After years of feeling ignored by WarnerMedia’s human-resources department, staffers on tabloid TV show Extra are now hearing a lot more from HR.
Earlier this month, for example, employees were invited to a mandatory “Professionalism, Respect & Promoting a Positive Workplace” training event over Zoom, in which all cameras were required to be turned on and recording was not allowed, according to an email obtained and reviewed by The Daily Beast.
Several weeks before that, staffers received an email from Warner’s HR boss revealing that a human-resources department, titled People Partner, will visit the Extra production team in Burbank, California on a weekly basis going forward. “Shifting the traditional narrative of HR from reactive to proactive, we provide hands-on support to staff, cast and crew to help cultivate an inclusive and respectful work environment,” boasted the internal email.
These positive developments came only after The Daily Beast began investigating claims of a “toxic” workplace at the long-running syndicated gossip program hosted by Billy Bush.
Much of the complaints about Extra’s work environment centered around its senior executive producer Lisa Gregorisch-Dempsey, 64, a tabloid veteran who has run the Telepictures-produced show with an “iron fist” for more than 20 years.
The Daily Beast spoke with a dozen current and former Extra employees who all described a “toxic” atmosphere in which Gregorisch-Dempsey allegedly “bullies” and “screams at” staff and key on-air talent, makes herself the show’s top priority, treats Extra as “her playground,” receives an exorbitant salary while the rest of the staff experiences “dark weeks,” and leaves employees often feeling undervalued and ignored.
Among the more egregious examples of the showrunner’s conduct: Back in 2018, she allegedly threatened former longtime Extra host Mario Lopez with pushing damaging personal stories about him if he did not re-sign with the show, multiple sources familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast. One former staffer likened Gregorisch-Dempsey’s threats to a “blackmail attempt,” noting that she told Lopez at the time she would “ruin” him if he didn’t return to the show. (Lopez ended up leaving for rival Access Hollywood.)
“This was the most toxic and hostile workplace environment I’ve ever worked in,” one former Extra researcher told The Daily Beast.
“We are committed to creating and maintaining a safe and healthy environment for all employees. While conducting a thorough third-party investigation into the show, additional allegations were made and they will be reviewed as part of the ongoing investigation,” Warner Bros. Television Group wrote last month in a statement to The Daily Beast when first reached for comment about claims of a toxic workplace. “We have already begun taking appropriate action based on our findings, and once the investigation has concluded, we will take additional measures as needed.”
Over the past two-plus years, and especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic, current employees said, Gregorisch-Dempsey has spent very little time on the production of the show. Having moved to Naples, Florida—one of the most expensive zip codes in the U.S.—in 2019, she now largely just calls into the morning meetings and, over the past two-plus years, appears to have spent much less time on the production of the Burbank-based show than she used to.
But while Gregorisch-Dempsey now mostly works across the continent from Extra’s production, her reputation for aggressive behavior is still fresh in staffers’ minds—and has almost been a source of personal pride on her part.
A lengthy New York Times profile, published after she pulled Bush out of his “grab them by the pussy” exile to make him Extra’s new lead anchor, described Gregorisch-Dempsey as being “known for her terrifying candor.” Adorning her desk at the time, the Times reported, was a nameplate reading: “I’ll be nicer if you’ll be smarter.”
The 2020 Hollywood Reporter exposé on the “notoriously toxic” culture at several Telepictures programs suggested Gregorisch-Dempsey took her cues from infamously brazen TMZ founder Harvey Levin when they worked together on Celebrity Justice. “Lisa was tough, and sometimes she did Game of Thrones-type shit with the people she surrounds herself with,” former Extra reporter Steve Santagati told THR. “Back then, a lot of comments were made, and that’s part of the business. If your skin’s not thick, you get out.”
Gregorisch-Dempsey responded at the time: “Here’s who I am: focused, strong, fair and honest. I also happen to be a woman.” But current Extra employees described the program’s showrunner as being just a bit more than that.
“Lisa is a screamer,” one current staffer said. “She’s told people they’re ‘worthless,’ ‘morons,’ ‘cancers,’ and ‘pieces of shit.’ We’ve heard it all and been called it all.” Three other current and former Extra staffers concurred with this description of her specific insults.
The current employee further alleged that Gregorisch-Dempsey “likes to keep people under her thumb” and “will beat you down and keep you down,” likening their experience to an “abusive relationship where you think you can’t do any better.”
Attorneys for Gregorisch-Dempsey, led by “pitbull”-style Hollywood lawyer Marty Singer, wrote that they “generally and unequivocally deny that [she] has engaged in any improper or harassing conduct (in the workplace or otherwise).”
Additionally, at least four current and former staffers told The Daily Beast that Gregorisch-Dempsey—who does not have any children—has made no secret of her displeasure when the show’s female on-air talent become pregnant.
“She prides herself in the fact that she doesn’t like kids,” said one current employee who recalled multiple instances in which Gregorisch-Dempsey remarked to that effect. “She would say things like ‘you can’t have kids as long as you work here.’”
A current Extra correspondent disputed that characterization of Gregorisch-Dempsey, however, heaping praise upon the boss in an email to The Daily Beast. “I want it on record that Lisa hired me out of local news and gave me my dream job,” wrote Jennifer Lahmers, who has been with the show since late 2019. “She has been my strongest ally at Extra and has remained supportive of me both professionally and personally, including during my pregnancy and having my baby. She is a champion of women and working moms.”
Singer added that it was “false, fabricated and defamatory” to suggest Gregorisch-Dempsey is unsupportive of staff pregnancies, claiming that no female employee has ever left the show due to having a baby.
According to former and current staffers, Gregorisch-Dempsey has also made a habit of referencing her own breasts, often seeming to urge others to touch her chest. “She’s done it in the past,” said one current staffer who claimed to have witnessed such an incident. “If anyone questioned it, or if they said anything that was suggestive or gave her an opening, like ‘I gotta ask you,’ she would say, ‘Yes, they are real, see for yourself.’ She defines inappropriate.”
“I call Extra the mafia,” said one longtime staffer. “[Gregorisch-Dempsey] is the mafiosa.”
Staffers noted that Gregorisch-Dempsey is not solely responsible for an alleged toxic workplace at Extra: At least six current and former staffers who spoke with The Daily Beast described her top lieutenant, co-executive producer Theresa Coffino, as having a reputation for “abusive” and “bullying” behavior, particularly towards the show’s booking staff, whom she allegedly berates and calls names in front of the entire production crew.
“When bookers came to work, they would ask, ‘What’s the mood today?’” one staffer recalled. “So they knew what to expect and to brace themselves.” Singer’s firm, which also represents Coffino, said in a statement that her reputation is “stellar and pristine,” adding: “We vehemently deny that she has ever engaged in conduct that could even remotely be considered abusive or bullying.”
Gregorisch-Dempsey would also often make prospective employees do potentially humiliating things during their interviews, according to two longtime employees who directly witnessed such incidents, including making one woman sing her résumé and another do a cartwheel. These “demeaning… stupid human tricks,” as one of the staffers described them, were “Lisa asserting her power and control. ‘See, I will make you do this.’” The two staffers who were present for these incidents both recalled Gregorisch-Dempsey declaring she would do such things for her own amusement.
According to three current Extra employees, Gregorisch-Dempsey began to individually call staffers over the past few weeks after hearing that The Daily Beast had begun reporting on the workplace under her leadership. The Extra boss, these sources said, threatened some staffers by noting “if I go down, you go down,” and tried to force them to reveal who had spoken with reporters.
“We can absolutely and unequivocally confirm that [Gregorisch-Dempsey] has not reached out to or ‘threatened’ any other employees in response to your publication’s contemplated story,” Singer’s partner David Jonelis wrote in an email to The Daily Beast. “Nor would it have been appropriate for her to have done so, given that there is an ongoing investigation.”
Gregorisch-Dempsey has also allegedly told staffers that the only reason Extra is still on the air is because of her close relationship with Jack Abernathy, the former Fox News co-president who now oversees Fox Television Stations. (Fox News settled a former host’s sexual harassment claims against Bill O’Reilly in 2017 that also alleged Abernethy retaliated against her.) Without her, the show will be canceled, she allegedly warned these insiders.
The current staffers additionally claimed Gregorisch-Dempsey has warned employees that she could sic her “powerful attorney” on them if they have been talking with reporters.
After The Daily Beast initially reached out to Gregorisch-Dempsey for comment on the claims about her workplace culture, Singer sent a series of letters and emails on her behalf, labeling the reporting “reckless and defamatory” while threatening to sue for millions of dollars if it saw the light of day. In a later exchange, Singer’s partner Jonelis informed The Daily Beast: “You have been warned, and your fate is now in your own hands.”
A key contention raised by Singer throughout his communications was the use of Carlo De Santis, a former Extra producer who also happens to be Gregorisch-Dempsey’s nephew, as a source of information. According to Singer, De Santis is a “disgruntled” former Extra staffer who “began his campaign of hate and lies” against his aunt after he lost his job in 2015 and she ceased to financially support him in 2021. The attorney further alleged that De Santis is “unemployable” due to his “unstable and inappropriate conduct” and that all other staffers with critical comments about his client are merely friends of the nephew.
Additionally, Singer alleged that despite De Santis’ “longstanding bad behavior,” a “supportive” Gregorisch-Dempsey “took him under her wing” and tried to “help him succeed in the entertainment industry,” further claiming she was the reason he was hired at another network after his termination from Extra.
De Santis, who sent a lengthy letter to WarnerMedia last year asking for an investigation into the workplace culture under his aunt, admits he did live with Gregorisch-Dempsey for some time and freelanced numerous times at Extra after he was let go in 2015. However, he disputed to The Daily Beast the characterization of him as disgruntled.
“It is sad yet predictable that Lisa would use my name as a scapegoat to deflect from decades of credible and well-documented allegations against her,” he said. “It is in my heart to forgive and I will keep her in my prayers.”
Since taking over Extra in 1996, Gregorisch-Dempsey, a lifelong TV vet with an impressive résumé, has steered the newsmagazine—one of the longest-running ones currently still airing—through 28 seasons of production, garnering plenty of accolades.
Throughout her tenure, Extra has received eight consecutive Daytime Emmy nominations for Outstanding Entertainment News Program, and was the first show to win when the category was introduced in 2014, taking home the top prize again in 2016.
Along with her duties running Extra, Gregorisch-Dempsey has developed a host of other syndicated shows for Telepictures—some originating as segments from the newsmagazine, such as Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers. Prior to joining Telepictures, Gregorisch-Dempsey was VP of news at Fox Television Stations Group, where she “was responsible for the hiring of on-air talent and news directors for 22 Fox owned-and-operated stations’ news departments.” Before Fox, she executive produced Hard Copy, a syndicated ’90s tabloid show, and served as managing editor or executive producer for a number of local news stations.
While Extra has racked up critical accolades and awards over its lengthy run, it has recently languished in the ratings. As far back as late 2008, the show was the lowest-rated of the six syndicated entertainment shows, and has been unable to crawl its way out of that hole since. With fewer viewers watching broadcast television, Extra’s already small audience has shrunk, pulling in less than a third of top competitor Inside Edition’s viewership in the genre’s key ratings demographic.
Nevertheless, despite the flailing ratings and internal complaints over her managerial tactics, Gregorisch-Dempsey has long attracted famous fans in the entertainment business.
“Of all the people I’ve met in my career, I'm going to say that Lisa is probably the most loyal, trustworthy person I’ve ever met. I’d steal her in a heartbeat,” former American Idol judge Simon Cowell said in a 2008 Broadcasting+Cable profile of the Extra boss.
“I think she’s direct and honest and tells it to you straight,” added Katie Couric, who described herself as one of Gregorisch-Dempsey’s best friends, in the same B+C piece. “Lisa has this larger-than-life personality… She is very brash and hard-charging, but underneath it all she’s a pussycat.”
The top producer, known on-air as “Lisa G,” has indeed engendered a notable level of loyalty during her tenure at Extra. According to WarnerMedia, 80 percent of staffers on the show have been there for at least fifteen years.
But when that loyalty appears to falter, current and former staffers said, Gregorisch-Dempsey has acted in a bullying, inappropriate manner.
Mario Lopez had co-hosted Extra for ten years when he was in the midst of renegotiating his contract in 2018. According to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, the dialogue grew increasingly tense when it became apparent the TV star might bail for a competitor.
Before Lopez eventually bolted for top rival Access Hollywood, Gregorisch-Dempsey at one point told the former Saved by the Bell star and his manager Mark Schulman that she would leak personally damaging stories to the press about him in an effort to “ruin him,” four people familiar with a series of email and phone exchanges told The Daily Beast.
These insiders said that Gregorisch-Dempsey threatened Lopez with pushing out the negative press items, allegedly alluding to unsubstantiated rumors of infidelity or misconduct.
One current Extra employee recounted an email in which Gregorisch-Dempsey allegedly intimated to Lopez that she could “ruin” him if he did not re-sign with the program. Lopez “showed it to his manager, agent, and an attorney at his agent’s office,” the staffer said. “He told a lot of people about the email.”
Two additional sources familiar with the email confirmed that Gregorisch-Dempsey threatened Lopez if he left Extra, adding that the senior executive producer eventually apologized to the host as well as his wife.
All of the hosts past and present pose at the 25th anniversary celebration of “Extra” at Universal Studios Hollywood on September 10, 2018.
Paul Archuleta/Getty Images“That’s when Mario decided to leave,” claimed a current staffer with inside knowledge of the situation. “He told staff he couldn’t work with people like that. It is common knowledge among staff why Mario left: Lisa threatened him.”
Additionally, De Santis, the former Extra producer and Gregorisch-Dempsey’s nephew, recounted his aunt telling him about a phone call in which she told Lopez he was putting all of the show’s employees in jeopardy because NBC might not pick up Extra for another season if he left.
“Lisa told me she said some things (to Mario and his manager) she needed to apologize for and asked me to help her draft an apology to [Lopez’s wife] Courtney,” De Santis added.
Emails obtained and reviewed by The Daily Beast show Gregorisch-Dempsey apologizing directly to Schulman for a previous conversation, noting that her aggression was in part due to her belief that the show’s livelihood depended on Lopez remaining host.
“I thought about our conversation and I owe you an apology,” Gregorisch-Dempsey wrote to Schulman in early 2018. “I have and will always be ‘Team Mario.’ I have 120 people depending on Mario as our on air team leader for their livelihood. I will always fight for the show just as you are fighting for Mario’s best interest and I respect that.”
De Santis also claimed that he was tasked with drafting an apology on Gregorisch-Dempsey’s behalf to Lopez’s spouse. “After she made the threat to leak negative stories about Mario, Lisa asked me to help her draft an apology email to Mario’s wife Courtney,” he said. “Basically, Lisa was saying [to me] she wanted Mario to get #MeToo’d.”
At the end of 2018, months after Lopez decided to reject the studio’s offer to stay with Extra, it was announced that the syndicated show was moving from its longtime home on NBC-operated stations over to Fox. Lopez officially joined Access Hollywood, which is owned by NBCUniversal, in the summer of 2019. His deal, which also features him hosting the one-hour syndicated spin-off talk show Access Daily, allows him to develop scripted and unscripted programming for Universal Television.
When reached for comment, Schulman’s office directed The Daily Beast to Lopez’s publicist Lisa Perkins, who declined to comment. Gregorisch-Demspey, through her attorney, called the claims that she threatened Lopez “laughable.”
But Gregorisch-Dempsey’s alleged mistreatment of talent wasn’t limited to Lopez, with other on-air hosts and correspondents seemingly feeling the brunt of her aggressive tactics.
In one 2013 email obtained and reviewed by The Daily Beast, the Extra boss chastised and berated Lopez and Maria Menounos, his co-host at the time, for not making the show the top priority in their lives. While criticizing their commitment to outside projects—Lopez also hosted the Fox reality series The X-Factor while Menounos appeared on several other shows, including Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers and her own interview series—Gregorisch-Dempsey wrote to the pair that her show’s hosts must be “150% living and breathing Extra” and cannot be “two part-timers” looking for just another paycheck.
“All of us here work 7 days a week on Extra, we need you to get back to treating this like a fulltime job,” she further scolded them. “I’ve never had this conversation with any hosts in my career. I don’t EVER wanna have to say this again.”
Menounos, who declined to comment on this story, left Extra in 2014 for E! Entertainment, later anchoring E! News—a post she held until stepping down in 2017 to focus on treatment for a brain tumor. When Extra hosted its 25th anniversary show in 2018, Menounos and fellow ex-host Tracey Edmonds were conspicuously absent. Those who did attend the reunion were required to sign a confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement promising to “not make any statements about this Agreement, my experience working on the Program, or the business of the hosts or any of the producers or staff of the Program.”
Menounos seems to have long been a subject of Gregorisch-Dempsey’s ire, and at various points in 2011 and 2012 the Extra boss appeared to compile a “file” of negative information about her star host.
“Makes everything about herself,” the executive producer wrote in one email reviewed by The Daily Beast, with the subject line “MM – CONFIDENTIAL for her file.” In another email to producers “for her file,” Gregorisch-Dempsey groused that Menounos “might be the worst interviewer ever,” further branding her “Maria ME-nounos” and asserting: “If she wasn’t diabolical and used her tenacity for good she would be a great asset to the show.”
The exec told her lieutenants in another email that she has been “documenting things as they happen and you should too.” The show’s management was “mean to her,” recalled a current staffer familiar with the situation. “They like talent who are weak doormats.”
“Maria was not a Lisa hire,” a current Extra staffer said of the former host’s relationship with the boss. “She was added by the network. Lisa never wanted her. If you’re not in their club, you’re not in their club. They were not nice to her.”
The irony of Gregorisch-Dempsey demanding employees fully devote themselves seven days a week to Extra while she has in recent years ruled from afar while collecting a multimillion-dollar salary has not been lost on current staffers, multiple insiders said.
“The show is her playground,” one current staffer remarked.
Since moving to Naples in 2019, and especially since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, three current staffers said, Gregorisch-Dempsey has essentially ceased overseeing the day-to-day operations of the show, delegating many of those responsibilities to Coffino and fellow co-executive producer Jeremy Spiegel.
Prior to making a surprise visit to California earlier this year, Gregorish-Dempsey had not been in the Burbank office since March 2020, which was the start of the pandemic. For the most part, she’s only taken part in occasional digital meetings and her regular on-air tapings with lead anchor Bush, according to multiple sources who also said Gregorish-Dempsey will sometimes participate in morning Zoom calls clearly from the comforts of her bed.
Through her lawyer, Gregorisch-Dempsey called any assertion she has been “abrogating her job responsibilities” over the past two-plus years “tone-deaf and ignorant,” invoking the dangers of COVID-19 and noting that her husband is a cancer survivor and thus immunocompromised. The Extra executive also noted that “notwithstanding the impact of the pandemic,” she “dutifully performed her job obligations remotely.”
“Lisa is so uninvolved,” a longtime employee said. “She literally puts herself on-air and then goes and flies around in her plane during the workdays. She’s not involved hardly at all. Her work is she calls in to do a morning call with Billy Bush. She’s put on camera, then in terms of the day-to-day she’s not involved at all.”
And apparently the powers at WarnerMedia agreed. The studio recently informed Gregorisch-Dempsey that she needed to appear at the Burbank studio at least once a month going forward, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
Gregorisch-Dempsey continues to retain a hefty income, based on documents reviewed by The Daily Beast. The Extra senior executive producer brings in an eye-popping weekly salary of more than $40,000 totaling north of $2 million per year, plus bonuses. Such earnings are definitively on the higher side for her job title and the show’s performance, according to three entertainment TV agents who spoke with The Daily Beast.
Yet while Gregorisch-Dempsey makes millions, the show often deals with budget issues, with some employees taking pay cuts and the show occasionally undergoing budgetary furloughs—pre-selected weeks where the entire staff goes unpaid. (These are in addition to when the show goes on scheduled hiatuses.)
By contrast, as several employees noted, Gregorisch-Dempsey often flaunts her wealth on social media while much of her staff struggle under the show’s belt-tightening. Furthermore, despite her expressed concerns over COVID-19, the Extra producer’s Instagram account is loaded with photos of Gregorisch-Dempsey and her husband regularly enjoying group outings and dinners with friends.
“What does Lisa do? She posts on Instagram about flying around the country in the new private plane she bought,” one current staffer noted. “It’s tone-deaf at best; arrogant and narcissistic at its worst.”
Extra staff was informed this month that they would be subjected to two more furloughs this summer—once in July and again in August. “We know that this is a hardship for all, and we regret having to do it. But it’s only through hiatus periods that include dark weeks that we can meet our budget constraints while at the same time, keep everyone employed,” read a staff-wide memo announcing the move.
“There are 15 weeks of hiatus. We’ve had that for a few years now. However, what’s new are the ‘dark weeks,’” one staffer said. In addition to the upcoming summer furloughs, Extra employees were subjected to such “dark weeks” after last Christmas and the week of March 13, according to emails reviewed by The Daily Beast.
Gregorisch-Dempsey has bragged about still being paid during such “dark weeks,” according to three current and former staffers who witnessed it. “Why isn’t she taking a pay cut?” a current employee wondered. “Why do we need three executive producers for one 22-minute show? That’s three million dollars right there.”
In the end, though, many of the workers at Extra feel they have long had nowhere to go with complaints about their workplace, according to former and current staffers.
“I wasn't even aware we had HR,” one current staffer sighed. “HR is a joke,” declared another.
Since the Telepictures-owned production’s human resources is through Warner Bros., sources said that it was often difficult to figure out how to contact HR, adding that they feel that there are no employee-supervisor evaluations among the Extra staff. After the show fired correspondent AJ Calloway in 2019 over several allegations of sexual misconduct and assault, however, and BuzzFeed reported on fellow Telepictures program The Ellen DeGeneres Show’s toxic workplace, WarnerMedia Studios then-CEO Ann Sarnoff sent out a workplace survey to all company workers in November 2020.
“A couple of months ago, I committed to having a third-party firm conduct a survey to help us better understand how people experience working in our offices and on our sets,” Sarnoff wrote at the time. “I’m happy to let you know that today we’re rolling out this survey to a majority of our active productions in the U.S., Canada and UK. It will be available for the next two weeks, and I encourage you to take it right away using the link at the bottom of this email. Your responses will be anonymous.”
The survey was sent two months after Sarnoff and WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar addressed the reporting about the poor workplace culture at a number of Telepictures’ daytime shows. While Kilar said he was “both concerned and disappointed by public reports regarding patterns of unacceptable behavior,” Sarnoff added that the company was “redoubling our efforts” to resolve the issues. They encouraged employees to contact their supervisor, human-resources officials, or call a provided helpline if they witnessed inappropriate actions and behavior. (Sarnoff and Kilar exited the company this month at the completion of WarnerMedia’s merger with Discovery.)
“Staff never heard back after completing the survey,” one current staffer asserted. “It was all a facade.”
Eventually, on Jan. 5, 2021, De Santis sent an email to WarnerMedia Communications, which The Daily Beast reviewed, alleging that six years earlier he was “fired in a retaliatory act” amid a production-related feud with his aunt and that he’d witnessed “many violations” by Gregorisch-Dempsey during his time as both a full-time and freelance employee.
“Extra” Senior Executive Producer Lisa Gregorisch-Dempsey gives a speech at the party celebrating the 11th season of “Extra” on October 7, 2004 at The Lounge @ Astra in West Hollywood.
Amanda Edwards/Getty ImagesAfter not receiving any response, the former staffer forwarded his complaint to Sarnoff and WarnerMedia executive Kevin Fortson, eventually receiving a reply on Jan. 27, 2021 from employee-relations lead Connie Cartagena, informing him an investigation would be opened into his allegations.
Since then, however, De Santis said he has only received intermittent communications about the potential probe. Cartagena did email him on Jan. 11, 2022 that “the investigation is in progress” and that he should hear from legal counsel the company has retained. De Santis added that a third-party legal firm did briefly contact him in the past week.
The lack of action on both of these recent probes, meanwhile, has caused some exasperation among current staffers.
“Shame on Telepictures and WB for sweeping these serious work issues under the rug,” a longtime employee said. “They can’t claim they didn’t know, there are apparently two investigations, both ordered by WB.”
The staffer continued: “To be aware is bad enough, but to know and ignore it, makes them complicit. By doing nothing, they tacitly approve and perpetuate it. Maybe they think it’s okay to harass, bully, intimidate and discriminate against employees.”
But the recent spate of HR activity, which came after The Daily Beast began investigating Extra‘s workplace, has offered some positive change for the production staff.
There was the mandatory, company-wide “Professionalism, Respect & Promoting a Positive Workplace” training event this past week. And there was the news that People Partner will meet with the show’s staff in Burbank on a weekly basis to ensure a more “proactive” human-resources team and “cultivate an inclusive and respectful work environment,” according to the internal email obtained and reviewed by The Daily Beast.
It was a small but welcome change for staffers hoping for an improved workplace culture.
“We are not disgruntled employees,” said one such current employee. “We love our jobs. We don’t have a vendetta.”
