“I made one of my employees cry like a baby today. Honestly, it felt good.”
While she is famous for her tv hosting, Ellen DeGeneres has recently come under fire for her ‘toxic workplace environment’. Her reputation for being rude off camera has branded her as ‘notoriously one of the meanest people alive’ in a viral Twitter thread where people shared their negative experiences with Ellen.
As well as making claims about almost getting servers fired for chipped nail polish, the thread exposed a bigger problem: her attitude as a boss. Creating bizarre rules where interns aren’t allowed to look into her eyes, staff being sent home for showers if she thinks they smell and choosing one employee to make fun of for the day, led to thousands of people turning their backs on her.
During lockdown, she failed to communicate with her staff about pay for over a month, and told her crew to expect a 60% decrease in their salary (despite still airing the show from her mansion).
In July, Warner Bros decided to launch an investigation into the workplace conditions at The Ellen Show following a Buzzfeed report alleging a toxic work culture based on anonymous testimonials by former and current employees. Following the investigation, three executive producers were fired: Ed Gavin, Mary Connelly, and Andy Lassner. Almost three dozen former employees came forward anonymously to report misconduct allegations against Gavin as well as other senior producers on the show, including claims of groping and kissing, soliciting oral sex from staffers and being “handsy with women.”
Despite celebs like Nikkie De Jager, Kathy Griffin and Dakota Johnson agreeing with employees, many celebs like Katy Perry, Dianne Keaton and Portia De Rossi (Ellen’s wife) defended Ellen, posting ‘I Stand With Ellen’ on instagram posts. The message from those celebs seems to say that their positive experiences with Ellen invalidates employees' negative experiences, which only further isolated hard-working staff from the ranks of celebrities.
Written by Aimy Paul
Artwork by Zara Masood
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