Inside Diddy's 'toxic' work environment as ex-employees come forward

Several former employees of Diddy's fashion brand Sean John as well as his now-defunct advertising firm have described a toxic work environment that the hip-hop mogul allegedly cultivated. One unnamed employee compared working for Diddy, whose real name is Sean Combs, to Game of Thrones, the violent fantasy HBO series, in an interview with The Daily Beast.

Another said that during one meeting, when she disagreed with him, the rapper told her: 'When you speak to me, you should imagine that you're talking to Karl Lagerfeld. Anything I saw, assume that it's coming from Karl Lagerfeld.' She continued: 'At that point, I didn’t have a response to that, and he reaches out and he grabs my face. He puts one hand on both sides of my cheeks and says: "Stick out your tongue," and then he squeezes my face harder and yells at me to stick out my tongue, forces his hands on my face.'

These latest allegations come weeks after a horrifying video was released showing Diddy physically assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016 as the Bad Boy founder faces multiple sexual assault lawsuits. Diddy told the female staffer who was forced to show him her tongue that he 'just wanted to see' if it was bleeding because she had been biting it. 'I started looking for a job immediately after that moment. I just wasn’t interested in being there to deal with that kind of treatment. You have to really idolize him and see him as an icon. I didn’t. I was just there to do my job,' she went on.

That staffer said that when she saw the video of Diddy and Cassie, she wasn't surprised. 'I'm sorry that it took this long. I hope he gets what's coming to him.' Another of the rap mogul's employees said he was fired for making eye contact with Diddy. The singer had showed up late for a meeting and the employee was disappointed. 'There was erratic behavior, there was definitely what I would consider mental abuse, [with] how he spoke to us as employees,' he said.

That employee said he was expected to work between 7am and 11pm because of the 'culture of fear' that existed in the offices. '[There was] a lot of profanity, kind of aggressive, in your face, physically in your face, kind of stuff.' Whenever he’s asked about his time at Sean John he 'always tells them it was the worst experience I ever had in my life,' he went on. While another staffer said that because the offices were 'inundated with work,' a specific project fell apart with Diddy refusing to take responsibility for its failure. 'It was as if you’re walking down the street and someone randomly threw a brick at your head out of the blue. Out of the blue, if he was unhappy with something that you might not have done but he thought you did, you "caught a brick."'

During one altercation, security guards had to get involved when Diddy allegedly verbally attacked the employee. 'He six inches from my face, screaming at him, telling me I [Expletive] up.' Despite his experiences with Diddy, that worker said he was still surprised by the infamous Cassie video. 'I didn’t see his anger going to that level, I really didn’t, I wouldn’t have stayed had I known what was going on. I’ll tell you that much.'

The Cassie video's release comes as Combs and his legal team had begun to push back against the allegations that had come in a steady stream since November. They recently filed motions to dismiss parts of a lawsuit alleging he sexually assaulted a woman in 1991, and to dismiss all of a lawsuit alleging that he and two other men [sexually assaulted] a 17-year-old girl in 2003. The court filings called both sets of allegations false.

On March 25, Homeland Security Investigations served search warrants on Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami in a [sexual intercourse]-trafficking investigation. His lawyer called it 'a gross use of military-level force.' The investigation is continuing. Combs has not been charged.

Combs, a three-time Grammy winner and the founder of Bad Boy Records, is among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades. He turned his hip-hop success into a broader business empire that includes private-label spirits, fashion, and a TV network. He has had to step aside from some of his business roles since the allegations began emerging.

He and Ventura began dating in 2007 and had an on-and-off relationship for more than a decade. She became known for the hit single Me & U, which secured the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart in 2006. The song was the lead single of her self-titled and only studio album. As an actor, she has appeared in several television shows and films, including Fox’s Empire, Step Up 2: The Streets and Spenser Confidential.

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