Time’s Up has completed the first phase of the reform effort, an examination of “the current state of the organization and its [solicitation of] Constructive insights from the Time’s Up community. This phase culminated in the release of a report from independent consultant Leilani M. Brown, who interviewed 85 individuals – including current and former employees and board members. governance and victim advocates – to her findings, including the source of that chaos, as well as the unforeseen events of 2020, contributed to the organizational dynamics being Disorders and communication failures led to the downfall of Time’s Up as it became known.
As part of the transition to the next phase (“setting priorities and recommending best practices to deliver on our promise to maintain and achieve our organizational mission” ), Time’s Up will also lay off nearly all of its 25 employees later this year, with three individuals remaining as part of the skeleton transition crew. Board chairwoman Gabrielle Sulzberger said in a press call on Friday that employees will be laid off through March 1. “Conversations with employees are really difficult. This is a very dedicated group of people, and beyond their personal frustrations, they care deeply about the job. ”
Activist Alison Turkos, who organized an open letter in August calling for organizational reform after revealing that members of then-leadership had been in contact with former New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s team about His response to allegations of sexual harassment, was critical of the action. “This report reveals what we’ve always known: The leaders of Time’s Up either don’t understand or care about the movement. Based on today’s actions, we also find they don’t care about their employees – firing workers right before a holiday is callous,” she said. The Hollywood Reporter. “Survivors are the last entry on the report, and always the last with Time’s Up. Survivors cannot wait for an organization to rebuild, we have been taking care of each other and working towards collective justice. Survivors are magic, our collective strength has no limits. We are the movement, our survival is the leadership.”
Although Time’s Up hasn’t set out a reset schedule yet, board member Ashley Judd said on the press call that the organization does have a “sense of urgency” about its process, as women continue to continue to face gender-based discrimination and harassment in the workplace on a daily basis. “We wanted to be thoughtful and thoughtful and smart and make an impact,” she said.
When asked in the press what she found surprising in Brown’s report, interim president and CEO Monifa Bandele pointed to different accounts of the organization’s origin story. In the entertainment industry, the October 2017 reveal of producer Harvey Weinstein’s long history of sexual abuse is widely seen as the birth of Time’s Up as well as the #MeToo movement, while others Another pointed to an open letter published a month later from 700,000 female workers expressing solidarity with Weinstein’s accusers as a time when a multidisciplinary coalition of women protested inequality. in the workplace begins to take shape.
“What is clear is that a move‘Time’s Up’ is owned by everyone and no one,” Brown wrote, noting that the transformation from a movement into a true nonprofit, was kicked off with New York Times on January 1, 2018, resulted in the “jet to rocket ship” expansion, outpacing the required infrastructure growth, such as the implementation of key employee onboarding processes clear knowledge and information about the goals. “It evolves rapidly, often pursuing the short-term, important issues of the day rather than tracking operations back to a larger or longer-term strategic vision…. Time’s Up often catches up with itself – putting people, protocols, and processes in place long after they’re needed. “
As Time’s Up rapidly expanded and established more and more verticals – including Time’s Up Entertainment, Time’s Up Tech and Time’s Up Health Care – understanding of the organization’s purpose and function grew, but There was not enough clarity on the results of the publicity of the allocated fundraising efforts (Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund is operated independently by the National Women’s Law Center) and confusion about why Time’s Up chose to consider certain issues, such as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s lack of Black members. During Friday’s press call, Bandele and Judd emphasized that issues of gender equity and racial equity are intertwined and that the work of the new Time’s Up will continue to alternate.
Brown’s report provides a forensic study of Time’s Up’s organizational and communication problems, noting its volatile leadership situation – original president and CEO Lisa Borders resigns four months after her son was accused of sexual misconduct, third president and chief executive officer Tina Tchen stepped down amid Cuomo’s fallout – causing a change in management style and usually strategy and direction. And Cuomo’s revelations have dramatically cleared the perception of conflicts of interest among the Time’s Up leadership, both with each other and with powerful institutions, especially the Democratic party. “Some [report] participants indicated that the chairman of the board [Roberta Kaplan] enjoyed a friendship and relationship with the CEO [Tchen]This, for some, also challenges the ‘optics’ of accountability,” wrote Brown, noting Kaplan and Tchen’s consulting firm HABIT Advisors, which Time’s Up hired for harassment training. sex, for example. “Some participants suggested that this [as well as the perceived partisanship] has made the organization an easier target for competitors. ”
Brown’s report concludes – as reviewer Turkos notes – with feedback on Time’s Up’s treatment of survivors. Brown writes: “Some participants suggested that there seemed to be a hierarchy of survivors, built on race and class. “The shared perception is that Hollywood and Weinstein survivors are ‘at the top,’ actresses and New York survivors are below them, ‘Bill Cosby and Russell Simmons’ black survivors are at the top. below them’ and then ‘the rest.’ “
Still, Brown – as did Bandele, Judd and Sulzberger on the press call – stressed that participants still believe in the values and needs on which Time’s Up was founded. “Even our toughest critics believe a strong Time’s Up is needed and makes our efforts even stronger,” said Bandele, who is among the 22 upcoming employees. leave said. “I will resign, but I will not give up this movement. Time’s Up as a community will grow stronger and advocate for change. “
Rebecca Keegan contributed to this The report.
