This Pro Sports Team Is A PR Disaster [PR Academy]

Hey Team, 

At the PR Academy, we focus on providing businesses, influencers, and public figures with free tools on how to not only generate media but also navigate the media. 

If you’ve ever dealt with a crisis communications mess you’ll know:

How Not To Respond To Hostile Work Environment Claims: 

If you’re an employer, you’ve probably dealt with a disgruntled employee before. The San Diego Wave, a professional women’s soccer team in the NWSL is giving us a masterclass currently on how NOT to respond to claims of a hostile work environment. 

Earlier this week, an employee published a statement on social media about the hostile work environment at the team. The statement went viral and prompted several other former employees to take to social media to call out the team and the president of the team Jill Ellis.  

The accusations brought a slew of media coverage and attention to the team, as more individuals shared their stories, some ex-employees saying that they even contemplated taking their own life due to the alleged abuse and harassment. 

From my perspective, the Wave had two appropriate choices after this explosion of bad social media press: 

1. They could have resolved these complaints privately. This would mean not making a public statement for the foreseeable future and working with attorneys and mediators to resolve these claims. This could work, so long as the media dropped the story which is quite possible. Sometimes it’s best from a PR perspective to weather the storm.
   

2. They could have made an appropriate public statement, explaining that they are taking the matter seriously and working to resolve any potential issues internally. 

Instead, the Wave made a huge PR f*ck up. 

The Wave issued this public statement which only fueled the fire of mistreatment at the organization.

When a former employee says they contemplated suicide, blaming the victim is absolutely not okay and the Wave were appropriately roasted for it.

This may be one of the worst public statements I’ve seen in my career. If you are ever in a very public position like this and are dealing with very serious workplace harassment claims – please – DO NOT DO THIS! 

Here’s a good example of what would have been appropriate: 

A Question from the Community: 

If you’re not in our PR Academy group yet, you are missing out. It is free until August 1st and there are some fantastic questions in here from students like Anne. 

I answer every question personally. The answer to this one can be found in our community – the answer may not be what you’d expect… but I think it is very very helpful to those of you who are dealing with negative press. 

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See you next Friday! 

Thanks for reading. 

I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Eve