Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - In light of recent allegations of a "toxic" work environment made against Shea's Performing Art Center current and former employees, the theatre's board of trustees is now taking action.
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The President of the Shea's, Michael Murphy will now divert his attention less on the day-to-day operations of the event center and shift the majority of his attention on developing a capital campaign for sustainability of all Shea’s entities. This will include continued relations with Broadway productions, fundraising, sponsorships and external relations and the Director of Operations, Robert Brunschmid, will extend his position to encompassing the daily operations of the performance center.
This announcement follows after 25 employees went to Shea's board of trustees to file a complaint and the resignation of two of the board's trustees, according to published reports.
What is a toxic workplace? Local attorney Lindy Korn explains, "The definition is very fact specific and it has to be something that is severe or pervasive, although those definitions have been softened a little. It has to be something that leads someone to feel they're being targeted. They're being degraded, humiliated, and it has to be in order for there to be a legal consequence. It has to be affecting a protected class. So if someone's just a bad manager, a bad leader, that may not be actionable. Under a hostile work environment theory, which is also toxic, toxic itself may or may not be be legally actionable, but it certainly explains why people leave the workplace."
According to a published report, 10 full-time employees have already left the the theatre following their most recent production of Hamilton.
Prior to the filed complaints and the release, there were no Human Resources representatives at Shea's who could address the allegations made against the President of the center, so the complaints were transferred through the General Manager of the board.
“The board, after listening to our staff, consulting with two human resources experts who studied Shea’s personnel and operations, believes strongly that this arrangement will best serve the team and most importantly, our patrons and sponsors,” said Board Chair Randall K. Best. “We see this as allowing people to play to their strengths."
"Complaints went to the board, because they had nowhere else to complain. Initially anyway, internally. So that's the problem," Korn says.
The attorney stresses the importance of having an Human Resource department for an operation of this size, "It seems Shea's is now listening to the complainants as to what they should do. I mean, every business certainly the size of Shea's operation needs a human resource personnel, whether its internal or external. I think this is a step in the right direction."
According to the release that Shea's gave out Thursday, The board has established a human resources committee that will supervise the arrangement of management duties and determine if Shea’s should establish a full-time HR department.
"It's a start, but these specific complaints are going to have to be addressed one-by-one," said Korn.
Korn says that the 25 outspoken employees did the right thing in this particular instance, "They need to continue to document and continue to send it to the board and there really should be a human resource personnel, not just a committee or if they don't want to develop one internally, you can outsource human resources and get very good quality advice. So I think that the 25 employees did exactly what they should have done. They documented whatever their complaints are."
We reached out for comment from Shea's and received a release and they declined additional comment.