Staff at Sony Music Australia are “confused and stressed” as the major label division faces another media scandal over its corporate culture, according to the Aussie tabloid whose reporting has prompted that scandal.
Employees feel “left in the dark”, a new report claims, despite Sony Music’s global HR chief sending an all-staff memo last week seeking to reassure people following an earlier article in Sydney’s News Corp-owned tabloid the Daily Telegraph.
Sony Music’s global HQ in New York is “disappointed people are speaking to the press”, one of the major’s Australian employees has told the newspaper, but “the only way they seem to listen is when the media is asking the questions”.
Last month the Telegraph claimed that some staff at the major’s Australian division were unhappy with CEO Vanessa Picken, who is accused of fostering a toxic workplace culture.
Picken joined Sony in 2022 to pick up the pieces after another media scandal over allegations that Sony Australia’s corporate culture was toxic, which ended in the departure of the division’s long-time boss Denis Handlin.
The allegations regarding working conditions at Sony Australia are different this time. It’s alleged Picken “undermined senior staff, made inappropriate statements about people on maternity leave, and said rude and demeaning remarks about employees - both to their face and to others”.
An investigation led by an external law firm has already cleared Picken of any wrongdoing, but the Telegraph’s report last month said that employee grievances remain. That report led to Sony Music's Global Chief People Experience Officer Andrew Davis sending out a memo to the major's Australian employees insisting “we take all concerns very seriously”.
However, despite that memo, in the latest Telegraph article Sony Australia employees are cited being particularly critical about how the major’s New York HQ is currently handling the ongoing crisis.
One employee is quoted as saying, “I just thought that they would be better about how they communicate with their employees when they seem very open to communicating with the media”. Direct queries from staff are often ignored, it’s alleged, with the employee adding, “what a fucked way to go around it - for a company that preaches to care about their staff and their artists, where are they?”
Sony declined to comment on the Telegraph's latest article, though in response to last month’s report said that the major’s Australian division had been through a “chapter of significant transition” since the last scandal and Picken's appointment.
“it is inevitable”, it added, “that there will be hurdles to overcome in the workplace. We continue to take any concerns within this environment seriously and look into them thoroughly and fairly”.