The Billet Labs thing was unfortunate but I think they are capable of apologizing, learning lessons, and turning things around.
But that’s not just a toxic work environment that Madison is describing. That’s CRIMINAL. That’s actually unforgivable. Just given how many people knew about it, I don’t think it can be fixed by firing some people. And don’t even think about a sorry video.
Yeah the Union is a big one for me, my current employer is also like that. “Hey guys you can share your voice here and speak open about it…” Yes, that’s the problem, it’s open and not really anonymous so what can we talk about. If you can open talk about everything, you don’t have to fear unions.
Where did you hear that? From what I have heard he was in full support of the unions, all he said he wanted to create a company that doesn’t require/need a union.
Not to be that guy, but in relation to being anti union, he specifically has said that if his employees feel like they needed a Union, then he has failed as a boss. In the sense that it should never get to the point where wanting a Union should come up as LMG should be a good enough work place to where it would be unnecessary to have.
There is a difference. I would want my employees to be happy and compesated enough to where needing a Union is just completely unneeded.
Yeah I get why he thinks that and it’s a great goal to have as a boss. But who says that a union is always and entirely set up against him as a boss? If he is such a great boss there could very well be a union that doesn’t have to do much. It’s a defensive measure for worker’s rights and working conditions, not an instituition for offense.
Jesus this bullshit lie needs to stop. The only thing he said is that if his employees started a union that there is nothing he could do about it and he would consider it a personal failure.
But by all means, if there’s something I’m missing, please share.
I get your point, but it’s more of a bigger picture for me.
Remember that WAN segment about quiet quitting? The vibe was off on that one. Especially keeping the previous remark about unions in mind. Why would he think that he can be owner and main manager of such a big company with gigantic daily content output AND keep his workers best interests in mind at all times? If he is not anti-union he is at the very least wrong on why they are necessary. In the worst case he actually realizes that he could do much better for his workforce.
I thought this wasn’t new. I remember him getting in some heated waters for being anti union (or just being a shitty boss) and being creepy with that female Chinese engineer at some convention
The following is a transcript if you’d rather avoid Reddit:
(speaker 1, Linus) So we called this meeting because it’s come to our attention that we need to have a quick chat about the best way to handle HR related feedback and rumors. We won’t be giving any names for what I hope are extraordinarily obvious reasons, but what we can do is give you the following guidelines for problem solving and conflict resolution.
Sorry that this is all boring and corporate, but here we are. Number one, always stand up for what’s right. We’re only a team as long as we’re all working together and working for each other. That’s the most important one. Number two, always reflect on your own personal experiences and use your common sense. Few things in life are truly black and white. Number three, always wait to hear both sides of a story before passing your own judgment. Be cautious when you know that one side is bound by legal and ethical disclosure guidelines, when the other is not. Carefully consider what it says about the character of someone who would engage in that type of gossip against someone who has no power to defend themselves.
Number four, always encourage openness and transparency. If you have a problem, you need to speak up. We want to fix it. If you receive feedback about somebody else at this company, the first response is, have you spoken with this person? Followed closely by, you need to speak with this person. We don’t solve interpersonal issues here, or really anywhere in your life, if you wish to live in a drama free zone, by engaging in water cooler politicking. So, if for any reason that individual is not comfortable approaching the person they’re having a conflict with, we have a chain that they’re supposed to follow.
So first, you advise them to take the problem to their manager. Followed by me or Yvonne, followed by our third party HR firm. I hope that you all trust that we’re here to make this a safe, fun, and productive workplace, and we won’t tolerate mistreatment of any of our team members.
If you have any reason to believe otherwise, then I refer you again to point number four, which is to address the issue with the individual directly, or bring it to me or Yvonne, or bring it to our third party HR firm. Since I’m not at liberty to share any details about what occurred, uh, all I can do is ask that you trust me and Yvonne.
Um, some of you know us very well, I’ve been here a very long time, um, some of you have not been here for as long, but I like to think that whether you’ve been here for nine years or nine days, you’re here for a reason and you believe that we are utmost to run this company with integrity and compassion.
Um, We can’t solve problems we don’t know about though, so on that note, I’d like to invite anyone who has concerns about a fellow team member or about a manager to submit their feedback either by speaking with their manager, me or Yvonne directly, or if you would prefer to provide your feedback anonymously, we have an option for that as well.
It’s the manager and co-worker feedback form. Uh, Yvonne, if you’re not aware of it - show of hands who is not aware of it? Hey, a lot of people aren’t aware of it. Good, so now we all know. There’s an anonymous form, if for whatever reason you’re not comfortable either talking to me me or Yvonne directly about it - and that’s okay, that’s fine, we understand, that’s why we have these options - Yvonne’s gonna post it in the general chat.
It’s a safe space to provide us ideas for improvement, or if you’re consumed by the holiday spirit and you want to say nice things, you can do that too. Does anybody else have any questions?
Not a single question? Wow, that must have been a really good speech.
(speaker 2, James) You gonna dance on that table, or just stand on it?
(speaker 1, Linus) That’s it! So, um, Yvonne, did you have anything you wanted to add?
(speaker 3, Yvonne) (inaudible) Somebody said (inaudible) if you guys want to sanitize your hands, help yourself with free (inaudible)?
(speaker 1, Linus) Yeah, that was actually just totally random timing. It came up the stairs a moment ago. Dennis is on it. Alright. Thank you everyone. Have a wonderful and, uh, productive rest of your day. And weekend.
Being transparent about your business, comes with pros and cons. Right now a female employee shared her end of the story to the web on why she quit, and you’re seeing the reaction to it.
Edit: This amplified the ongoing issue about LTT and their information integrity, which is very likely due to root causes that Linus repeatedly ignored, or worse, believed he was right and everyone was wrong.
It seems she didn’t speak out both because she thought she had an NDA and also because she was getting lots of harassment anyways and didn’t want to add to it while in a bad place.
If the alleged facts are indeed true, it is incredibly difficult to even manage to get the police to care, let alone act. Not to mention the social stigma and the trauma.
Given the number of people involved, other people might be compelled to come forward. Then we will know for sure.
While I generally agree with the fundamental idea behind your statement that you should generally let the justice system do its job, you’ve still got to put your statement into context. Said context is that a very tiny fraction of depositions of sexual nature even reaches actual charges, and even fewer actually end up in convictions. The justice system is, objectively speaking, utterly failing at protecting people against these crimes.
She was getting a lot of harassment from ltt fand and was scared of making it worse. Also, she was under the impression she was under an NDA thst prevented her from speaking out.
No doubt lol. There’s bigger fish to fry. I’m so glad I’m learning to not participate in trendy drama. Especially when the activists won’t even take time out of their super righteous elite life to tell you what’s going on. It must be huge! Lol
Nah, nothing big outside of it being LTT and Gamer’s Nexus calling them out.
In a nutshell, LTT was given a prototype of a product that they basically said was shit due to testing the product outside of the specified parameters that company told them to test in and, instead of sending the prototype and other stuff that the company sent to LTT for testing back to said company, LTT auctioned the prototype off. Gamer’s Nexus made a video calling out stuff like this happening as well as the inconsistency of LTT’s testing lab data to point out that LTT is basically doing rush job videos for money and is starting to do more harm than good. Linus himself gets involved and shifts blame to everybody else except himself and his staff. On top of all this going on, a former LTT employee started going off about workplace harassment with some pretty serious accusations (but no hard evidence).
There’s a lot more stuff going on with the nitty-gritty, but that’s more or less the gist of things.
It gets worse, the company actually sent the correct graphics card to test the device on, but they still used the wrong model which doesn’t fit properly.
What needs to be in the fine print of LTT confirming they’re going to return it… to then turn around and sell it after confirming they’re going to return it?
Do you have the documents? Or is this just social media hearsay? Business is by the book. Did they have all this stuff outlined in an NDA? Where are you getting this info? What’s your experience running a business and dealing with court documents and signing and officializing business?
If it’s not in writing then it’s not real. And even if it was in writing but the writing was vague, it’s still not real. It’s up to the courts and lawyers. They can complain all they want but if they didn’t do the business right then they’re fucked. I don’t care about either side I don’t have a team in this.
From LTT’s own video. They show an email from “Felix”
I’ll transcribe so you’re not wasting time trying to pause the video if you’re on mobile or something. Bold is my edit.
Right. We Originally said you could keep it because we thought it would be good for you to have it for future builds - it wasn’t so you could sell it (whether for charity or not). Then when Linus clearly didn’t like it, we asked for it back and you agreed. That was a [redacted] prototype and we’re a very small company. Do you plan to reimburse us for the money it cost? You agreed to send it back and we planned our finances accordingly. This is not okay at all."
Edit: For completeness. The redacted portion was the cost of the prototype itself.
Thanks. Yeah sounds like a shitty situation and a shitty thing Linus did. I guess what I am trying to get across though is to me it still sounds like it wasn’t “official” in professional business terms.
When I used to work in an office they were constantly going through legal battles. Nothing at all should be settled by voice and handshake. Official business ime is just as cut throat as street business. It’s crazy. I’ve seen both worlds and don’t really like either. Both feel so inhumane and evil.
Hopefully Linus makes good of this and helps them out… Since he should know what it’s like for business to have growing pains.
OOTL, what’s going on here?
Former employee opening up about the toxic work environment and issues with video accuracy and ethics
WHOA WHOA WHOA WHAT
The Billet Labs thing was unfortunate but I think they are capable of apologizing, learning lessons, and turning things around.
But that’s not just a toxic work environment that Madison is describing. That’s CRIMINAL. That’s actually unforgivable. Just given how many people knew about it, I don’t think it can be fixed by firing some people. And don’t even think about a sorry video.
It’s hardly shocking though.
He’s outspokenly anti-worker and anti-union. Who is surprised that someone who is against workers rights would mistreat their workers?
Yeah the Union is a big one for me, my current employer is also like that. “Hey guys you can share your voice here and speak open about it…” Yes, that’s the problem, it’s open and not really anonymous so what can we talk about. If you can open talk about everything, you don’t have to fear unions.
Where did you hear that? From what I have heard he was in full support of the unions, all he said he wanted to create a company that doesn’t require/need a union.
Not to be that guy, but in relation to being anti union, he specifically has said that if his employees feel like they needed a Union, then he has failed as a boss. In the sense that it should never get to the point where wanting a Union should come up as LMG should be a good enough work place to where it would be unnecessary to have.
There is a difference. I would want my employees to be happy and compesated enough to where needing a Union is just completely unneeded.
Yeah I get why he thinks that and it’s a great goal to have as a boss. But who says that a union is always and entirely set up against him as a boss? If he is such a great boss there could very well be a union that doesn’t have to do much. It’s a defensive measure for worker’s rights and working conditions, not an instituition for offense.
Jesus this bullshit lie needs to stop. The only thing he said is that if his employees started a union that there is nothing he could do about it and he would consider it a personal failure.
But by all means, if there’s something I’m missing, please share.
I get your point, but it’s more of a bigger picture for me.
Remember that WAN segment about quiet quitting? The vibe was off on that one. Especially keeping the previous remark about unions in mind. Why would he think that he can be owner and main manager of such a big company with gigantic daily content output AND keep his workers best interests in mind at all times? If he is not anti-union he is at the very least wrong on why they are necessary. In the worst case he actually realizes that he could do much better for his workforce.
I have legitimately no idea what remark you’re referring to, other than the one I specifically outlined where he categorically did not condemn unions.
Sexual assault, a toxic frat-bro culture, and open misogyny isn’t a personal failure?
Assuming any of that is true, then yes. That wasn’t the topic of discussion.
I thought this wasn’t new. I remember him getting in some heated waters for being anti union (or just being a shitty boss) and being creepy with that female Chinese engineer at some convention
Additionally, here’s a video from an all-hands meeting the day after she quit. (Reddit, sorry.)
The following is a transcript if you’d rather avoid Reddit:
(speaker 1, Linus) So we called this meeting because it’s come to our attention that we need to have a quick chat about the best way to handle HR related feedback and rumors. We won’t be giving any names for what I hope are extraordinarily obvious reasons, but what we can do is give you the following guidelines for problem solving and conflict resolution.
Sorry that this is all boring and corporate, but here we are. Number one, always stand up for what’s right. We’re only a team as long as we’re all working together and working for each other. That’s the most important one. Number two, always reflect on your own personal experiences and use your common sense. Few things in life are truly black and white. Number three, always wait to hear both sides of a story before passing your own judgment. Be cautious when you know that one side is bound by legal and ethical disclosure guidelines, when the other is not. Carefully consider what it says about the character of someone who would engage in that type of gossip against someone who has no power to defend themselves.
Number four, always encourage openness and transparency. If you have a problem, you need to speak up. We want to fix it. If you receive feedback about somebody else at this company, the first response is, have you spoken with this person? Followed closely by, you need to speak with this person. We don’t solve interpersonal issues here, or really anywhere in your life, if you wish to live in a drama free zone, by engaging in water cooler politicking. So, if for any reason that individual is not comfortable approaching the person they’re having a conflict with, we have a chain that they’re supposed to follow.
So first, you advise them to take the problem to their manager. Followed by me or Yvonne, followed by our third party HR firm. I hope that you all trust that we’re here to make this a safe, fun, and productive workplace, and we won’t tolerate mistreatment of any of our team members.
If you have any reason to believe otherwise, then I refer you again to point number four, which is to address the issue with the individual directly, or bring it to me or Yvonne, or bring it to our third party HR firm. Since I’m not at liberty to share any details about what occurred, uh, all I can do is ask that you trust me and Yvonne.
Um, some of you know us very well, I’ve been here a very long time, um, some of you have not been here for as long, but I like to think that whether you’ve been here for nine years or nine days, you’re here for a reason and you believe that we are utmost to run this company with integrity and compassion.
Um, We can’t solve problems we don’t know about though, so on that note, I’d like to invite anyone who has concerns about a fellow team member or about a manager to submit their feedback either by speaking with their manager, me or Yvonne directly, or if you would prefer to provide your feedback anonymously, we have an option for that as well.
It’s the manager and co-worker feedback form. Uh, Yvonne, if you’re not aware of it - show of hands who is not aware of it? Hey, a lot of people aren’t aware of it. Good, so now we all know. There’s an anonymous form, if for whatever reason you’re not comfortable either talking to me me or Yvonne directly about it - and that’s okay, that’s fine, we understand, that’s why we have these options - Yvonne’s gonna post it in the general chat.
It’s a safe space to provide us ideas for improvement, or if you’re consumed by the holiday spirit and you want to say nice things, you can do that too. Does anybody else have any questions?
Not a single question? Wow, that must have been a really good speech.
(speaker 2, James) You gonna dance on that table, or just stand on it?
(speaker 1, Linus) That’s it! So, um, Yvonne, did you have anything you wanted to add?
(speaker 3, Yvonne) (inaudible) Somebody said (inaudible) if you guys want to sanitize your hands, help yourself with free (inaudible)?
(speaker 1, Linus) Yeah, that was actually just totally random timing. It came up the stairs a moment ago. Dennis is on it. Alright. Thank you everyone. Have a wonderful and, uh, productive rest of your day. And weekend.
It’s worth going to Reddit to see the comments the last time this was posted. So many people defending Linus and victim blaming.
The account that initially posted the video has been suspended by Reddit as well.
Being transparent about your business, comes with pros and cons. Right now a female employee shared her end of the story to the web on why she quit, and you’re seeing the reaction to it.
Edit: This amplified the ongoing issue about LTT and their information integrity, which is very likely due to root causes that Linus repeatedly ignored, or worse, believed he was right and everyone was wrong.
Didn’t she leave about two years ago?
It seems she didn’t speak out both because she thought she had an NDA and also because she was getting lots of harassment anyways and didn’t want to add to it while in a bad place.
Yes of course but my point was: what’s to say that nothing has changed since then?
Yes, she expands on why she didn’t feel safe speaking out
What was that reason?
This timing is not a good look either way tho
“Not a good look” should be the least of her concerns if she was indeed sexually harassed.
If she was sexually harassed she should have gone to the police when it happened
She is took this the court of public opinion at an opportune time…
This looks a lot like victim blaming.
If the alleged facts are indeed true, it is incredibly difficult to even manage to get the police to care, let alone act. Not to mention the social stigma and the trauma.
Given the number of people involved, other people might be compelled to come forward. Then we will know for sure.
I didn’t read what she alleges in detail but at least few instances where she indicated she was touched improperly.
That’s enough for a police report.
Rest of her complains are just classic toxic working life rest of faced or facing.
Either way… This is now he said/she said online drama that she decided to fuel.
I give zero fucks about the channel or dudes money. Just commented on the fact that her bringing this up now doesn’t earn more trust from me.
While I generally agree with the fundamental idea behind your statement that you should generally let the justice system do its job, you’ve still got to put your statement into context. Said context is that a very tiny fraction of depositions of sexual nature even reaches actual charges, and even fewer actually end up in convictions. The justice system is, objectively speaking, utterly failing at protecting people against these crimes.
Justice system is not here to protect, it is to punish the crime.
Internet works into the same way. Just lower burden of proof.
Are you a professional sexually harassed person? Do you understand what is the right course of action to take here?
Lawyer and police right after alleged criminal incident occurred.
She was getting a lot of harassment from ltt fand and was scared of making it worse. Also, she was under the impression she was under an NDA thst prevented her from speaking out.
NDA does protect misconduct unless you got paid specially not to talk about it.
Yeah, but a ton of people don’t know that, which is what she said.
Yeah, but she hadn’t talked about it publicly because of fear of harassment, death threats, etc from the community
Sounds like a great community if true…
I had to look it up myself. These two links seem to cover the controversy pretty well.
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-recent-criticism-of-linus-tech-tips-explained/
https://fandomwire.com/the-linus-tech-tips/
Edit:
Found this one too which is straight from the horse’s mouth: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1691693740254228741.html
In order:
https://youtu.be/FGW3TPytTjc - Gamers Nexus posts video pointing out accuracy and responsibility issues with LinusTechTips
https://youtu.be/X3byz3txpso - Gamers Nexus discusses Linus’s responses to the first video
https://youtu.be/0cTpTMl8kFY - LinusTechTips addresses the entire situation and their future plans after everything that happened
I haven’t watched them myself yet, but I think watching those three will sum it up, am about to watch through them myself
And former employee Madison’s experience working there: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1691693740254228741
Why the hell does a technology review channel need an OnlyFans account? wtf
It was an April fools thing, they didn’t post anything explicit for the short time it was up
Because it was part of an april fools joke a year or two back.
I did a little googling and found this
https://www.dexerto.com/tech/ex-linus-tech-tips-employee-alleges-mistreatment-and-poor-conditions-2251613/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGW3TPytTjc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3byz3txpso
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1691693740254228741
Drama
Sexual assault and stealing and selling one of a kind prototypes is a bit more serious than just drama.
Hobbydrama, which is always enjoyable.
No doubt lol. There’s bigger fish to fry. I’m so glad I’m learning to not participate in trendy drama. Especially when the activists won’t even take time out of their super righteous elite life to tell you what’s going on. It must be huge! Lol
Nah, nothing big outside of it being LTT and Gamer’s Nexus calling them out.
In a nutshell, LTT was given a prototype of a product that they basically said was shit due to testing the product outside of the specified parameters that company told them to test in and, instead of sending the prototype and other stuff that the company sent to LTT for testing back to said company, LTT auctioned the prototype off. Gamer’s Nexus made a video calling out stuff like this happening as well as the inconsistency of LTT’s testing lab data to point out that LTT is basically doing rush job videos for money and is starting to do more harm than good. Linus himself gets involved and shifts blame to everybody else except himself and his staff. On top of all this going on, a former LTT employee started going off about workplace harassment with some pretty serious accusations (but no hard evidence).
There’s a lot more stuff going on with the nitty-gritty, but that’s more or less the gist of things.
Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.
Shitty of him to sell the device but that’s the biz if you don’t put every little thing in fine print.
Them’s the breaks.
It gets worse, the company actually sent the correct graphics card to test the device on, but they still used the wrong model which doesn’t fit properly.
What needs to be in the fine print of LTT confirming they’re going to return it… to then turn around and sell it after confirming they’re going to return it?
Do you have the documents? Or is this just social media hearsay? Business is by the book. Did they have all this stuff outlined in an NDA? Where are you getting this info? What’s your experience running a business and dealing with court documents and signing and officializing business?
If it’s not in writing then it’s not real. And even if it was in writing but the writing was vague, it’s still not real. It’s up to the courts and lawyers. They can complain all they want but if they didn’t do the business right then they’re fucked. I don’t care about either side I don’t have a team in this.
Business has no feelings. Life isn’t fair.
They admitted it in their own video… GN also showed emails that came direct from the company.
https://youtu.be/0cTpTMl8kFY?t=800
From LTT’s own video. They show an email from “Felix”
I’ll transcribe so you’re not wasting time trying to pause the video if you’re on mobile or something. Bold is my edit.
Edit: For completeness. The redacted portion was the cost of the prototype itself.
Thanks. Yeah sounds like a shitty situation and a shitty thing Linus did. I guess what I am trying to get across though is to me it still sounds like it wasn’t “official” in professional business terms.
When I used to work in an office they were constantly going through legal battles. Nothing at all should be settled by voice and handshake. Official business ime is just as cut throat as street business. It’s crazy. I’ve seen both worlds and don’t really like either. Both feel so inhumane and evil.
Hopefully Linus makes good of this and helps them out… Since he should know what it’s like for business to have growing pains.
You must have an elite life too then, because the links to what happened are posted everywhere.
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