Kdin Jensen, a former Rooster Teeth employee who primarily appeared on Achievement Hunter but was also known for voicing May Marigold in RWBY, has accused the company of not paying her for work on several occasions, having a crunch culture, and letting her be nicknamed after a slur, among other things.
Jensen, who joined Rooster Teeth in 2013 and eventually left earlier this year, shared the accusations through a lengthy Twitlonger post, one that runs through her introduction to the company all the way to her leaving. Jensen mentions several instances of unpaid work, including all of her voice acting work for RWBY, and a specific period of nine months between February 2013 and November 2013.
Another damning accusation made within the post is that Rooster Teeth harbours a crunch culture, one that regularly saw Jensen coming in several hours both before and after work. According to the post, the crunching was so bad that at one point Jensen ended up in hospital with pneumonia and wasn’t given a reduced workload when she came back to work.
Jensen, who came out as transgender in 2016, also revealed that the nickname “Fugz”, used for Jensen in many videos between 2013 and 2016, was actually a shortening of a slur. Jensen said, “Every day I came into work I was called ‘F*gg*t’ – but they could not use that name in content so when anyone was recording I was called ‘Fugz’ instead. For any fans who used that nickname for me for years, that’s what you were calling me.”
At several points, Jensen says she went to HR to report her mistreatment at the company, although nothing was done on any of the occasions. Jensen even says she went to the “founding fathers” of Rooster Teeth to complain, who told her that she was “too nice” for the company and told her that she’d be better off finding somewhere else to work.
The full Twitlonger post from Jensen reveals several other examples of severe mistreatment from Rooster Teeth, including having credit removed from work, being guilted after life-saving surgery, and not paying promised medical bills for her transition. Jensen ends the statement by saying, “I left Rooster Teeth because, despite thinking I could make positive change in the company, they proved that I couldn’t every step of the way. From 2013 until 2022, I did what I could to help my fellow employees, make positive change, and help the industry.”
Former creative director of Rooster Teeth, Gavin Free, responded to the allegations with an apology on Twitter, claiming that he is “shocked by what I used to think could pass as comedy” and admitting that he and other members of Rooster Teeth were calling Jensen a slur under the guise of everyone being “in on the joke”.
