Madison on why she quit
Madison on why she quit
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.
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"
This supports the notion that the issues with quality are due to overextended teams. It sounds like yet another workplace where upstairs decisions are made without consulting the people who will actually do the work, and so the rank and file have to constantly scramble to make up for that. I feel like LTT leadership decided a velocity of content to support certain goals rather than what their resources can actually do.
... And it also seems like they have not outgrown the "early joiners can do whatever they want to whomever they want" problem that plagues companies like this.
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...
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.
Reading the full thread was stressful enough, I don't even want to image what it was like to live it.
Now I understand why the company is so against unionizing, all this stuff would pretty quickly explode in their face. It's straight up abuse that should be met by the full force of the legal system.
What the fuck is wrong with people that makes them think that if you have the smallest modicum of power over someone else it's your god given right to be an asshole, a sexual predator or just generally toxic.
I don't get it.
Holy shit.
So much of what she says is not just horrifying (seriously, feeling the need to hospitalize yourself for a day off), but also straight up illegal.
Retribution, hostile work environment, straight up harassment, not to mention evidence of "constructive dismissal". (I'm using US terms but I know these have equivalent laws in Canada)
I've had some pretty bad jobs that have destroyed my mental health, but none of them come close to what Madison is describing here and I am so happy that this is coming out. This is the sort of thing people need to know about LTT and LMG.
Everyone saying this isn't malice, it fucking is. All of this is done out of malice. He is angry his employees don't treat this like their day 1 dream and give their entire 45k/yr soul to the brand. He is upset that people would even dare question their products. He is furious that employees would have the gall to expect time off.
It is malice, it always has been. Capitalist hold everyone in contempt, especially employees. It is the easiest thing in the fucken world to take a little less profit from your pocket and add it to the people who actually make your company run. None of these fucks do it because they hate their own employees. They don't want humans working for them, they want cheap drones that follow their every
wordintention. The people at the top of any company fucking hate they have to pay you at all. Accept that. That is reality.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.
She was sexually assaulted in the workplace? So LTT is just running an old boys club tech business? No wonder getting women in tech is such a problem. This is absolutely vile and vomit inducing.
I wish I could say I'm surprised, but given my interactions with these kinds of people in the tech industry, sadly I'm not surprised. Reading the twitter thread, I had that sinking feeling and knew that it was going to appear.
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.
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 run on. I get that it's normal in that part of the world, 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!
Edit: Typos
I was asked about my sexual history, my boyfriends sexual history, "how I liked to fuck".
I was told 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
who is this maniac that asked this question and made these requests
this person should be fired asap otherwise others may leave as well
I'm happy Madison took her mental health and self-respect above the job
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.
Well, this is pretty fucking horrific if true.
Setting aside the factual accuracy of LTT content (which is a separate discussion entirely), the main thing that they did well and that I generally enjoyed was their brand of jank content - like building impractical virtualized gaming setups, stupid water cooling projects, stuff like that.
If even a handful of these accusations hold water then I would no longer be able to enjoy that content knowing what took place behind the scenes in the process of creating it.
If all of them turn out to be true...I am neither Canadian nor a lawyer but it sounds like charges could be brought. In that case I don't see any way that trust in LTT/LMG could be rebuilt outside of some major team members stepping down.
This is pretty distressing to read. I am wondering if the upper management referred to is Linus, or someone else. Doesn't really matter much, the buck ultimately stops with him.
It doesn't sound like the kind of culture that Luke would tolerate, and I can't imagine Luke standing by Linus for that either.
It is worth pointing out that there is nothing Linus can do to respond either, if he was responsible he is hardly gonna own it, and if it was another upper management then he probably can't publically name them either. And there is no way any of us can know what is really happening. Madison is basically the only one who can pass judgement. I am very curious as to how Emily has been treated, especially after coming out, but she has a right to privacy and doesn't have to answer to any of us.
I guess the only real answer is for Tarren CEO to rapidly implement a proper HR department and provide a proper recourse. And if Linus is the direct cause of these issues, then really there is nothing that can be done.
If she name drops, shit is really going to fly. But she should only do that if she has proof of who said it. I hope she does. Because if all that's true (and lets be honest, Linus has regularly been fine with showing how toxic of a boss he is on camera, so it's very likely all true) LMG should burn to the ground.
Wow. What a motherfucking piece of shit company. And Linus is also personally a piece of shit too (see screenshots below). Hope this means the end for LTT on YouTube. Note that the full thread is on Twitter here where she has responded to a few tweets that add further details.
Here’s a link to the thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1691693740254228741.html
Really damning stuff.
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.
Wow, that’s incredibly terrible, much worse than I could have imagined. I feel so bad for her, and so mad at the working environment at LTT. I started getting red flags when Linus kept bringing up his classic line “I feel like if my company unionized then I’ve failed” every other week on the WAN show. Unsubbed then because I thought he was being myopic in his little capitalist startup bubble, but no, turns out he’s just completely insufferable, and a union would have eventually led to a complete overhaul at LTT, if not lawsuits, something he would rather give up the CEO role to avoid.
Yeah that doesn't sound great at all. Must've been hard not to post all of this before, especially with people constantly asking. It seems like suddenly all kinds of issues at LTT boil over at once. They're going to need a change of direction and some well worded apologies in order to win back trust.
Personally I've started favouring boring big companies over cool flashy small companies to work for as well because of this kinda stuff. Having a very informal atmosphere definitely has it's plus sides when all goes well, but when you're in a (relatively) small company there's sometimes also a lack of professionalism all the way to the top. When you start running into problems you might very well run into the situation where nobody really takes your issues seriously, and because the company is small and everyone knows eachother well there's really noone to turn to. At least in big boring companies there seem to be protocols and a bit more distance between HR and the management.
She had me at the only fan account. Why the fuck does Linus, a tech creator" need an only fan account? Dude is mentally sick and money hungry. I've always hated his guts for some reason. And now I know why. Never subbed to any of his channels. And when I want to watch something on his channel, I make sure I do so on newpipe
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.
I know that I'm done watching LTT videos from here on out, but I did go back and look at the video about what it's like to work for Linus and honestly I don't know why I didn't see more of the red flags sooner.
What the fuck!!! This was absolutely enraging to know. Linus is a piece of shit. I can't even comment on one specific thing as worse in the whole thread. Everything is fucked up about how they treated her.
fuck linus media group and fuck that motherfucker pretending to be a nice and friendly guy. How you treat your people behind closed doors is your character not the fake YouTube shit.
She really should have went to a lawyer. Besides the fact that she was sexually harassed, lied to, and other large issues, an employer cannot just willy nilly change your contract after you already agreed to one. Them changing the contract after moving to that country, losing her visa, and virtually being stranded there is exactly the same strategy that traffickers employ to exploit immigrants into virtual slavery.
This is fucking awful, I'm actually shocked, and with other leaked testimonies from other former employees I don't think any of this is false. She doesn't have anything to profit from this. I'm glad my adblock has always been on and I use invidious because I would have felt sick knowing I supported these assholes at LTT. Anyways I unsubbed from anything LTT and won't watch any more of their garbage.
Tech bros being sexist, gropey scumbags
I’m shocked
Wow thats fucked. I'm so sorry for Madison because she was originally thrilled to be involved with LTT. They took advantage of her.
Linus will get through this unscathed but it's damning that downright predatory and toxic men still rule the tech industry.
I swear I tried. I got ten screenshots/links in and then killed myself. I'm posting from the grave. Long live Lemmy. Infinite Twitter screenshot support was my dying wish for the fedi-verse. Bless you.
Fucking roosterteeth all over again. 12 years there as a follower, 9 here. Dropped both forever, now. Never getting my view or my money again.
These tech/YouTube companies need to be fucking stacked union or employee owned businesses for me to give them money at this point. There's no other way I can trust them.
My only remaining sliver of hope is that Luke is not involved, and if he isn't, that floatplane can break off and go their own way.
I shed a tear reading this thread.
Seems pretty clear that LMG is a Black Company.
Really am out of the loop, never heard of these people. If true, I hope everyone associated with this shit goes down.
Well, time to go write several long winded emails to all of LTTs current/former/prospective sponsors about how to avoid them like the plague.
This is some shit. I'm actually glad I didn't apply to do engineering work there now. I am realizing if this kind of stuff had happened to me I'd likely be fired because I would nip that shit in the bud immediately, if it happened to me or if I had seen it happening to someone else. It's not right.
What a terrible ordeal for anyone to go through.
Ultimately, it just comes down to the fact that they've never respected her, not just as a woman, but as a human being, to be useful when convenient and ignored when not.
I choose to believe her, because it's something that is all too common in this world, but I don't think the world has to be this way.
People have so much to say, that a blog post would have made more sense. Instead, they use a system with rediculous restrictions on the message size. Either the restrictions don’t serve the users or the users are doing it wrong. When pretty much everyone is bumping into this issue, I’m inclined to think there’s something wrong with the system.
This is crazy. I'm glad she's not working there anymore.
I didn't finish reading all of it yet but holy shit. She did not deserve any of this
I'm more inclined to trust this account than I am with others because there's a lot of things she mentioned which are quite synonymous with the 'tech bro' industry:
My work was called "dogshit" I was called "incompetent". When I would reach out to managers and try to get help with these situations, I would be told to "put on my big girl pants" and be "more assertive".
However, I will withhold my judgement until I hear both sides of the story like always. I also don't know why she didn't press criminal charges, I'm sure sexual assault is a crime in Canada and you won't have to pay legal fees like she mentioned towards the end. And one more thing, she should have mentioned these "managers", "certain members", and alleged sex offenders by name.
Linus face this wall
It seems to me like they are deleting comments on the apology video that mention this at all. There are almost noone to be found, and when I tried clicking this recent one to see it's responses, it gave a 404 error. Someone correct me if that's wrong though. https://i.gifer.com/3OadD.gif
From the first day I got suggested the guy and blocked his channel I never liked the man. Seemed fake and off. Finding out he’s a total asshole clownboy makes sense.
This is honestly worse than I expected, but at the same time unfortunately I am somehow only a little bit surprised. What a horrible situation.
Can't wait to watch Linus fumble over the explanation of this one. I'm sure it'll just be a lot of deflection and not-so-subtle victim blaming, but at this point he needs to squirm. Can't pawn it off on "the new CEO."
Wow... That's pretty damning stuff. Hope she's doing better now, and shame on LTT/LMG.
Sounds like they have no real HR and force people to burn out. The sexist stuff is absolutely horrible.
I've been a fan for years and even went to LTX this year (I had a few issues with the expo but put it down to the companies inexperience doing expos), but I think I'll be unsubscribing now.
Not sure if it's been brought up here... But on their newest video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cTpTMl8kFY) They don't address this at all. And if you try to bring it up in the comments, they get deleted/purged. Pretty shady to actively go out and censor this. Not a good look for LMG at all.
I've made purchases from their store... I get asked all the time about the screwdriver and backpack. Now I feel like shit for supporting them. Now the conversation will need to have a caveat everytime.. "It's a good product... but the company is a toxic ". And that's just sad.
This sucks. I really like how they handled their employee's transition, and my screwdriver kinda rocks.
Hopefully this results in changes.
I always thought LTT was shit and never gave them traffic. Glad my spider senses are working. I’m so sorry for her.
Is anyone surprised? Pretty obvious on the way that guy acts he's someone to avoid at all costs if not just for being annoying.
I've read this all the way through now and this is just crazy to me. I honestly expected LTT to give too much work to their employees and have tight deadlines. I've thought that for years. However I'd never think that it was this bad. From verbal assault to sexual assault. It's just way worse than I thought
What strikes me as odd is that no other employee at LMG has come out with allegations of this kind of environment. With the number of staff they have right now and even more people who don't work there anymore, surely someone else would step forward if it was this bad? The crunch and overwork is confirmed of course, but the illegal stuff like sexual harassment and breach of contract seems like it would have multiple people blowing whistles if not filing lawsuits.
I haven't watched an LTT video in a year, the content just isn't as good.
I’m on team Suop
Im very much ootl and not a techie, but I do remember hearing a long while back about linus getting cancelled, and then strangely that he was uncancelled a month or so later.
mfw he was 'uncanceled'
side note, being drunk and high as I am right now, and as ootl as I am, and not paying attention to where in the lemmyverse I was poooostin, I assumed LTT was some monolithic media corporation until I was like halfway through the screenshots 😬
So the situation is getting even crazier now. Someone pointed out this particular part in Madison's thread:
After I came forward about being assaulted, Someone accused Linus of inappropriate conduct on twitter.
He came over to my corner and started BERATING HER. Calling her insane, mentally ill, an attention seeker, and just digging into this poor woman who had felt wronged by him.
Apparently this correlates with the Naomi Wu a.k.a "Sexy Cyborg" case. When visiting China in 2018, Linus was supposed to work on a project with her. He wanted to discuss her joining Floatplane as a content creator and offered meeting in a hotel one of them was staying at. A misunderstanding came upon, where he intended to meet her to talk in the lobby, and she thought he was talking about a hotel room, that is her sleeping with him to get the contract. She told her how uncomfortable he made her feel and the misunderstanding was immediately cleared.
In 2021 she yet again accused him of "back then just wanting a blowjob for the contract" and also of removing Yvonne from the cc thread to hide infidelity. Linus was furious and this is what Madison is referring to. Linus then proved his version of the story by releasing the correspondence that the misunderstanding was temporary and not only that, but also that Yvonne was on the e-mail chain all along and this was a lie as well.
Again, the hotel misunderstanding took place in 2018, was immediately resolved, but was falsely brought up again in 2021 and now, another 2 years later Madison seems to be ignoring the facts she must have been aware of, even if not at the moment the "berating" she refers to took place, but definitely learned Naomi's accusations were false at some point between 2021 and her releasing the Twitter statement last week. I would argue this does shine a new light on her accusations and perhaps we shouldn't have taken these at face value until the investigation (""""investigation"""") concludes and perhaps authorities get involved.
In other news, a four months-old Billet Labs' in-house benchmark surfaced, which confirmed Linus' original conclusion of the review. Again, this does not prove they did nothing wrong in the process, but perhaps his decision to not re-test the monoblock thing was not a mood after all, and actually an informed guess from someone who knows what they are doing.
I feel like an old lady following celebrity gossip but I now understand why they love the drama. Or bumfights rather
What she's describing is incredibly awful. That's not your average toxic workplace... I hope she's doing better now.
I would love to think that this stuff isn't true, but considering the red flags given off by Linus in recent weeks and months (his anti-union comments, for example), as well as the allegations made by Naomi Wu, the leaked employee handbook with its questionable contents, as well as the anonymous (ex-)employee describing a hostile work environment on the LTT subreddit some time ago... it kinda just fits, you know?
In any case, let's wait and see how this plays out, but right now it's not looking good for LMG. I don't think they will shut down in any case, but surely something is going to happen.
Hey Linus, hows's that moat holding up?
I think the issues and harassment she faced were very real, and are all very serious complaints.
But calling a job stressful where you had to make six social media posts a day and two fluff videos a week? I mean…
