I feel so much better now, using uBlock and SponsorBlock watching their videos. I knew something was off when Linus started with the Anti-Union talks. Fuck this little bastard.
Hopefully you never bought anything / floatplane membership cause Linus has boasted many times (and correctly) that literally any purchase from him would give him more revenue than watching all his youtube videos with ads on.
never did. he did not make a single cent from me 😂
Linus was anti union? I thought he was pro union… At least I remember seeing a tweet to that effect.
That fucking douchebag tried equating adblocking to piracy in one of his videos. If I recall correctly, he also defended that position on a WAN show too, because of course, like he’d ever admit he’s wrong. I’ll never watch another LTT video… ever. I’ve unsubscribed from other channels for far less. I left reddit for what I feel is far less egregious then this situation when you factor everything. Because GN did an excellent job in showing how poorly accurate his benchmark videos are, but he could have gone even further. Anytime Linus talks about linux or the server platform, he is equally full of bad conclusions and misinformation. That wasn’t even touched on. Take Linus’s poor response and some of what we’ve learned with just how fucking toxic the work environment is there, and how rabid his fans have been. I’ll never give them another view. No one should recommend his videos or channel, and those recommendations should be discouraged in all tech communities.
His bad linux/server stuff knowledge comes from jake. This stupid fuck was so damn badly informed about truenas that they actually lost data because of him. And Linus still relies on Jake, even though he is clearly in waaaaaay over his head. Just overconfident, like Linus. This whole Team of higher-ups is so out of touch.
The linux stuff is directly from Linus, just watch the Linux gaming rig challenge he did with Luke, the guy is a fucking moron. And on the server stuff I recollect from Linus when Jake was trying to get Linus to use TrueNAS instead of UnRaid and Linus kept making fun of the way TrueNAS did things because he didn’t understand it. Literally, only because it’s not like he is used to doing it in UnRaid… which honestly is par for the course because that’s the reason he doesn’t like Linux too. Because some things are not done the way he is used to doing them. It’s pathetic. Linus always bangs for the most pleb software like UnRaid or WIndows.
Jake might not know how to use the tooling, and he absolutely bumblefucks around with it, but at least he’s trying to use the right tooling most of the time.
Okay.
This is not your conventional toxic workplace. This is ADVANCED toxicity. She resorted to self harm for a day off. That’s a type of struggle that can make a company go terminal if the rank and file band together.
This needs to be spread.
Im sorry, but that is conventional toxic workplace. Or ive just heard a lot of horror stories from people.
None of this is surprising to me at all. I’ve been seeing hints of a toxic ‘hustle’ mindset in their videos for quite some time and have commented as much on the videos. I’ve worked in environments just like this and once you’ve lived it it’s easy af to spot.
Linus probably says ‘I don’t ask anything of anyone that I don’t expect of myself’ and then goes on to expect someone making 50k to put in as much time and effort as he did when first starting LTT/LMG.
Yeah I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’m not. This kind of mindset is all too common in tech. I hate it.
That is seriously my biggest gripe about employers… They think our pittance motivates us as much as their fortune.
Yea, I’ll get it done by the end of the week! Let’s trade paychecks and I’ll f*cking get it done real fast…
This is worse than the Gamer’s Nexus video. The biggest red flag initially wasn’t even the bad testing data, it was how overworked the staff were. Clearly employee wellness is not a priority.
The Gamer’s Nexus video was necessary for others to speak out. Steve was clear that speaking up was a move that could backfire due to the power imbalance involved. Had he not spoken up there would be no opportunity for Madison to weigh in her experiences without being attacked.
Linus didn’t notice because that’s status quo in modern capitalism.
Still makes Linus a shithead for going right along with horrible practices, but it should go to explain how a lot of it is not conscious malicious intent. Employers exploit people all the time.
She has also confirmed that this Glassdoor review was written by her, with continuing updates on her twitter
Quote from the twitter thread:
I was asked about my sexual history, my boyfriends sexual history, “how I liked to fuck”.
I was told that certain issues were “sexual tension” and I should just “take the co-worker out on a coffee date to ease it out”
I was asked to twerk for a co-worker at one point.
I was told I was chunky, fat, ugly, stupid. I was called “retarded” I was called a “faggot”
Holy cow I thought the screenshots currently on this post were the whole thing and I was horrified??
No, the screenshots are like, half?? THE TAME HALF???
Man what the fuck kind of attitude is that??
They sound like a bunch of immature misogynistic little pricks.
Someone share the glassdoor post here pretty please? They’ve got a login wall
1.0 Jul 27, 2022
Disappointed with treatment would not recommend
Social Media Coordinator
Former Employee, more than 1 year
X Recommend
O CEO Approval
X Business Outlook
Pros
a lot of talented people
employee bonding activities
Cons
No proper/or explained HR system.
Sexist remarks, coded language, and harassment were common place.
Inappropriate actions, comments, and discussions frequently occurred.
Including discussion about employees bodies, appearance, clothes, and wealth.
Upper/middle management frequently misuse power.
No way to report most incidents without issue, since the HR team was ALSO upper management.
Feedback was consistently harsh and not constructive.
Inappropriate language was commonly used while giving feedback.
Meetings with unbalanced power dynamics were common place.
Gaslighting situations frequently occurred.
Unbiased 3rd parties were never present, or easily able to be requested in these meetings.
Lack of proper communication between management and employees.
Outside ventures frequently frowned upon, or limited by the company.
Advice to Management
Stop dismissing complaints because “everyone is friends here” it’s a workplace, not a group hangout session.
Get a proper HR team and take reports of harassment and inappropriate conduct seriously.
Don’t dismiss employees complaints.
Thank youu!
Imgur blocking VPNs again. Ugh.
Holy shit wtf
I figured it was stressful there, and I always kind of dismissed the dickheads in the community as “the internet being the internet” but it seems it’s WAY worse.
If the allegations about the sexual topics are true (like managing the OnlyFans account and having to see other people’s junk, being told to twerk for a coworker and getting asked about “how she liked to fuck”) LTT is in some serious trouble.
No sponsor in their right mind wants to be associated with a bunch of grown men sexually assaulting their female coworkers. If this isn’t cleared up totally and publically, LTT will lose a lot of sponsors and this can seriously hurt them.
When the employee handbook leaked a few months ago and this was mostly ignored by Linus except him making a rant about the company not needing unions because they’re so great, that was already very suspicious to me. It seemed like just another hustle culture company trying to sweep things under the rug. Well, looks like it was not just a feeling…
If the allegations about the sexual topics are true
There was Naomi Wu (still don’t know 100% if we can trust her on that), and now there’s Madison. So, if this is true, you can expect more people to speak up in the next days/weeks. If there are many creeps (Naomi Wu was directly incriminating Linus, Madison is apparently incriminating another manager), the facts will eventually come out. Let’s just wait to see who speaks next. Let’s not forget the “Innocent until proven guilty” part of the law. No matter how revolted I am, I don’t want to start witch-hunting anyone, just on allegations.
No sponsor in their right mind wants to be associated with a bunch of grown men sexually assaulting their female coworkers.
This is the thing. LMG already lost a WHOLE LOT of value this week. Tim “Big bald mouth” Holowachuk already did a whole lot of damage with his undeserved dissing, was the straw that broke the camel’s back and led Steve to respond to the dissing with months of meticulously noted facts, and that would have already been an “Oof” on itself. Without anything else. But then Linus “The Magnanimous” Sebastian decided to pitch in, and proudly dismiss most of the valid, rational criticism, while throwing, once more, some poor entrepreneurs who tried to have him feature their product under the bus, after having illegally sold their best performing product. That was even a bigger “Oof”. At that point, Linus was already exposing himself as a liar, who acts in bad faith (nobody would seriously think this would coincidentally be the very first time he does such a thing!?) for business and clout. And then, to drive the nail fully in his coffin, Madison remarked this was the perfect opportunity for her to speak up, and be heard. I think she speaks the truth. Internet has taught me that anyone can be a liar (right, Linus?) and do anything for their own profit or clout, so I would really like to get confirmations on Madison’s allegations; but I still tend to believe her more than not. It sounds legit.
I do think the Naomi Wu thing was mostly a misunderstanding taken to extremes due to fanbases toxicity (doubt she would’ve outright said Linus wanted her to suck his dick if the stans hadn’t started harassing her, she basically jumped to all out offensiveness out of spite). This, however? Even if she was also being toxic in the workplace, it just means management had been so horrible that toxic behaviors developed with ease and would just spin out of control. This all sounds like they could just not adapt to becoming more corporate oriented fast enough, and the fact that Linus just recently stepped down as CEO is clear proof of this. He should’ve done that years ago.
Very possibly, I also take issues with creators that cheat on content quality using whatever loophole they find (eh Linus?), that’s my reason for not liking her.
I totally agree. Where can I find the leaked handbook?
Edit: Found it
Pretty terrible deal compared to even the mandatory UK stuff. Our glorious hereditary not-dictator 🤴 will be greatly disappointed!
Last Updated: January 1, 2021.
This is more than 2 years ago. I’d be nice to get a confirmation that this is the current version, given how much LMG grew over the last 2 years.
Me too. I think they have an actual HR team now that isn’t just Yvonne.
This is, quite frankly, attrocious.
I’ll start with: I believe Madison.
I honestly did not even know that she had left, so all of this is news to me. I assumed that she went into a role that suited what she wanted to do (like production or editing or something with no significant on camera time), and was still there. I usually avoid following anything so closely that I’m aware of whatever drama they get into. Which isn’t to imply that Madison’s experience is mere drama, because it’s not. This is an egregious HR violation on all fronts, and bluntly, if Madison still has any evidence of any of this, a lawyer would do well to pick up her case at no cost to Madison; as far as I’m concerned, with any level of evidence, especially right now with the PR nightmare they’re currently weathering, they’ll want to settle quickly (if they have any sense left in their heads whatsoever)… And Madison can walk away with a very reasonable pay off for all this mental anguish.
Of course, money doesn’t un-do the fact that it happened.
On the surface, to me, this looks like LMG hired Madison to appease the masses, partly evidenced by the fact that he announced that he had done so before she was even made aware that they were interested in bringing her on board, which seems to be a trend with Linus now - saying things have happened when he simply rubber stamps the approval to go ahead and start the process… Then “allowed” her to appear on camera enough to show that yes, she does work here… Then as the hype from fans died down and stopped being a benefit to the company, slowly berated her into leaving quietly so schmucks like me (anyone that’s not so dedicated that they read the LTT forums daily), are unaware, and they don’t lose viewers.
The workload described, at first didn’t sound too bad, busy, sure, but not bad. Some Twitter posts, FB posts, a few tiktoks daily… Yeah ok. That’s a fairly reasonable bar to set, a little high IMO, but ok… Then she went on. And on… And on… What the fuck? I get the idea that it’s “only social media” so some think it’s “not really like working” (which I don’t agree with, I just understand why people think that), since managing your own social media is fairly trivial, but when managing it for someone else, you have to constantly check yourself and consider “is this me saying it? Or is this the right tone and perspective for what the company would say?” Because if you say the wrong thing, you’re reprimanded, or fired. That kind of mental gymnastics is rough; and having to do that for a dozen posts a day is a lot of work to accomplish alone, and you’re probably going to make some mistakes unless you can bounce the posts off of someone like a long term employee or manager to make sure that the message isn’t straying from the brand you represent.
I’ve personally been in plenty of scenarios where I’ve been over worked. It happens. When being overworked is basically your job duties, that’s unreasonable in every way.
On top of that the dismissive and demeaning treatment isn’t going to help. I’m not surprised that Madison noped the fuck out, and it’s sad that happened, and more sad that she felt that she shouldn’t even say anything. It’s unsurprising that she left and that she had such a major impact to her mental health by being there… Honestly, it’s almost surprising that she stayed as long as she did… And this isn’t even addressing the sexual misconduct. I know for me, when I think “sexual assault” I’m thinking the worst case scenario, and bluntly, some of the comments that she relays (like “you’ve never gotten drunk with us”) makes me think that could have happened… But it’s not exclusive to that. This is sexual assault. She was sexually harassed and sexually assaulted by staff and bluntly, I hope she names and shames those who were involved. This is unacceptable in any and every way in the workplace and everywhere else. Madison’s gender, sexual orientation, preferences, history, everything, is entirely personal, and discussions of such things in a workplace is completely unacceptable. If she wanted to offer up such information of her own volition, sure, but berating her about it, and harassing or demeaning her about it is completely unwelcome both socially, and legally.
IMO, Madison has a legal case if she ever chooses to pursue it… I think she should but I understand why she hasn’t, and isn’t.
As for LTT and LMG, I’m extremely disappointed that Madison was set up to fail like this. I get that it’s a bit of a boys locker room, where most of the staff are “one of the guys” regardless of who they are or what gender they are, and ribbing is part of that. Clearly this was above and beyond it and from what people said to Madison after she left, her treatment was worse than most… Well beyond a good ribbing, and others could tell. Anyone who participates in ribbing among friends can recognise when they’ve gone too far. IMO, it was clear that they had, and they just kept doing it. No part of that is ok. The staff then took it further and further into sexual harassment and assault, and the management team was complacent. This is wholly unacceptable on LMG’s side. Their behaviour is reprehensible.
I hope Madison is doing better. I’ll probably track down her twitch and throw her a sub, because she deserves it, and never deserved to be treated the way she was. I don’t know what she’s doing now, but I wish her all the success in the world.
if Madison still has any evidence of any of this, a lawyer would do well to pick up her case at no cost to Madison
That’s what I’m hoping for. The described behavior is unacceptable.
Of course, money doesn’t un-do the fact that it happened.
Getting public acknowledgement that it happened would be a very good start to healing.
slowly berated her into leaving quietly so schmucks like me (anyone that’s not so dedicated that they read the LTT forums daily), are unaware
Madison herself wrote that they were going to announce it on the WAN show, and decided to omit it when she demanded they would include the fact that she quit.
The workload described, at first didn’t sound too bad, busy, sure, but not bad.
I thought about this. I agree with what you wrote, but I would like to add something: if you go for “stupid” tweets (like “behind the scene” goofy content), hipster-style instagram posts, and boring tiktok videos showing someone walking down a corridor, yeah it can be a chill job. I don’t think it would be your job for long, but it would be chill. One the other hand, if you are (like she was) clearly starstruck, and want to do justice to your idol, the tweets/instagram posts/tiktok videos alone are going to take your entire day, at the very best. This is without considering that it also was her responsibility to somehow find people available for floatplane exclusives, and manage other stuff on the top of that…
bluntly, I hope she names and shames those who were involved.
Absolutely. With written proof or screenshots if at all possible, to make it irrefutable.
I look after the Twitter account of an online news site as one of my jobs, and even doing just the Twitter alone is so stressful and daunting. Because you have to use the right photos, make the text of the tweet interesting, use the right hashtags and tag the companies we’re talking about.
It is a lot. Even though “it’s just twitter” like… it still takes a toll out of you. So seeing her workload sounded like hell to me. Like Twitter and Facebook are easy enough. But I’ve made some tiktoks here and there on my personal one and it takes a lot of my time.
Ok I will wait couple of days to see how it continues, but I will most likely unsubscibe from all their channels and stop watching them completely. Which will not be hard. For real reviews I watch Hardware Unboxed and Gamer Nexus. LTT was on my watch list for some funy/interesting video here and there. And even those I watched less and less.
Alright, time to unsubscribe from their channels. Already started to dislike Linus when he went all Anti-Union and stuff, but this is truly disgusting.
Definitely unsubscribing from all their channels. All of that shit is absolutely disgusting.
I had wondered what happened to her and why she seemed to rarely be in any content despite having a good camera presence. It sucks that she had to put up with all that. Linus should have put in his big boy pants and fired the shit heads that helped create such a toxic work environment. He clearly does not know how to manage a company.
From the thread, Linus is part of the problem.
Linus is the problem. It’s a top down problem, and he’s the one at the top. Everything stems from time and lack of it to resolve issues correctly. When you don’t have time to deal with things and more things get requested of you, it’s human nature to try to downplay or discredit their importance.
Oof. I wasn’t too bothered about tech bros shanking each other in name of ethics in tech YouTubing. But this is absolutely unacceptable. I believe Madison. If there is no confirmation from Linus that whoever sexually assaulted and otherwise degraded her has been fired so fast their fucking eyes are spinning then I’m unsubscribing. I will not be watching videos every week where I’m trying to figure out who the creep is.
I wasn’t too bothered about tech bros shanking each other in name of ethics in tech YouTubing.
That is a weird way to try and sound superior and dismissive about the original issue(GN video), like I too couldn’t care less about the smol cute business shit behind that waterblock company but even then the psychopathic behavior behind pretending you have an agreement, then screwing it up, then auctioning it and then still having the narcissism of “we auctioned not sold it” BS alone is enough to put him out of any serious business for life and honestly probably even legal action.
It was far beyond just “drama”.
Yes, it was just drama. You’re using the word “psychopathic” to describe the actions a small-to-medium business where three or four people didn’t talk to each other and something got sold that shouldn’t have. Unless I’ve missed a big memo, there was nobody cackling in their office over grinding a smaller business under their capitalist grindstone. I doubt Linus knew about anything that happened to the item after the review. The GN piece was “LTT is not well organised”. I could have told you that in well under 40 minutes.
“Sure they’re abusive employers, but I can’t imagine they would have bad business ethics” For real dude? Listen to yourself right now. My man is sitting on a pile of LTT merch I just know it.
Jesus fucking Christ. Messing up a review, selling a prototype then repaying the company is just unprofessional, this is a whole other fucking level ! It’s going to be hard to keep watching their videos after that, especially considering the two of them building a PC was my favourite one.
I had heard Linus’ anti-union remarks on WAN Show and was slightly weirded out, because I don’t believe for a second that a company owner AND manager of a company much smaller than theirs has enough time and resources to really be in touch with what their workers need, even if they have the best intentions.
There once was a WAN Show segment about quiet quitting and his fear that people might do that and it came across as if he was more scared that his employees might do it and thereby “hurt the company” than him being interested in why people feel compelled to only work the minimum amount required. As if he was expecting people to always give him 110%.
Even 90% is enough, that’s just reality. If you have people working for you full time, you can’t just pay them for their most productive and focused time. There’s also socializing with coworkers, taking short breaks and being creative without direct output. It’s all part of being a team. A good and healthy team that feels appreciated can take up extra work and make short extra bursts as they become necessary, but that can never be the expected normal.
There was also some WAN Show segment about compensation, free time and the likes that was weird. Maybe it was part of one of the upper two, I don’t quite remember. It’s a bit fuzzy but I remember that I was a little surprised that they operated on the same scheme of low amount of days off + limited sick days system that many US/North-American companies seem to tun on. I get that it’s normal in that part of the work, but I still had this idea in my head that they were somehow different. It all felt so quirky, close-knit and best-buddy-like in the videos. That made me think that they were somehow more progressive and worker focused than it turns out after all.
Hearing these allegations is like finding that missing puzzle piece and suddenly it fits into a much bigger picture. I had a lot of respect for Linus and his company and really believed that they were “better”. I really like their content, it is super entertaining and of very consistent quality. They are experts at making things accessible and interesting for a broader audience. But they are also running in a giant hamster wheel that is the youtube algorithm and several daily uploads.
Very sad to see how all this could happen. Even worse is how all of this is being handled. They need a proper restructuring because these problems seem to be structural and deep-rooted. I wish Madison all the best!
Holy shit. This has quickly gone from concerning to never watching any of their content again. The inaccurate data stuff sucks, but wasn’t really unexpected, it’s not what I watch them for and I knew they probably rushed that type of content to keep up their schedule. The thing with Billet was pretty bad in a number of ways, but you could understand the auction thing just being a case of horrible miscommunication that they should make up for. This is just beyond inexcusable though, I’m disgusted that they’ve acted like they’re being so transparent about the company while this is going on behind the scenes.
