The head of a media company at the center of workplace abuse accusations apologized last night for her actions and announced she will no longer appear in its videos.
In a lengthy statement that came after first trying to shut down her accuser through legal threats, Sylvia Chan of Night Owl Cinematics took to Instagram to acknowledge her leadership shortfalls and express grief over being “taunted” anonymously.
“Regardless of the situation or context, I acknowledge that I have disappointed people around me. I did not step up to the standards that I should have upheld, and I have instances where my emotions overrule my better judgment,” she wrote.
The 33-year-old channel founder said she had thought her behavior, which included denigrating staff with abusive and obscene language, was acceptable. Up until yesterday, she had taken a defiant approach, hiring attorneys to draft letters demanding the anonymous allegations she abused employees and cheated on her former husband/business partner be removed.
She said last night that she regretted not creating a safe feedback channel for complaints.
Most of the accusations first posted Friday detailed alleged communications in which she called employees names like “selfish noisy slut” and “fuck face,” and even suggested that she had cheated on cofounder Ryan Tan in a marriage that played out publicly in Night Owl Cinematics, or NOC, content.
She reiterated her belief that her messages were leaked as part of a coordinated campaign to discredit her.
“It is heartbreaking to see NOC, a company which has provided love and laughter to its audience and a stellar track record of campaigns for clients for almost 10 years, be taunted by an anonymous account intent to cancel and destroy them through this campaign against me,” she said.
In yesterday’s statement, she said that she never intended to upset anyone and promised to be mindful of her language in the future.
“I was driven by work and did not think of how it would affect the bigger picture. I always thought that a leader should be tough and I now realise, that I may have come on too strong, and people may have now perceived me as being unkind and rude,” she said.
Chan will no longer star in videos on the lifestyle and entertainment channel established in 2013, after agreeing that she does not “deserve the current job opportunities NOC offers.”
Chan also devoted a portion of her statement to a leaked phone call detailed in one of the final posts on the Sgcickenrice account before they were all removed. In it, she was heard calling talent Samantha Tan, who she felt had acted unprofessionally, a “bitch” and “fucking dumb.”
“I vented to my colleagues behind the scenes in private conversations with them […] Whatever I shared to my colleagues do not represent what I feel about her as a person but towards the situation,” Chan said.
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