Times Up group to completely rebuild after criticism for role in Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment accusation

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Workplace harassment advocacy group Times Up to lay off nearly all of its remaining 25 employees and restructure, after an internal report sparked by the group’s involvement with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has identified significant internal failures.

We come down to studs to completely rebuild, said Ashley Judd, actor and author who is one of the four remaining members of the board. We can overcome our organizational shortcomings to meet the needs of women of all kinds. This organization is bigger than any person. The movement is bigger than any person.

The decision to effectively restart a group founded by Hollywood and political leaders from scratch in 2018 follows revelations this summer that senior executives consulted Cuomo advisers after the Democratic governor was accused of sexual harassment by a former assistant. At one point, then-CEO Tina Tchen, who previously worked in the White House during Obama’s presidency, told her colleagues to back down from plans to release a statement supporting her. accuser after two people linked to the group spoke to the deputy governors.

These revelations led to the resignation in August of Tchen and of the chairman of the board, Roberta Kaplan, who had been the contact person in the discussions with the staff of Cuomos. A majority of the group’s board of directors resigned in the weeks that followed, and the group hired an independent consultant to lead a fact-finding mission into the state of the organization.

This report, based on interviews with 85 current and former employees and other stakeholders, catalogs, a wide range of internal complaints about the leadership and direction of the organization, ranging from a lack of a clear strategy to a poor internal communication and internal conflicts of interest.

The organization was torn apart by disputes, sometimes between different groups of staff, over what the organization should be, with one participant saying during a listening session for the report, I don’t know what we are doing, and I really should. According to the report, some Times Ups employees and many of its stakeholders viewed the organization as distracted or fuzzy.

Employees shared that TIMES UP’s status as a well-connected organization was a weakness and that the world needed an organization that is neither committed nor accountable to politics, wrote Leilani Brown, the consultant hired. to supervise the listening sessions and compile the responses.

Other board members Judd, CFO Gabrielle Sulzberger, advertising director Colleen DeCourcy and human rights activist Raffi Freedman-Gurspan decided after receiving the report that a clean break was needed. Acting CEO Monifa Bandele, who previously served as the organization’s COO, will also be leaving, leaving a small team of three to lead the organization during the transition.

Staff members were told on Friday that their jobs would end this year, but that they would continue to receive severance pay until March 1, according to a spokesperson for the group. The board did not announce a timeline or process for deciding the organization’s next strategic mission and leadership.

All believe there is an important role for Times Up going forward, said Sulzberger, who added that donors are still invested in the group’s future. We’re also committed to really, really learning in a fundamental way.

The group grew out of the outrage and activism that followed the public allegations of sexual assault and harassment by former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. After an activist farmworker organization wrote a public letter of solidarity with women’s struggles in Hollywood, a group of 300 women in film, television and theater ran newspaper ads on January 1, 2018 for declare a new effort to hold workplaces. responsible for sexual misconduct.

Today, as never before, our access to the media and to important decision-makers has the potential to bring real accountability and consequences, the women wrote. We want victims of sexual harassment everywhere to be heard, believed and know that accountability is possible. Days later, Hollywood stars wore pins that said Times Up ‘on the red carpet at the 75th Golden Globe Awards.

Cuomo resigned from his post on August 10 after an investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James found he sexually harassed 11 women and oversaw an illegal effort to retaliate against one of his accusers. Cuomo denies touching women inappropriately and said other accusations were a misinterpretation of his loving leadership style.

Staff and stakeholders raised a range of concerns, including regarding the organization’s structure, its short-term purpose, and perceived partisan affiliation, given the group has worked closely with Democratic politicians. Some also raised concerns about a now-closed consulting firm called Habit Advisors, which Tchen and Kaplan ran while also running Times Up. Habit was hired by Times Up to undergo training in the organization, according to the report.

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