Quibi Founder Reportedly Advised Ex-Workers To Listen To 'Trolls' Song Amid Layoffs

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L S

In what will definitely go down in history as one of the most graceful layoffs of all time, the founder of the soon-to-be-defunct short-form video streaming platform, Quibi advised his former employees to listen to a song from Trolls on Wednesday to cheer them up as they face unemployment,The Wall Street Journal reported. Because as everyone knows, nothing heals the pain of losing your job amid a pandemic and global recession quite like an upbeat pop song from a children's film, right?

Earlier this week, the (often questionable) streaming service announced its plans to shut down after what felt like the longest six months in human history -- thanks, quarantine time! -- surprising pretty much no one. Come on now, as much as I love the idea of Chrissy Teigen running a court show and an artsy-drag docu-series centering around RuPaul's Drag Race Winner Sasha Velour (which I had the privilege of interning on when I was a baby journo), come on, they, the talent, and we, the viewers, deserved better -- and evidently so did all of their employees. 

According to the famed business publication, an "emotional" Jeffrey Katzenberg addressed his ex-workers as he spoke on the future of the company following its shutdown, a decision he said was made in an attempt to return as much capital as possible to investors. In his speech, he offered his employees a key piece of advice in navigating this tough, transitional period in their lives -- listen to "Get Back Up Again," by Anna Kendrick from the DreamWorks' movie to help "buoy their spirits." It should be noted that Katzenberg is a co-founder and fromer CEO of the production company, giving the whole comment an added layer of questionable self-promotion. Quibi didn't immediately respond for comment when Business Insider reached out about the incident. 

Reader, I'll level with you. I'm no HR expert, I'm a 24-year-old social media/pop culture writer, but come on, maybe don't plug the other successful company you founded during mass layoffs at your failing endeavor -- just a suggestion. 

For more painfully dystopian content, follow Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson_ and on Twitter @TennesAnyone

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