Former workers at Prometheus claimed to
THR that they were told to wrap early if they wanted to work from home due to fear of coronavirus. Former associate producer Tara Price, who
tweeted about her experience on
The UnXplained on Sunday, told
THR that she lost her job after requesting to work from home last Thursday, after the World Health Organization had labeled coronavirus
a pandemic. Her supervisor, who immediately allowed her to, later told her it was against company policy and she would have to leave her job to stay home, which she did.
"I was an AP on #TheUnXplained but lost my job due to the president of the production company refusing to allow his employees to work remotely during the #COVID_19 pandemic. I wonder what @HISTORY and @WilliamShatner think of so many lives being put at risk over their TV show?" she tweeted on Sunday. "In fact the entire LA staff was told in a company meeting held by the president of Prometheus Entertainment that they were being "hysterical" and that they needed to "get over it" in response to their #coronavirus concerns."
Another source, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed Price's description of her experience, saying that Burns told the staff that if anyone was at risk, he was, due to his age (Burns is 64 years old; in a conversation with
THR, Burns says he did make that comment). Burns made clear to those currently employed by Prometheus that they could leave their shows if they chose to, but that he would not allow certain job roles to work from home and remain currently employed.
"I think people are really scared to not work and what's going to happen is there's going to be an evaporation of work for three months," a third source who worked at Prometheus Entertainment and wished to remain anonymous says. "I don't begrudge people for being fearful of their livelihood. What I can't stand is that there's someone who has a lack of regard for employees to put them in harm's way."
Employees who were still at offices as of Friday described feeling torn between concern for their own safety and concern for how long the coronavirus would endanger their ability to get a paycheck. "People are freaked because it's a paycheck, it's money and the industry could be shut down for months," one source said.