Ellen DeGeneres: Ex-Employees Detail "Toxic Work Environment" at Talk Show
Ellen DeGeneres really may need to break her silence once of these days.
One of these days in the very near future, that is.
Speaking anonymously this week to Buzzfeed News, one current and 10 former employees of The Ellen DeGeneres have come forward with allegations regarding a "toxic work environment" on set.
They're done so a few months after rumors first started circulating about the reportedly awful ways Ellen has treated her crew members and guests.
According to this newly-published piece, the aforementioned employees said they were fired after taking medical leave or bereavement days... faced microaggressions ... and were subjected to favoritism by executive producers.
To be fair, none of the individuals singled DeGeneres out specifically as being behind any of their negative encounters.
But where does the buck stop, you know? At the top in most cases.
"People focus on rumors about how Ellen is mean and everything like that, but that's not the problem," one ex-employee told Buzzfeed.
"The issue is these three executive producers running the show who are in charge of all these people [and] who make the culture and are putting out this feeling of bullying and being mean.
"They feel that everybody who works at The Ellen Show is lucky to work there:
"‘So if you have a problem, you should leave because we'll hire someone else because everybody wants to work here.'"
Multiple former crew members cited a "toxic work environment" on the talk show's set.
No, they did not call Ellen out by name -- but other insiders have gone after DeGeneres for being a phony and for being cruel to basically everyone around her at work.
One employee in this feature said that he/she were let go after taking a one-month leave following a suicide attempt.
Another was supposedly pink-slipped for a multitude of instances, including a three-week medical leave after a car accident, working remotely for two days to attend a funeral and three days off for another funeral.
This person said each leave was a struggle to obtain.
Executive producers Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner said in a statement they are taking the claims "very seriously," adding:
"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," the statement continued.
"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."
Ellen herself has not said anything about this report; or about previous allegations that there has been terriible miscommunication with employees amid the coronavirus; or about the possibility of her program getting canceled.
"Ellen is at the end of her rope," a source has simply told Us Weekly about the once-beloved comedian.
This new report remains disturbing on many levels, though.
According to a Black woman who worked on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she experienced what she described as "microaggressions" and was "reprimanded" by Galvin for asking for a raise and suggesting staff members undergo diversity and inclusion training, among other claims.
"I feel like I'm not alone in this," she said.
"We all feel this. We've been feeling this way, but I've been too afraid to say anything because everyone knows what happens when you say something as a Black person.
"You're blacklisted."
A different employee, meanwhile, has urged DeGeneres to get more involved in the day-to-day operations of the show that carries her name.
"If she wants to have her own show and have her name on the show title, she needs to be more involved to see what's going on," this person told Buzzfeed.
"I think the executive producers surround her and tell her, 'Things are going great, everybody's happy,' and she just believes that, but it's her responsibility to go beyond that."
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