Employees of Mr. Beast, 22, whose given name is Jimmy Donaldson, told Taylor Lorenz of the New York Times that he created a work environment in which they were subject to bullying and “unreasonable demands.” In 2019, similar accusations surfaced online, the Daily Dot reported.
The two employees who came forward and were named in the Times story about the philanthropic creator said that off-camera, he created a “difficult work environment” at his Greenville, North Carolina office.
While working as an editor for Donaldson from 2018 to 2019, Matt Turner said he was called a slur which is used to insult those with mental disabilities. This experience “brought him to tears,” Turner told Lorenz.
And when Turner asked to be credited for his work, which sometimes featured his hometown, he was told someone else would be credited, he said.
“I was not to be credited for anything I did,” Turner told Lorenz. “I’d ask for credit, he’d credit someone else.”
Business Insider reports that in an October 2019 Twitter thread that has been deleted, Turner wrote that he had been “yelled at, bullied, called mentally r— and replaceable by MrBeast every single day.”
Nate Anderson was only able to tolerate the environment for a week before quitting. He told Lorenz that Donaldson was “a perfectionist,” during his time there in March 2018.
“Nothing ever worked for him,” Anderson told Lorenz. “He always wanted it a certain way.”
Anderson later shared his experience working for Donaldson on his YouTube channel,”My Experience Working For Mr. Beast (Worst Week of My Life).” Lorenz writes that this video brought him “hateful comments and death threats,” from Donaldson’s legion of fans.
Many of these fans are children.
Turner told Lorenz he’d had a comparable experience. Business Insider reports that Turner posted a video in 2019, which he has deleted, wherein he said Donaldson had deleted a video project file that Turner was in the process of editing. Turner said this was because the compilation of clips showing Donaldson’s philanthropy did not add up to the $500,000 figure featured in the video’s title.
Donaldson rose to popularity, now quantified with a following of over 61 million subscribers, creating reaction videos, commentary, and more recently stunt philanthropy. Those who are familiar with his work have watched him give away anywhere from $100 to $1 million.
Lorenz told Business Insider that this is not uncommon for creators who are able to grow their YouTube channels into a business.
“For a large portion of Gen Z that doesn’t want to be creators themselves, working for a creator seems like an absolute dream job,” Lorenz said. “But we see time and time again that these creators have basically little to no management experiences and, behind the scenes, can create a really hostile, stressful environment.”
The Daily Dot has requested comment from Donaldson regarding these allegations.
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H/T the New York Times
