What comes to your mind when you first hear the words "Museum of Ice Cream"? Sounds like an exciting place to work at, right? It's like Disneyland, but on a way smaller scale. The only similarities these two attractions have is that the Museum of Ice Cream is colorful and very Instrammable.
And it's cheaper than Disneyland too costing only $39 to visit.
For regular patrons and first-timers, this must seem like a sweet heaven on New York City. But for employees, it's an absolute nightmare.
In order to investigate on why it's such a dread to work in a seemingly 'fun place', Forbes decided to look into the work environment and management style of the company from one of its former employees.
Founded by 24-year-old Maryellis Bunn back in 2016, the Museum of Ice Cream transforms concepts and dreams into spaces that provoke imagination and creativity. MOIC is designed to be a culturally inclusive environment and community, inspiring human connection and through the universal power of ice cream. Museum of Ice Cream is a Figure8 brand.
The Darkness Amidst the Sweetness
In the investigative report, Alexandra Wilson and Maggie McGrath noted how outrageous surveillance, harassment, and mismanagement have become the standards of some female-led startups.
Steve Jobs was a shining light for her. In spite of his achievements and how he challenged his employees, Bunn instead embraced his "obnoxiousness and compulsion," which made for a very poor work environment.
For starters, she insisted that employees call each other using ice cream flavors at work and during Bunn's weekly town-hall meetings were called "Scream Sesh." (with Scream being her ice cream nickname).
And true to the name, she yelled at the staff saying that they would be terminated if the tickets were not sold out in 24 hours.
Individually, employees report even harsher encounters.
Before the opo-up opening in Miami last Decmeber 2017, a designer presented her a uniform design with shorts. In response, she exclaimed "We absolutely cannot have shorts because fat people's legs are disgusting."
An unidentified source reportedly spotted her sneeing on a plus-sized muralist who was on the job saying "Why do we pay her to eat?"
She perceives herself as the smartest one in the room saying that she often uses the word 'pathetic' for feedback or that Bunn would rip out the designers' work in frustration.
"In one of our one-on-ones she said, 'I really need to tell HR to hire smarter people. I'm getting dumber in this office,''' recalls former vice president of creative operations Francesca Wade.
And because of budget cuts, a number of workers were expected to smile, sing and dance ice cream jingles for eight hours straight - without bathroom breaks.
Furthermore, there were security cameras installed in "areas where there is not a reasonable expectation of privacy" that would be streamed straight to her phone where managers would radio employees if they didn't like their demeanors.
If the MOIC becomes a victim of the pandemic, the former employee said that it won't mourn for it saying that "It was everything they stood for and everything they projected was so false. It was this pink, Kombucha-on-tap, millennial shitshow nightmare."
