Gawker
5WPR CEO and shouty flack Ronn [sic] Torossian has filed a lawsuit against Melissa Weiss, his recently departed HR director, for helping a 5WPR employee look for another job. Let's make this clear: While Weiss was in charge of 5W's human resources department, the suit alleges that she was simultaneously helping a 5W account executive look for a job with another firm. The evidence consists of several emails between her and the other (now former) 5W employee, Maureen Lynch. Lynch tells us the suit is "a complete lie" and that the emails are unrelated. We have a call in to Weiss' attorney. On one hand, it's understandable that Ronn wouldn't want HIS OWN HR DIRECTOR—who was hired just last month—steering employees towards the competition. On the other hand, what would it say about life at 5W if that actually happened? From a PR standpoint, it may have been wiser to keep this quiet. Oh well! Ronn is seeking $360,000 in damages on each of three counts in the suit. After the jump, the smoking gun (?) emails that make up the evidence.
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Comments
This explains why Melissa never returned my emails about my second interview... looks like it's a good thing I accepted with a different firm -- yikes!!
Was it Ron Torrosiann who coined the phrase "There's no such thing as bad publicity"?
/yawns, shuts down and goes home.
I'm so tired of Ronn mania
@famousauthor: double N "Ronn"- show so respect.
So not surprised. The door to that place revolves pretty quickly
All in all, Ronn (sic) appears to have fired his HR director for trying to be civil with an exiting employee and make sure she transitions all her work before she leaves. Oh, and also seeing if the exiting employee knows anyone at a competitor who she might be able to cold-call since 5W doesn't get resumes from people at agencies with good reputations (Manning = Manning Selvage & Lee). Basically, she got fired for doing a great job...which, given 5W's reputation, sounds about right.
I agree with the above, I am an unfortunate worker there and Ronnnnn threatens, screams and would pay anyone off. Melissa did her job well. If you read the emails, she did nothing wrong and I had first hand experience working with her and it was a pleasure.
she hired people and are using her ideas. Ronn and Adam harassed Jane, the woman who was there before Melissa, even emailing her present employer badmouthing her. How low is this man. He has no life. The girl was there 3 weeks, they realized she had a brain and got scared.
I would pay for another agency to take us all away, I don't even know why we get clients. He sucks.
PR gives Ronn a bad name. Poetic justice.
As someone that has been in PR more years that Ronnn has learned to speak. I find this disgraceful. You do not publish this information. Since he did, there is nothing in these documents that shows the HR Director did anything wrong. The man is just crazy!!! My agency has been interview I would say maybe 30% of his employees that he has left. So they are leaving one by one. And soon just like it started it will be ronn by himself again. I will hire that HR Director, just for dealing with RT.
@richardmarxhatesmyhair: My apologies for misspelling Robb's name. Doubles it is! With twice as much respectt.
I worked there for a heartbeat before my current employer.. It's an awful place, and everyone's always 'trying' to get out. Notice that Ronn has a track record of suing/threatening to sue lots of folks who leave his company -- me included (hell, Rubenstein too!).
NYCRockStar I think I actually might know who you are! Any chance you got duped into getting hired at 5WPR for their "gambling" division a while back? HA! Some of my buddies in the biz said Ronn was trying to pull off some major illegal gambling shit. Honestly Gawker I would be interested in seeing you post a PR Hall of Shame exclusive. After exchanging some details with some close friends, here's a few places you should include at the top of the list: Obviously 5WPR(Ronn is a complete and utter douchbag and his time is up), Rubenstein PR (Richard is a complete dick and has absolutely no CLUE how to treat his employees - just check out MediaBistro for the Rubenstein PR job posting of the day), and The Hall Company (Those two assholes should be ashamed to even show their faces in this city after having ripped off so many clients) Please feel free to add to the list.
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