Em Rusciano lashes out at 2Day FM: Former radio host claims her tone was ‘policed’ and there was a ‘really toxic work environment’ at the station
Em Rusciano has spoken about her ill-fated stint as a breakfast host on 2Day FM.
In a series of Instagram posts on Thursday, which she has since deleted, the 41-year-old shared her experience of having her tone ‘policed’ during her employment at the radio station.
‘I was constantly told I was angry, I needed to be nicer to people, I needed to smile more and my tone was policed,’ she said.
Lashed out: Em Rusciano has spoken about her ill-fated stint as a breakfast host on 2Day FM. In a series of Instagram posts on Thursday, which she has since deleted, the 41-year-old shared her experience of having her tone ‘policed’ during her employment at the radio station
‘I was under this microscope the whole time. Meetings would be on a screen and if I didn’t smile the whole time, there would be three emails about what’s going on with Em,’ she added.
Em claimed it was an ‘exhausting’ time made worse by having a miscarriage and being told the format of her show would be changing.
She also alleged her colleagues ‘were leaking bulls**t stories about me’ to the press and she felt there was an overall ‘really toxic’ at the station.
For her part, Em acknowledged her own behaviour at 2Day Fm ‘wasn’t great’, but said no one around her was willing to ‘cut me any slack’.
‘I’m still dealing with it all but I feel like I understand it a bit better,’ she added.
‘I was constantly told I was angry, I needed to be nicer’: Em claimed it was an ‘exhausting’ time made worse by having a miscarriage and being told the format of her show would be changing
Em was hired to host 2Day FM’s breakfast show in 2017, alongside Harley Breen.
In September 2018, she announced she was leaving the show in order to focus on having a baby.
Before her departure, several reports alleged several employees had left 2Day FM and others were looking for new jobs due to Em’s ‘attitude’.
‘Things are at breaking point, people just cannot work with her energy. There have been… casualties at the hands of Em Rusciano,’ a source said at the time.
Allegations: She also alleged her colleagues ‘were leaking bulls**t stories about me’ to the press and she felt there was an overall ‘really toxic’ at the station
In May 2018, Em herself admitted she could ‘turn’ if she felt slighted by colleagues.
‘Something just goes in my eyes and I become a different person. So I’m not very good at crescendoing my moods,’ she told Wil Anderson’s Wilosophy podcast.
During that same interview, Em also complained about her co-hosts, Grant Denyer and Ed Kavalee, who had been drafted in to replace Harley Breen in late 2017.
She said: ‘I, all of a sudden, got two co-hosts that I’d never really met or spoken to, and then I’m expected to have this instant chemistry with.’
Em added that she took a ‘big ego hit’ upon discovering that she no longer had top billing on the show.
‘It was just hectic,’ she confessed. ‘It was The Em Rusciano Radio Show. It was my show, and all of a sudden Ed’s anchoring, the show’s called The 2Day FM Breakfast Show.’
Radio stint: Em was hired to host 2Day FM’s breakfast show in 2017, alongside Harley Breen. Harley later quit and was replaced by Ed Kavalee (left) and Grant Denyer (right). Em threw in the towel in September 2018