In the Least Surprising Update Ever, Ellen's Domestic Staff Claim She Treated Them Like Hot Garbage
Source - Ellen DeGeneres ran her household like a military-style boot camp, barking orders, tormenting employees over tiny errors and 'taking pleasure' in firing people, a former staffer has told DailyMail.com.
Life behind the scenes at the comedian's California mansion was every bit as traumatic as the alleged 'toxic culture' on her show, our insider claims in an exclusive interview.
Workers were hit with an itemized daily list of trifling gripes from serving food in the wrong bowl, leaving the salt shaker in the wrong place or failing to ensure DeGeneres' latte was frothed the way she liked it.
Nitpicking DeGeneres would even 'lay traps' before she left for work, strategically leaning matchsticks behind cupboard doors and cushions to test if cleaners were dusting every square inch of her sprawling residence.
Employees rarely lasted more than a few months and on one occasion, a household manager was fired just two hours into the job, according to the source.
And repairmen, security guards and other contractors were reluctant to come over to the house because DeGeneres would slate their work - despite her famous 'be kind to one another' catchphrase - it's alleged. ...
The source says the harsh reality of the DeGeneres 'regime' soon became clear, with staff confronted each morning with a laundry list of passive aggressive notes listing what the entertainer didn't like about the previous day.
'Violations' included a chef using a guest toilet and a maid forgetting to put a piece of trash in the recycling. ...
'One of the top security firms in Hollywood terminated their contract with her. Some of criticisms I heard were that she didn't like the way they walked.
'I'm not even kidding, she literally didn't like the way they walked. Also how they opened and closed doors.
'She had multiple dogs and cats and she didn't like the way they would walk through and not close them quickly enough.
I want to be fair here. For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me so I'll blame them on the way my mother raised me, I'll to give Ellen Degeneres at least some benefit of the doubt. The article went on to say that it's believed that some of the positions working in Ellen's house pay up to $175,000. And you don't take that kind of a paycheck without understanding going in that you're going to have to eat a few shit sandwiches. Not every wealthy person is Bruce Wayne, keeping you around as a mentor and a companion. They hire help so they don't have to lift a finger when they get home. As F. Scott Fitzgerald put it, "The very rich are different from you and me." And they pay you in part to take the abuse they can't give members of the general public or it'll damage their careers.
Besides, the thing about closing the door is hardly unique to Ellen, or even the wealthy. I have plenty of friends and relatives who can't hear a door open without reflexively yelling "Don't let the cat/dog/weasel/ocelot/wolverine out!!!" To the point I've been thinking of Shark Tanking an electric sensor that blasts a prerecorded message any time the door starts to move. That's not being a spoiled, entitled, asshole; it's just pet ownership.
But the rest? I can absolutely see that. Again to be fair, it could just be lazy, disgruntled former help piling on after they did a lousy job and didn't earn their pay. But it has the total ring of truth to it. It goes part and parcel with everything else we've heard about the way she treated the people that work on the show that earns her millions and makes her a godqueen to the sad, pathetic shut-ins who tune in to worship her every morning. How could anyone expect her to spare the rod behind closed doors in her own living room, kitchen and laundry?
So of course it's totally plausible she'd be a cruel despot in the comfort of her own castle. Obsessing over where the chef goes to take the Browns to the Super Bowl. Bullying the cleaning crew. Controlling how the security guards walk. I like to think if you had enough money that you could afford a domestic staff and pay some of the $175K that you'd be too utterly happy with your utopian life to do anything but sit back and enjoy your success. But to some people, money is useless unless it gives you the power to make others miserable.
I can't say for sure this is all true. And clearly there is a certain degree of spin here. But I have no reason to doubt it's largely true. The best way to judge someone's character is by how they treat what some call "the little people" but I'll call "working people." And I think this is exactly how everybody pictures Ellen being "kind to one another."
