And now the flood.

After yesterday's hard-hitting expose by the Wall Street Journal into workplace tensions at Pimco, co-founder Bill Gross is now facing a torrent of public criticism, including at least one call for him to retire.

The story detailing the escalating tensions between Gross and the departing CEO, Mohamed El-Erian has caught fire amidst the financial press, gaining the attention of InvestmentNews, BusinessWeek, and Forbes, and KP Insider, among numerous others.

The story of course snowballed as other outlets rushed to get more insights. For example, Bloomberg TV talked with former Pimco PM Bill Powers about Gross as well as Management Systems Consulting Corp. president Eric Flamholtz who had consulted Gross and other Pimco management on how to improve the workplace culture.

Gross, of course, has defended himself to the public. He called the WSJ story overblown in an interview with CNBC. A MarketWatch articlenotes that Gross boasted in that CNBC interview that he has allowed employees to play rock songs, and even encouraging the development of a Conga line on the trading room floor.

Consequently, at least once journalist, Reuters blogger Felix Salmon, has called on Gross to retire.

Time will tell whether investors, Pimco parent Allianz and Pimco's institutional clients will begin to agree.  

Edited by: Tommy Fernandez


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