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YouTube "sensation" Jimmy MrBeast Donaldson is undergoing a reputational realignment after a flurry of complaints from ex-employees about workplace safety and a lack of proper protocols within his organisation. Has he been seriously negligent or has he (and his employees) simply become the victim of astonishing success?
In one of the stunts that his fame is based on, YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast’ Donaldson once spent 24-hours in a prison cell.
That’s a whole day. Imagine that.
Depending on which side of the line you fall, it was just another in a long list of cool things he has done on his YouTube channel, or there has been a serious miscarriage of justice and the sentence should have been much, much longer.
You’re not venturing too far out on a limb if you say that MrBeast and others of today’s influencers and content creators tend to polarize opinion. And, yes, it is also true to say that it is often along lines demarcated by age.
MrBeast is just one of a number of extremely successful social media content makers that have earned themselves eye-watering amounts of money by making home grown video content. A cursory Google search reveals that he has a net worth of $500m thanks to his status as the world’s most watched YouTube performer, with a staggering 270m subscribers to his main channel alone. What’s not to like?
He has built a ridiculously lucrative career organising none too imaginative stunts for his loyal legion of fans. The least he could do is to go toe to toe with a top ten ranked heavyweight and get punched in the face. That would really put him on the map/deck.
Allegations of mismanagement
The Beastmeister doesn’t need any kind of heat like that, but recently, however, he has come under fire from ex-employees that have been critical of the working conditions and general lack of systems and structure, while in his employ.
Some ex-staff likened the work environment to a “cult,” with one describing their tenure as filled with “long hours, little to no recognition, and no unions.” The criticism highlights what they described as a “negative work environment” stemming from inadequate HR management and operational practices.
“I'm impressed no one has died yet but there'[s] been injuries!”, said one less than positive review.
So, what’s going on here? Unless he was doing it purely for views rather than true altruism, MrBeast has done plenty through some of his stunts to help people in need. He even has set up a charity organisation. His philanthropic videos have included giving a homeless person $10,000, and funding cataract surgeries for 1,000 blind people.
While he is definitely open to criticism for indulging in so-called “philanthrotainment” because of that, there’s enough evidence to suggest he is a good guy. And yet, his company has been called a “cliquey youth cult” that “squeezes every drop of juice out of you”.
He’s either got himself involved in some really questionable practices or he has simply become too big too quickly.
That’s the issue with overachieving to the nth degree like he has. There is no way on earth he even dreamt of becoming as big or successful as he has and while all his energies are spent thinking up ways to win in the so-called “attention economy”, he has left his mom to run a lot of his back-office operations and it looks like she has been found wanting.
Need for HR expertise
It has been said so many times on LinkedIn that it doesn’t bear repeating, but the secret of most successful people is that they surround themselves with experts.
If the criticism he is currently taking means anything to him, then Jimmy Donaldson needs to invest in creating an organisation that is staffed by best practice experts in HR, employment law, training, and business compliance.
By doing so he is ceding a certain amount of control, and he might even think that the chaos contributes to his ‘edgy’ branding, but it’s over matters that he obviously isn’t interested in controlling in the first place. That’s why his mom got the job. Without it he leaves himself open to continued reputational damage, high employee turnover, being sued by one of his staff and ultimately, without proper safety oversight, he is putting people in danger.
Growing pains or a moment of change?
It could be the case that this is a ‘moment’ for what is an increasingly competitive new industry built by back bedroom entrepreneurs who are able to achieve huge success literally overnight if a video strikes the right chord with an audience.
Inevitable teething troubles perhaps, but certainly a huge pitfall for anyone that moves beyond being a one-person social media account to becoming a business that employs staff and contractors.
If he doesn’t fancy a longer stay inside that cell, he should probably think about putting a back office function in place, including an HR department, staffed by experienced professionals.
