The Man Who Gives Away Millions Can't Even Take Care of His Own Employees

The Man Who Gives Away Millions Can't Even Take Care of His Own Employees Here is what we know about Jimmy Donaldson, the 27-year-old known to the world as MrBeast: He has given away houses to strangers. He has paid off people's student loans. He once filled a room with $10 million in cash and let a man walk in and take whatever he wanted. His YouTube channel has 479 million subscribers. He is one of the most-watched human beings in the history of the planet. Here is what we also know: In April 2026, a former employee filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Donaldson fired her less than three weeks after she returned from maternity leave, that she was subjected to years of sexual harassment at his company, and that she was so afraid of losing her job she once joined a team meeting from her hospital bed — while in active labor, "still bleeding," as she told the Associated Press. He can give away ten million dollars to a stranger. He cannot give a new mother three weeks of job security. A Company That Runs on Chaos Lorrayne Mavromatis was 34 when she filed her complaint in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. She had joined Beast Industries in August 2022 as head of Instagram, straight out of college. Within a year she was promoted twice — head of creative, then to an executive-level role overseeing an entire vertical — and her salary had climbed from $100,000 to $250,000. She managed a team of roughly 20 people and a monthly budget of about $500,000. This was not a person the company had reason to protect. She was a high performer. She was being groomed for something bigger. By her account, it was around this time that she asked James Warren — then the CEO of Beast Industries, and Donaldson's cousin — why Donaldson would never make eye contact with her during meetings. Warren's response, according to the lawsuit: "Jimmy gets really awkward around beautiful women. Let's just say that when you're around and he goes to the restroom, he's not actually using the restroom." After this conversation, Mavromatis told the court, she started wearing baggy clothes and a baseball cap to work. She wanted her looks to stop potentially "negatively impacting her employment." The Handbook That Told Everyone It Was Okay to Be Childish The company pushed back hard against Mavromatis's account, calling it a "clout-chasing complaint built on deliberate misrepresentations and categorically false statements." They said they had the Slack messages, the WhatsApp logs, the company documents, and the witness testimony to prove it. "We will not submit to opportunistic lawyers looking to manufacture a payday from us." But here's the strange thing: some of the most damning evidence in this case doesn't come from the plaintiff's side. It comes from the company's own internal documents — specifically a 36-page guide titled "HOW TO SUCCEED IN MRBEAST PRODUCTION." Beast Industries, according to Mavromatis's lawsuit, encouraged employees to "go to great lengths" to get the job done. The handbook included chapters with headings like "It's okay for the boys to be childish" and "The Amount of hours you work is irrelevant."