Has Night Owl Cinematics (NOC) been a toxic environment to work in? Yesterday (Thursday, 8th October), Instagram account @sgcickenrice posted a series of shocking allegations about NOC founder Sylvia Chan.
This comes after @sgcickenrice uploaded an employer’s Glassdoor review who shared that NOC has “a toxic management system”, people are apparently scared to speak up, and staff are “all overworked, tired, and under-appreciated”.
The whistleblower
In a series of Whatsapp screenshots from several whistleblowers, we see an alleged Sylvia (NOC) using a condescending tone when speaking to her team about a client project. A different conversation showed that a producer had to suffer Sylvia’s wrath when it was someone else’s fault. “Aiken made a mistake and silently let Sylvia chew on our producer for a really long time for his own wrongdoing until she blew up before he even admits it,” the caption reads.
Lawyers involved
Apparently, some of the talents have been in the dark about whether they were still in Night Owl Cinematics. These issues were brought up to NOC’s lawyers Samuel and Xiao Wen, when they were added into a group chat.
Influencers Samantha and Chantelle shared that they had tendered their resignation earlier this month but there wasn’t any follow-up. Nicole, another talent from NOC, said, “I also wasn’t sure if I was still part of the company’s future plans because my profile was also removed from the media kit. I’ve sent my resignation and am waiting for updates.” As someone pointed out, how does one not know whether they’re still employed in the company?
Discriminating Samantha Tan and planning her exit?
NOC talents and influencers defend Samantha Tan
Isabelle Quek
Nicole Liel
Grace Lim
Chantelle Chow
The aforementioned influencers have since removed NOC from their Instagram bio. Surprisingly, another one of NOC’s artist Rao Zi Jie – who often appears on the Sugar Melon channel – also posted about his departure, but deleted it shortly after.
Story in progress…
Update (8th October, 6:40pm):
Aiman Haikal has just released his statement not too long ago. The bubbly personality pointed out that NOC is more than just Ryan and Sylvia. “It’s the crew, the producers, the account managers, and even the interns,” he said, before adding that “NOC is not just our CEO’s company, but also the rice bowls (for) many good people.”
His point is valid though. Does NOC as a whole deserve to be cancelled just because of a few bad apples in power?
Update (9th October):
Samantha Tan and Ryan Tan have break their silence on the ongoing drama. Read their statements here.
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