The first round of interviews was standard. After a phone interview with HR, I interviewed with two individuals from my eventual department. After that interview, I received a verbal offer. The strange part came after that verbal offer. Prior to a written offer, I was invited to a "secret meeting" with the CEO at 7:30am on a Monday morning so that I could be in and out before the office workers arrived. Frankly, I questioned my safety, but since the HR woman knew about the meeting, that gave me a modicum of ease. I thought perhaps I was entering a situation where I would be someone's replacement, hence the secrecy. Instead, the CEO "warned me" about the negative culture in my department and that I wouldn't actually be reporting to the original people that interviewed me because they didn't know what they were doing, business had been failing for years, etc. He told me to do what I wanted in the role and not listen to them and to come to him with issues. Red flags -- ultimately the negative culture came straight from the top and I should have heeded that warning. The culture of pitting employees against one another pervades the company.