I'm starting a new conspiracy that Linus knew all this was coming and that's why he hired the new CEO. I have no facts but I said it on the internet so people will believe me.
I know you're kinda joking, but I think there is some truth to that. I think he made the decision because he could not manage the whole thing alone, and the workplace environment Madison described could well be caused by general stress and mismanagement
I’ve been under huge amounts of stress and have been mismanaged, but it never turned me into a grabass bully.
systemic issues like this don’t just come from nowhere. likewise, they didn’t just appear, either. nor will they simply disappear now that they’ve been exposed or with some glib promise to “do better”.
workplace atmospheres like this take time to develop and… fester. From what Madison described, it’s been this what from, at least, the time she started, which means these behaviors, these patterns, were existing, likely for some time.
What Linus knew, when, etc. may important in a civil case, but it’s not to me— He failed at his job, and didn’t ask for help/hire help to fix the problems until faaaar too late. If it was this bad for Madison, it had to be at least as bad if not worse for others before her who simply did not (or could not) speak out, as well as other who are still there.
Systemic issues do not affect only one person, and they don’t appear out of nowhere. Expect more bad news and expect that any resolution/fixes will take time and major change. If you don’t see any major changes over a reasonable amount of time, don’t trust claims that they’re “working on it."
Linus has a track record and proven history of doing/saying stupid shit. I think in this case, he recognizes that he's just shit at his job and wants help. He most likely didn't expect the Billet issue (no way he would have known Steve would have released a vid) and if he knew about Madison coming out, he'd have tried to prevent that sooner. Hiring a CEO won't fix the Madison problem, as that event had already occurred.
He took the blame for it in the video because he was in charge when these things happened. I don't think he'd do that if he whole point was to blame it on the new CEO.
Afaik this (third party) investigation was started by Terren Tong, the CEO, who was not in this position as of this year and Madison left a couple years ago. I think on this part we can at least give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Linus position might be a very different matter though.
Friend yes, but he was his boss, and in linus's own words, he was the only one who could manage linus. Idk, I am cautiously positive due to the new CEO, but he does still answer to Linus so...
I have been kind of wondering about that investigation. If their HR is already 3rd party, continuing to use them would technically be a 3rd party investigation. Linus said their HR team is investigating, and they're hiring someone outside to investigate, are they hiring two HR firms? I looked at LMG's staff page, and they don't have any HR listed there. Only a Talent & Culture manager and coordinator. Maybe that's HR? Seems doubtful.
I just feel like they might be calling in the same 3rd party HR firm that they've been using, find no evidence, and keep on trucking.
I have been kind of wondering about that investigation. If their HR is already 3rd party, continuing to use them would technically be a 3rd party investigation.
They have internal HR now but didn't back then. So bringing in someone new to investigate this sounds like a good step. If they really are serious about this, then it would be one of the only way to get a handle ton this. But of course it all depends on how serious LMG is treating this and how much freedom the investigators have. They could easily try to brush this under the rug when the attention drops. So we'll see I guess.
The end result will likely be something like: "We have investigated ourselves and found that we are blameless of any wrongdoing". Which is usually how these things end up.
Also, weird to not see them saying they'll reach out to Madison to get the story from her, but I guess that might be one of those obvious things so not mentioned. I hope.
Yeah I think they have dug themselves in deep shit and this will not go away until they make everything public and take action. And Linus as well as Terren Tong know this.
My point is that when you are the one ordering an investigation on yourself, usualyl the results are bound to be highly skewed towards what you want.
I've seen my government recently do this in a pretty big corruption case that would have made heads roll, as well as a couple other private entities I can think of who have hired "outside investigators" to investigate themselves only to go like what I said.
I'm obviously open to being proven wrong in this case, but the track record of such things isn't very positive.
Sorry I wasn't very clear, I just didn't want to make my comment too big.
Third-party investigator is just a long handed way of saying, I'm still paying this person. Unless someone is being forced to be investigated by an outside source, get ready for some bullshit.
"We've found that we were set up in a way for people to have suboptimal experiences. We thought we had a good culture and a program to minimize harassment but we obviously let some of our employees down so we are hiring a new chief sensitivity officer to address these concerns and ensure that current and future employees feel welcome,. comfortable, and respected"
Or some shit. Basically a "yeah things got out of hand but since we're being scrutinized, we'll hire an adult to keep us in line, maybe"
Yeah yeah yeah, standard response. It won't work. People won't come forward and nothing can/will be done if anyone does come forward. It'll just be awkward for them for a while. Maybe someone will get blamed, fired or resigning ... and then... it'll happen again.
The damage is already done. There's no way to undo it.
They can't handle this by just asking people to snitch.
Allowing or encouraging individuals to snitch on other individuals is not the way to stop this.
The proper way for a company to handle harassment cases is to prevent them from happening in the first place.
The proper damage control is to admit that they didn't do enough to prevent it from happening and then tell everyone about how they're going to follow proper OSHA guidance from here on. Let's hear about how they let their employees elect a representative and how they plan to implement preventive actions, and what the procedure is to handle any potential situations before they escalate into a shit show like this.
I guess their union representative could have told them this a long time ago, but hey, they don't have one, because they also thought they could handle everything without any. Look at where that got them.
With them being in Canada they have a potentially big bogeyman in the human rights tribunal to worry about. Over the years outside Labour relations lawyers I've been in touch with have advised no employer wants to end up there as the rules of law sort of no longer apply and the penalties can be off the charts beyond legal precedent.
Employers need to do better jobs regardless of this bogeyman or a unions being needed avenue as they can present their own challenges for staff and employers with the additional level of bureaucracy. The more layers, the more complicated everything becomes beyond the egos of the various layers involved.
It's a shame to read all that's going on or alleged to have gone on. I love tech but I've not worked in the tech specific industry. I was aware of Linus back to my PC building days and seen some of his videos over the years and the surprising overlaps into the auto channels eventually.
I wondered what it would have been like to work in a smaller at the time company like his, but I saw some of his frustrations in a media system setup video a couple of years back that kind of had me wonder what is he like to work with? Linus seems really high energy and not super polished in his interactions. Being honest tech people don't always have the best social skills, much like those that excel at social skills are not the best tech people in broad terms.
I've heard rumblings of (as they aren't a part of my online world) gamer gate and heard of other issues for women in tech. Thinking about it more I could see how a lack of social awareness and tech bros culture not being a good mix in a growing environment trying to include women. They can't just think of them as being just another one of the guys with the usual stupid crap they do to each other. I'm getting old now because that statement leads to all kinds of new world issues with the extra gender labels that need to be accounted for today and there are other concerns that arise which the old bros culture cannot accommodate. The locker room behaviour was questionable at best and it's always been dangerous to have in a workplace, which can really be a huge issue for them to change (if it exists). There is some smoke without a doubt and it reinforces its not easy to be a woman in these types of tech environments especially when companies grow beyond the initial friends group.
Since I did not really watch more than a couple of videos a year of the LTT I did not realize how large they have become. Their converted warehouse space must just be jammed full of people at 100+ staff now. It was kind of small when they were smaller as it was. With the work load, overhead to cover, the youtube grind, the issues of trying to run during Rona, and the brave new world of big company issues and accommodations needed for a not friends anymore workforce with the workloads, it is easy to see how things can spin out of control with all that is going on. The silos that have developed could have become big blind spots along with the other issues discussed in the social media posts. Wolves of public opinion and of the disgruntled are at the door now.
I suspect at some point it will be mentioned in hindsight that it would have been better for them to sell with the 100 million offer they had received but I wonder how much of this stuff would have surfaced before the sale went through from due diligence by the potential buyer?
It's going to be a big mess ahead to sort out and I hope they are sincere in their intentions to figure this out, make the changes needed (if they are needed, which it sounds like they are) and to repair the damaged incurred to those along the way. It's a bloody big job and its going to be tough to do in the court of public opinion making their own decisions along the way about what is really going on inside the situation.
Like that meme of the person trying to make the exit from 4 lanes away on the highway, Good luck everyone! The pile up is going to be big.
Employers need to do better jobs regardless of this bogeyman or a unions being needed avenue as they can present their own challenges for staff and employers with the additional level of bureaucracy.
Union I would say is important because when employers take this on, and this is openly advertised by HR/diversity consultants, it's often with the intention of absolving the employer from liability in these matters, rather than improving the employee's experience.
Yeah, they need a new robust HR system focused on workplace culture. I hope they'll realize that it's necessary if they want the company to still exist.
Yes HR is necessary, but they also need representatives for the employees, who can speak to HR and management freely on behalf of employees, so that any individual doesn't have to address these kinds of problems personally.
The easiest solution for management is always to fire the one reporting problems, because then the problem goes away. That situation has to be dismantled before they can have an honest discussion of these sort of things. That can only be done by an employee representative.
"We're sorry you found out that sexual misconduct has been a regular occurrence here. We will now take this seriously and ensure you never find out anything like this again. We believe that although sexual assault may happen in the workplace, it is unacceptable for it to be brought to the public's attention."
This, but maybe not after what we got from Linus to begin with. This is clearly damage control and also is probable detracting from what limus actually feels which is f*ck you I can do what I want and I don't owe you anything.
Oh I'm fine with the answer. With the information I gathered that same day this is probably the best they can do now. I would like to know more info about this outside investigation.
If they're smart, they'll realize they need to address these issues in order to exist as a company people want to work at going forward. It's in their best interest to not appear as a toxic work environment.
They recently got a new CEO a month ago because Linus the owner realized he was unfit for that purpose. It should have been dealt with years ago but I wonder if some benefit of the doubt can be given here seeing as the company was in a state of transition and probably would of cleaned up the work culture in private.
Or not because Linus still owns the company and the buck stops at the absolute top. He put his friend in high positions so it would cause a uncomfortable position when someone who wasn't his friend lower down the ladder were to speak out. He has also consistently showed toxic masculinity in the way he acts and has spread it within the fabric in the company,
I have no strong opinion one way or another, but please tell me if I'm being unfair here on either side here. I think the company can still clean itself up and has shown actions before it was publicly known to address it, and I also think the company has misogyny in it's corporate structure and DNA which will constantly be problematic.
It sounds like they are taking her harassment allegations seriously, but not the allegations of excessive levels of work expected, which IMO sounded far more serious. Like having someone grope you is no joke, but having to cut yourself just so you can request a day off is insane
The video they put out yesterday addressed the overwork problems. They were clear in their messaging that they are going to back off on the number of videos they make, or at least that's what they said. Time will tell.
I'm sorry but if someone felt like the only way they could take a day off is to cut themselves and then goes through with it, it sort of makes their claims needing more validation as that screams instability and not rational thinking.
There's no doubt that there was a actual stress and probably really messed with her mentally. Maybe there were way too high of stakes and too much responsibility for her, but I failed to see why they wouldn't go to their labor board, or quit if it was something that serious.
I think it's insane we throw all of this on the employer, when clearly something wasn't right with her if this is the case
I always thought his channel was really dummed down. I watched a video or two and then noped out of it. Wasn't many if at all any tips from the so called tech tips site.
Oh and stating the obvious but he's 'sorry' because he got caught.
Wonder how many international and domestic workers they've contract rugpulled, since this will probably be the one that flies under the radar due to all the other issues.
I had literally never heard of this company before now and all the threads on Reddit have thousands upon thousands of posts. Why is this such a BFD? Not saying it isn't, I just live under a rock.
LTT is one of the biggest YouTube channels and commands a lot of influence in the PC gaming community. The parent organisation actually has a lot of channels on youtube and they pump out a ton of videos under a few different names so even if you don't recognise the LTT name you might have seen some of their other videos just in passing.
Why is it a big deal? Because the accusations are big, given their influence on peoples' purchasing decisions.
LTT, for better or worse, is a very popular tech/PC gaming entertainment YouTube channel. A lot of the younger folks in the nerd space probably grew up watching his content.
I started watching a little late, because I thought he seemed kind of annoying back in the day, but I actually do enjoy their content. It's clear they have some organization and communication problems internally that they need to sort out, though.
I can't find the actual video, I assume Eli took it down. But if you recall a controversy with Linus Media group using DMCA takedowns about 4 years ago. Eli was calling Linus as a hypocrite and basically said fuck Linus.
I honestly don’t see that in the post. It sounds like good old PR bullshit, a mask for “we totally didn’t know this was happening but now that the public knows we are investigating!”
We investigated ourselves and found nothing wrong. The Home Depot is the same way and allows rapes and retaliation. HR is a scam. All they deserve is violence.