can find it in an employees too? Kristin certainly found it in Shannon Ford. As I looked closely at Shannon’s behaviour during her time at Uncommon James, I couldn’t help but analyze her qualities as Kristin’s employee – both the bad and the good. And so, I came up with a list of qualities of a narcissist employee, a female narcissist employee to be exact, that hiring managers and business founders should look out for, as told by Shannon Ford herself.

• Generate a want to be the centre of attention at all times. A narcissist employee will talk about themselves a lot and very little of others. Shannon was definitely self-centred at work, but she showed care and support in her personal life. She was the one who supported her friend, Taylor, the most when Taylor was getting engaged and when she found out she was pregnant, and she helped Taylor in getting and preparing for the interview with Kristin. So it’s important to note that someone can be a narcissist at work, but genuinely a good person in their personal life.
• Grandiose sense of self-importance. A narcissistic employee will never stop talking about their achievements and exaggerate their role in the company, their department, or project. I wouldn’t say that Shannon ever exaggerated her role at Uncommon James. Her role was, in fact, important to the success of the company. As Brittainy said herself, aside from Kristin, she was the face of Uncommon James and she had the most important job. However, she did exaggerate in how good she was at her job. She might’ve been a pro at social media management, but not at Uncommon James.
• A lack of empathy or emotion. A narcissist employee will have trouble showing empathy and care towards others at work. Shannon didn’t seem to care about anyone but herself at work. For everything that went wrong, or for every conflict that happened between her and a co-worker, no matter who that might’ve been, she always never took accountability and instead, put the blame on others. As Kristin said in a confessional in season 2, she walked around like she owned the place.
• Passive-aggressiveness. A narcissist employee will show passive-aggressiveness towards anyone in the workplace – a co-worker, a client, and even their boss. This was a big thing in Shannon’s time on ‘Very a Cavallari’. It was actually the Shannon’s biggest issue during her time at Uncommon James. She never took responsibility for actions and didn’t seem to care how her actions affected others in the company or the company itself. She constantly undermined and disrespected Kristin, starting from the very first episode up until the very moment she was fired.
• Narcissistic rage. A narcissistic employee will show rage and will experience an intense, aggressive reaction when they feel they no longer have control. I personally didn’t see rage coming from Shannon from her time at Uncommon James. Maybe I have a very different definition of rage than the average person, but I never saw rage coming from Shannon during her stint on ‘Very Cavallari’. I saw a lot of arguing, but not rage.

I have to give it to Kristin; she had SO much patience with Shannon. If even say she had too much patience with Shannon. I wish I was this bad at my job and still be able to keep my job. I don’t know any employer that would have as much patience and tolerance as Kristin did with Shannon. And I think it might have something to do with the amount of narcissism that Kristin had endured in her personal life that had her be so loyal to Shannon when she really didn’t deserve it whatsoever.Shannon’s eventual firing was long overdue, and even when she was fired, she got defensive and showed no remorse for Kristin. She was disrespectful, rude, and condescending. With that said, I started thinking of what an employer like Kristin could do to better manage their employees. I came up with a list and I based this list on what Kristin did right, as well as what she did wrong.

• Stay calm. Screaming and yelling at a narcissist employee will not be of any use. It will only fuel the narcissist behaviour out the employee. During Shannon’s time at Uncommon James, as seen on ‘Very Cavallari’, Kristin only yelled at her once, and it was during the show’s very first episode. Shannon screwed up on the newsletter on the company’s launch day. Kristin had numerous other issues and hiccups that had happened that day relating to the company’s operations, but that was the main one. At first, Shannon rolled her eyes at Kristin when Kristin said her wrongdoing f*cked her moment. That was when Kristin exploded on her. Shannon started crying, but it didn’t seem it was because she was remorseful. To me, it looked as though Shannon was a childhood who’d just been scolded by her mother.
• Establish clear boundaries. This is something I think Kristin lacked in her management of Shannon. At the same time, though, who would’ve thought she would have to? Don’t get me wrong, an employer should set clear boundaries with any employee, even the best one. But an employer isn’t anyone’s babysitter, and it felt as though Kristin had to babysit Shannon all throughout her Shannon’s employment. An employer is a manager; not a babysitter. Kristin didn’t have to micro-manage anyone else on the level that she had to micro-manage Shannon, so I can’t really put the full blame on Kristin.
• Don’t try to change them. Kristin never attempted to change Shannon throughout her employment and her time at Uncommon James. She aimed to motivate her and, as she said herself, light a fire under her a**. Kristin’s tactics worked for a while, and Shannon did do great work when she actually did her work. But once filming stopped for season 1 of ‘Very Cavallari’, she started slacking off again, which led to Kristin having no choice but to fire her a**.
• Ignore obnoxious behaviour. I actually stole this pointer from another site, and I wanted to include because I sincerely disagree with it, and I was actually so glad to see that Kristin didn’t ignore Shannon’s obnoxious behaviour. A good employer can’t possibly ignore obnoxious behaviour. If they do, it can destroy the company culture, and therefore, destroy its entire operation and reputation. Kristin was always about conflict resolution – with all of employees; not just Shannon. Whenever she saw there was an issue or a conflict within the company and the team, she always called for meeting straight away to discuss and resolve any matters at hand. She built a support system for her team, which made her so great.
• Keep a paper trail. Keeping everything on file is important. This includes keeping notes on dates on exactly what the narcissist employee has said and everything they’d done wrong or hadn’t done at all when it comes to their job description. All conversations and covers you have with your narcissistic employee should be on file. That way, you as the employer have everything on file and on record, and your employee can’t lie to you. when Kristin fired Shannon, you could see that she was telling her exactly why she was firing her based on all the notes that she had. She gave her all the reasons and everything that she’d done wrong and all the work that she was asked to do but didn’t, such as on the newsletter that was a continuous issue, and all socials. She gave her all the specifics. Nothing was laughed unsaid, even despite Shannon’s constant interruptions.

Kristin was so relieved to have fired Shannon. It was the best business decision she made at the time – both for the company’s success and the company culture as a whole. Not only was she not doing her job, but she was creating a toxic work environment. But of course, drama continued after Shannon left too. It is, after all, a reality series. In a confessional that was shown during Shannon’s firing scene, Kristin said that she was sure that Shannon would be the same exact employee to her next employer as she was to her at Uncommon James, and wished them the best of luck. So it begs the question: Can a narcissistic employee ever change?

YES! A narcissistic employee can absolutely change. But it takes a firing for that to happen. My husband actually said to me recently that he thinks everyone should be fired at one point in their career span. And I really couldn’t agree more. Just a few months ago, Shannon released a video talking all things ‘Very Cavallari’, and in it, she took full responsibility for her behaviour while being employed by Kristin and admitted that she was completely in the wrong. So although Kristin was absolutely right to have fired her, she was wrong to have believed that Shannon wouldn’t ever change. It just took Kristin during her to light a little fire up her a**.