Mia Freedman is temporarily stepping away from her podcast and most likely her high-ranking role at Mamamia and taking long service leave after reportedly suffering a ‘burnout’ and copping ‘relentless bullying online’.
Freedman made the shock announcement on her Mamamia Out Loud podcast last week.
‘I have some news. I am taking a few months off the show because I have been doing the show for more than 10 years now. It started as a weekly show, it’s now a daily show. That hasn’t even been my day job – my day job has been being the co-founder of Mamamia,’ she said.
‘I’ve not taken any time off and I didn’t take any time off – I think I had two weeks off when I had my youngest child – and I’ve obviously taken holidays.
‘I’m still going to be around. There’s 150 people working here and I feel like maybe I can step back for a little bit. I’m feeling the itch to go quiet and just work on some things of my own.’
The news comes after Freedman appointed her 27-year-old son Luca Lavigne the company’s chief operating officer – at an enormous salary.
Mia Freedman is set to step down from her high-ranking role at Mamamia, after reportedly suffering from burnout
The news came as a shock to employees of the company, who were reportedly not satisfied with their own salary packages, leading to a high turnover.
Meanwhile, Luca’s wife Jessie Stephens was also employed by the company as an editorial assistant.
It led to significant online criticism of Mamamia, the media company that claims to capture ‘what women are talking about’.
It was reported that Freedman and her husband Jason Lavigne, the company’s executive chairman, were paying Luca ‘a handsome $300k salary’ for his role.
Daily Mail is not suggesting Luca isn’t qualified for his job or that he’s not entitled to receive a $300,000 salary, only that reports of his pay have caused disquiet in the Mamamia newsroom.
Luca had joined Mamamia as a content producer in 2016 – He had no prior media experience, having worked as a Merivale bartender for four months after graduating from Sydney Grammar School in 2015.
However, it is not uncommon for junior positions to be awarded to people without industry experience, and Daily Mail does not suggest there was any nepotism at play.
The shock announcement was revealed on Thursday on the Outspoken podcast, with the hosts revealing she would be taking ‘long service leave’ after dealing with months of relentless bullying online
The news comes after Freedman appointed her 27-year-old son Luca Lavigne the company’s chief operating officer – at an enormous salary
Luca rose up the ranks quickly – going from a rank-and-file writer to making podcasts to being promoted to business development manager in 2018.
By 2021, he was made Head of Product and last year was appointed COO.
Freedman attracted significant online derision about the decision to appoint her son COO and now frequently restricts commenting on her social media posts.
There has been unrest among staff who believe they work just as hard, yet do not feel as though they are fairly compensated.
An insider told Daily Mail, ‘Staff are only offered pay rises at their annual performance reviews but these pay rises are actually decided before these meetings – even though the whole purpose of these reviews is for staff to make their case for a pay increase.’
Money is almost always the reason why people end up quitting Mamamia, which typically offers only small pay rises of between ‘zero and five thousand dollars’ annually. Discussions about pay rises outside of annual reviews are always refused.
While many employees are said to have an almost cult-like devotion to Freedman, this often wears off when the reality of their meagre monthly pay packet hits them.
‘So many talented and committed staff resign when they are refused pay rises. I wouldn’t be surprised if a bunch of people quit after seeing the salary Luca is on,’ a source said.
Notwithstanding his pay – which puts the young COO in the top one per cent of Australian earners – some Mamamia staffers noted Luca became increasingly distant from colleagues as he was continually promoted.
Before he became Head of Product, a source described him as ‘one of the team’ who would join in on Friday drinks. But after rising to an executive level, he reportedly became more aloof, which ‘rubbed people the wrong way’.
Freedman added in her statement this week she was feeling the pressure ‘as the face of the business’ and admitted she ‘has made mistakes’.
“There’s a lot of pressure being the face of this business. It’s my face on the door and when things go wrong and we employ wonderful people who are all human, as I am, and humans make mistakes as I certainly do,’ she said.
