Ellen DeGeneres opened Season 18 of The Ellen DeGeneres Show yesterday (September 21, 2020) with a monologue in which she addressed the toxic workplace accusations posed against the show by current and former employees over the summer.
Her words came off as very tone-deaf by some of the showโs current and former employees according to BuzzFeed News.
โNot only did Ellen turn my trauma, turn our traumas, into a joke, she somehow managed to make this about her,โ one former employee stated. โWhen she said, โOh, my summer was greatโ and that was supposed to be funny I thought, โItโs funny that you had a rough summer because everyone was calling out all of the allegations of your toxic work environment and now youโre the one suffering?โโ

As for the timing of her apology, one current employee assumed that she waited to make her public apology for ratings.
โItโs always tactical,โ the employee said. โThe average person will listen to it and make their own choices, but what people donโt always take into account is that information is power, and sheโs sharing it now because itโs for premiere week and itโs to get viewers back, and that just feels the opposite of what this message is about.โ
As for the jokes in the monologue, a former employee thought that they were totally inappropriate since employees had been subject to sexual misconduct.
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โWhen youโre talking about people who have accused her leadership of the seriousness of sexual misconduct, I donโt think itโs appropriate to have jokes in the monologue.โ

โItโs kind of amazing that this is being discussed on her show. To actually go from an environment where nothing is said and everyone keeps their head down to now when itโs the topic of her first show back is pretty amazing,โ one employee revealed about Ellen actually confronting the issue. โWhether or not I believe in this message that she is saying is another issue.โ
A former employee was upset about the apology, saying, โThe right thing would be to follow up with these people who are humans who were affected by this/ They have a responsibility to kind of close this chapter of our lives and move on. It was like, โTell us all of the most fucked-up things that happened to you for the investigation, and now that weโve written it all down, see you later.โ It just feels like thereโs no ending to this for people who came forward and said things that happened to them and reopened these wounds and rehashed these memories.โ
You can watch Ellenโs apology here.