The Dr. Phil Show is under fire by some current and former staffers for keeping a toxic work culture. According to BuzzFeed News, they had experienced verbal abuse in a workplace that fosters fear, intimidation, and racism.
The show’s executive producer and Emmy-winning producer Carla Pennington is being accused of, among other things, outbursts at lower-level employees — allegedly calling them “idiots,” “stupid” and “r–ds.”
“Everyone was just pretty miserable. You would walk into the building and there was just a palpable dread and anxiety,” one ex-employee told the site. “’Dr. Phil’ — the show about mental health where everybody who works on it has terrible mental health because our work conditions were really bad.”
It’s important to note that Dr. Phil McGraw has not been directly accused of any wrongdoing.
“I would have nightmares,” a former employee told BuzzFeed, choosing to remain anonymous for fear of backlash. “Even when I quit, I had to go to therapy for it, which is crazy because you’re working for a therapist.”
Dr. Phil rose to national prominence as a regular guest on Oprah Winfrey’s show for several years before getting his own program.
