Local Media Firm Published Even More Evidence of Alleged Toxic Work Culture in NOC

By
George Yang
-

So you thought the NOC saga is going to end with Sylvia’s apology, even with her deafening silence after pretty face Samantha Tan called out her apology?

Silly you.

This afternoon, another expose was published, and this time, should the allegations be true, it’s going to be large.

Local Media Firm Published Even More Evidence of Alleged Toxic Work Culture in NOC

MustShareNews is a new media news platform under The Smart Local umbrella, a popular lifestyle platform that also has a successful YouTube channel.

This afternoon, they published an exposé and this time around, former and current employees were on the record about employee abuse in the workplace.

It’s now not just about a boss losing his or her temper, but something much more serious—so serious, the Ministry of Manpower might be involved soon.

You can read all about it here, but here’s a concise version of what happened.

Apparently, when the saga was brewing, Sylvia allegedly wrote an email to present and former NOC talents and employees.

According to MS News, the letter in the email has ordered them for “compliance” and they need to get approval from NOC before any external communication.

That was sent on 11 Oct, the day when NOC released their first statement.

Stressful Working Environment

Most of us have demanding bosses (except people working in Goody Feed, of course) and have to work under a tight deadline, but do your boss give you 30 minutes to complete something or “you f***ing die”?

Or maybe request you to reply within minutes?

Or worse: your boss throwing a bottle because you’re too noisy?

A number of allegations, which happened in the past and related by ex-employees, were disclosed during an interview session with MS News. Most were on how Sylvia verbally abusing her staff, and as usual, her favourite word was used pretty often.

In addition, long hours were common, especially during the Circuit Breaker period whereby a staff member said they stayed till 5am to edit a video “almost every day”.

One employee, who left a whopping four years ago, is apparently still on medication and mood stabilisers due to the anxiety she developed while working in NOC.

Separation Caused Issue

When Sylvia and Ryan announced their divorce in an NOC video, they mentioned that nothing much will change in NOC.

Well, apparently, that might not be the case.

It’s alleged that after the divorce, people were forced to take sides—subtly, of course. Not much details were revealed about how that worked, though.

But hey: all these allegations, even if true, are merely due to a boss who has a bad temper, right? Why would MOM be interested?

Well, read on.

Money, Money and Money

When it comes to money, it gets a tad tricky.

For a start, here’s something you probably didn’t know: talents managed by NOC might not be full-time employees in the company. Instead, they’re like influencers who are managed by NOC.

For example, if Milo wants to engage Influencer A for a campaign, they might need to go through NOC. NOC will work out the details with Milo, and after Influencer A posted an image with her drinking Milo, NOC will pay Influencer A.

The amount is based on a certain percentage of how much Milo pays; if Milo pays $10 for the campaign and NOC takes 30%, then Influencer A will get $7.

According to ex-talents, the percentage is not clear, and sometimes, they would suddenly realise the percentage is different and the talents get less.

There were also allegations that payments were late and some even gave up chasing for payment.

However, here’s a disclaimer: because a number of middlemen are involved (client to advertising agency to NOC to talent), it’s common for payout to be extremely late.

We know because even when the flow of payment is from client to advertising agency to us, it could take months to even a year for us to see the money in our bank.

Receipts Provided

Some of the allegations came with receipts, which you can view in MS News’ article.

Interestingly, in one of the receipts, which is a screenshot of Sylvia’s texts in 2018, she said that Ryan and Dee Kosh are ‘f***ing egoistic’ and ‘f***ing want to be well loved’ and that once she divorces Ryan, she will have “100% of NOC” and Ryan will be her staff.

Lost 1 Million Subscribers Status

A year ago, NOC published a video to celebrate them reaching one million subscribers:

They now have 996k subscribers instead, and according to SocialBlade, people started to unsubscribe from 13 October 2021.

Also, interesting enough, the channel appears to have its verification tick removed.

Previously, you can clearly see the tick:

Image: cardinaldigital.com

But now, the verified tick is no longer there:

Interesting.

Now, would there be more lawyers’ letters being sent?

In case you’re wondering whether lawyers’ letters are lawsuits, you might want to watch this video to the end:

In the meantime, here’s the link to buy Eureka popcorn from NTUC FairPrice.

Read Also:

Featured Image: YouTube (Night Owl Cinematics)

Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:

Read Also:

Advertisements
 
George Yang
Email: [email protected]