“The Ellen Show” is officially under investigation after accusations of a toxic work environment have bubbled over.
In a recent Buzzfeed report, one current employee, who remained anonymous, and 10 former employees rang the alarm on the award-winning show and host after revealing they have endured everything from racism to bullying and intimidation.
It hurt my heart when they said the woman who urges everyone to “be kind” at the end of each show is a real-life mean girl.
Not my Ellen?!!
Via Deadline:
The BuzzFeed investigation detailed incidents in which the staffers said they were sidelined, disciplined, or fired for speaking up about discrimination, taking a mental health leave, or attending family funerals, among other things. The allegations ranged from racist microaggressions to jokes about mistaking two Black female employees with the same hairstyle. One former employee said she left her job after she was called into a meeting with executive producer Ed Glavin, where she was reprimanded for her objections to the term “spirit animal,” asking for a raise, and suggesting employees on the show receive diversity and inclusion training. The employee said Glavin told her she “was walking around looking resentful and angry.”
Glavin and fellow executive producers Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner addressed the allegations in a joint statement to BuzzFeed, saying they take the employees’ stories “very seriously.”
“Over the course of nearly two decades, 3,000 episodes, and employing over 1000 staff members, we have strived to create an open, safe, and inclusive work environment,” they said in the statement. “We are truly heartbroken and sorry to learn that even one person in our production family has had a negative experience. It’s not who we are and not who we strive to be, and not the mission Ellen has set for us.
For the record, the day to day responsibility of the Ellen show is completely on us. We take all of this very seriously and we realize, as many in the world are learning, that we need to do better, are committed to do better, and we will do better.”
WarnerMedia has retained an outside consultant to interview current and past employees to get to the bottom of what’s really going on over there at “The Ellen Show.”
My grandmother always said, “Everybody ain’t gone tell the same lie on you.”
