Paradigm CEO Sam Gores on Monday expressed regret to staffers laid off due to the coronavirus pandemic for what he said was initial communication about the move that “lacked compassion,” and announced new measures to help furloughed employees.
“The vital and significant actions we took, though necessary for the health of the company, were hard and painful,” said in an email to staffers at the agency. “And while immediate action was required, I realize that the way the message was conveyed to you lacked compassion and made you feel alienated from Paradigm.”
Paradigm let 250 staff members go on March 20 and enacted pay cuts for remaining employees. The company’s movie, TV and music departments were particularly hard hit. Laid off staffers later harshly criticized the company and Gores for how the layoffs were handled, telling the L.A. Times that they received no severance pay and were told their insurance would be cut off April 1, among other things.
In response to the backlash, Paradigm has now established a $1.1 million relief fund for affected employees, Gores said in the email, with details to come no later than Friday. In addition, health insurance for those employees has been extended through the end of June, along with the promise that the company “will continue to monitor the situation closely.”
Furthermore, Gores said that the company still considers the layoffs a temporary measure, and “our intention is to bring as many of you back as possible.” Gores said also that the company will help laid off employees maintain their lists of clients and accounts.
In addition, Gores said that Paradigm has secured “interim financing” to get it through the current crisis, and that he will forgo his full salary for the rest of 2020 as an additional cost-saving measure.
Gores’ letter comes four days after former Paradigm agent Debbee Klein filed a $2 million lawsuit against Paradigm and Gores himself, alleging breach of oral contract and whistleblower retaliation, tax evasion and improper use of company funds, among other things. Gores and Paradigm have strongly denied the accusations, calling them “false, frivolous and scurrilous.”
I am committed to improving our flow of communication as we weather this uncertain time. The difficult and urgent actions we took on March 20th were the hardest of my 37-year career. Paradigm’s great strength is its enormously talented staff. It always has been and always will be. The vital and significant actions we took, though necessary for the health of the company, were hard and painful. And while immediate action was required, I realize that the way the message was conveyed to you lacked compassion and made you feel alienated from Paradigm.
You are part of this team because we believe in your talent, and we hope that you will be the people who will help build Paradigm’s future after the COVID crisis. From the beginning, we have considered these layoffs temporary and it bears repeating that our intention is to bring as many of you back as possible.
Over the past weeks, we have been working to mitigate the effects of these temporary layoffs and provide extended benefits, comfort, and assistance as we prepare for this pandemic to end and go back to work as a community at the agency I’m proud to call my home.
• Paradigm has established a $1.1M Employee Relief Fund to provide additional support of our temporarily laid off employees. We will have further details regarding this fund on or before Friday, April 10.
• Your health care coverage has been extended through the end of June and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.
• Our intention is to support you as a member of the Paradigm family. Our desire is to help our teams and help you maintain your books of business. If you have any questions regarding the structure that has been put in place to support agents and their team members who have been temporarily laid off, please contact your office leader or department head.
The coronavirus has affected almost every business in the world and certainly our industry. When months of film and television productions, concerts, tours, and festivals were cancelled or postponed overnight, every aspect of our business was dramatically impacted. I thought you’d like to know about several actions Paradigm has taken to ensure that the company remains on solid ground.
• Paradigm has secured interim financing that will provide a bridge through this global crisis.
• Paradigm has signed a new franchise agreement with the Writers Guild of America, allowing the agency to resume representation of its WGA-represented film and TV writer clients. Paradigm is the first major talent agency engaged in television packaging to sign a new franchise agreement with the WGA. This is a huge step forward in a situation that stretches back almost two years. In signing the agreement, it enables our literary agents to re-sign our writer clients and get them back to work.
• I have forgone my salary for the remainder of 2020, and beyond if necessary.
• Like all other agencies industry wide, staff above Coordinator level are working at reduced wages until business picks up again.
I am deeply sorry about the financial impact this crisis has had on so many of our colleagues, friends, and families as we confront one of the most urgent health and economic challenges of the modern era.
I’ll contact you again on or before Friday with more information about the Employee Relief Fund. Stay safe, stay well, and we’ll continue to be in touch and keep you informed regarding our efforts on your behalf.
17 Chill Video Games for Your Coronavirus Quarantine
With the coronavirus pandemic killing so many people and creating tons of stress for everyone who has a soul, I've been turning to video games a lot lately. When I'm all frazzled and unable to sit still long enough for a movie or TV show, games require more focus and thus often work better at keeping me chill. So here's a list of games that are great for relaxing with while you're stuck at home for the foreseeable future.
"Euro Truck Simulator 2" -
This game, which is available for PC and Mac, has been one of my favorites for a long time. I just turn on one of the European pop radio streams available in the game, and drive around. I pretty much only do jobs so I'll have a destination -- you could just not do them if you'd rather just wander.
"SnowRunner" -
It's like "Euro Truck Simulator," but in places that mostly just have dirt roads that are covered in snow. The other night I spent an hour slowly pulling my truck out of a mud puddle and I loved every second of it.
"Katamari" series -
These games are about rolling up garbage into a giant ball. They're cute, and nice, and upbeat. The most recent of these, "Katamari Damacy Reroll," is a remake of the original game for Switch and PC. If you've got an Xbox 360 or PS3 lying around you can play some of the older games too.
"Flower" -
This game, which you can get as a digital download on any recent PlayStation device or on PC, is so chill and therapeutic. You're just a flower petal floating on the wind drifting around with other flower petals. It'll make you feel good.
"Portal" series -
It's got a novel brand of puzzles, as well as a similar, though less crass, sense of humor to "Saints Row." The story is overall almost nihilistic, and it's got plenty of jokes about giant corporations exploiting people in horrible ways. It feels just about right.
"The Sims" -
You probably know all about this series a this point, so let this simply serve as a reminder.
"Star Wars: The Old Republic" -
This online "Star Wars" game is free for anybody with an ok gaming PC (it came out in 2011, so it's not super demanding), and it's very easy and chill to get into after nearly a decade of quality-of-life improvements. But the real reason you should play it is because it's got the best "Star Wars" stories from the past ten years.
"Yakuza" series -
The main stories in these games are overwrought Japanese melodrama, but the real fun is the wacky shenanigans that gangster Kiryu Kazuma gets into in his every day life. That juxtoposition hits the sweet spot. You can get these for PlayStation or PC.
"The Talos Principle" -
It's another 3D puzzle game in the vein of "Portal," but instead of cracking jokes it's more about musing about the nature of humanity, which has long since gone extinct. That may sound upsetting, but honestly it's pretty calming. It's like going to therapy, but in a puzzle game that's available on every platform, including mobile devices.
"Cities: Skylines" -
It's kinda like Sim City, but I like this one much more just because it's generally less complicated and annoying. Even better: you can get it on PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch, which is unusual for a game like this.
"Viscera Cleanup Detail" -
So when you're playing a shooter game, you tend to leave a lot of corpses behind as you move to each new area. But in this game, which is available on Steam for PC and Mac, you're not the one doing the shooting -- you're the one who cleans up all the bodies and mops up and blood. Some people enjoy cleaning their homes to chill, and this is like that but you don't have to stand up.
"The Stanley Parable" -
Nothing really happens in this game. You just wander around pressing buttons and try not to do what the narrator tells you to. It's a weird comedy meta-game of sorts, mocking standard video game storytelling. If you play a lot of video games, it'll amuse you. Available for PC and Mac.
"Final Fantasy XV" -
Like all "Final Fantasy" games, the plot here is ludicrous. But the appeal of this game for me has always been as a sort of road trip simulator. You roll around the country with your bros, stopping every once in a while to get gas, kill some monsters, go camping, or climb to the top of a volcano to take down a giant bird so you can take its giant eggs and eat them with cup noodles. It's nice.
"Goat Simulator" -
This may be the dumbest game ever made. It's not a real "simulator" in the normal sense -- it's actually just a goofy physics game where you like strap a jetpack on your goat or whatever. It's available on pretty much every platform you might use for gaming so you should probably just go for it.
"Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone" -
It's just a silly PS4 rhythm game where you perform songs by the famous "vocaloid" Miku and her digital friends. There's plenty of excellent songs, and most of them come with stupidly amusing music videos. And unlike the other Miku games, this one doesn't bother with a plot or any kind of unlock progression. You just have all the 200+ songs from the start and there's nothing to try to force you to do songs you don't like.
"Saints Row IV" -
I will admit that I've had a pretty tough time laughing at anything the last couple months (have we really been in lockdown that long?), but the ludicrous action comedy game "Saints Row IV" manages to hit the spot even so. Plus it has just enough of a dark tinge to fit this moment in history -- it's pretty much just "The Matrix," except it's aliens running the simulation after they blew up the Earth. Anyway it's funny in the right way for right now. You can grab this on any current game console or PC. For maximum chill, just turn down the difficulty setting and enjoy the madness.
Any mobile puzzle game -
This is your reminder that any app store you have on your phone is absolutely full of free puzzle apps, like word searches or crosswords or whatever. My phone go-to is sudoku, but almost certainly you can get whatever your preferred puzzle time-waster is without having to pay anything.
1 of 18
There are plenty of relaxing video games you can enjoy while there’s nothing to do outside your home
With the coronavirus pandemic killing so many people and creating tons of stress for everyone who has a soul, I've been turning to video games a lot lately. When I'm all frazzled and unable to sit still long enough for a movie or TV show, games require more focus and thus often work better at keeping me chill. So here's a list of games that are great for relaxing with while you're stuck at home for the foreseeable future.
