Recently, 20 current and past staffers of The Wrap spoke to The Daily Beast and poured their woes about Sharon Waxman, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Hollywood independent media company. However, current staff also justified her behavior and call the workplace a high energy environment as it dealt with breaking news and more.

Staffers who spoke to the outlet said that the workplace was “toxic” and that there were screaming outbursts and more. Disgruntled or disappointed staffers compared her to the main character in the movie the Devil Wears Prada or to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, both fictional characters, who had erratic and highly emotional behavior. One staffer said that she ruled the office with an “iron fist.”

One incident that did create a negative impact was when Waxman shouted at an employee in fall 2020 for taking time off to accompany his fiancé for a cancer checkup. Waxman’s husband was also in charge of the human resources department. So, ex-employees felt that they had no where to turn to when they faced problems at work.

The Daily Beast also spoke to Waxman’s publicist. The Wrap’s spokesperson said that Sharon remembered the incidents that the disgruntled workers mentioned differently. However, Waxman also held a meeting on Thursday where she promised staff that she would do better. She also said that she would bring in independent consultanty services to improve the culture at the workplace.

Waxman also sent the Daily Beast a statement where she said that they had a team of “resilient, creative and collaborative people” and that they were hiring “outside expertise to address the “culture” and the “concerns” at The Wrap.

Thom Geier, the deputy and executive editor of The Wrap told the Daily Beast that although Sharon was a demanding and blunt boss what’s happening was the result of working in a breaking news environment and it happened at every news outlet he worked at and that The Wrap was similar to other outlets.

Elizabeth Waxman is the founder and chief executive of The Wrap. She has been a foreign correspondent and a New York Times columnist. She was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. She was also feared, when she worked as a Hollywood reporter before she founded her media company in 2009. The 58-year old columnist is also the public face of The Wrap as well as its top editor.

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