Quibi Founder Reportedly Advised Ex-Workers To Listen To 'Trolls' Song Amid Layoffs
In what will definitely go down in history as one of the most graceful layoffs of all time, the founder of the soon-to-be-defunct short-form video streaming platform, Quibi advised his former employees to listen to a song from Trolls on Wednesday to cheer them up as they face unemployment,The Wall Street Journal reported. Because as everyone knows, nothing heals the pain of losing your job amid a pandemic and global recession quite like an upbeat pop song from a children's film, right?
Earlier this week, the (often questionable) streaming service announced its plans to shut down after what felt like the longest six months in human history -- thanks, quarantine time! -- surprising pretty much no one. Come on now, as much as I love the idea of Chrissy Teigen running a court show and an artsy-drag docu-series centering around RuPaul's Drag Race Winner Sasha Velour (which I had the privilege of interning on when I was a baby journo), come on, they, the talent, and we, the viewers, deserved better -- and evidently so did all of their employees.
According to the famed business publication, an "emotional" Jeffrey Katzenberg addressed his ex-workers as he spoke on the future of the company following its shutdown, a decision he said was made in an attempt to return as much capital as possible to investors. In his speech, he offered his employees a key piece of advice in navigating this tough, transitional period in their lives -- listen to "Get Back Up Again," by Anna Kendrick from the DreamWorks' movie to help "buoy their spirits." It should be noted that Katzenberg is a co-founder and fromer CEO of the production company, giving the whole comment an added layer of questionable self-promotion. Quibi didn't immediately respond for comment when Business Insider reached out about the incident.
Reader, I'll level with you. I'm no HR expert, I'm a 24-year-old social media/pop culture writer, but come on, maybe don't plug the other successful company you founded during mass layoffs at your failing endeavor -- just a suggestion.
For more painfully dystopian content, follow Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson_ and on Twitter @TennesAnyone.
