The dude has always seemed so smarmy to me so hearing this really isn’t that surprising. I’m happy they’re getting their comeuppance but doubt it will be as much as they deserve.
A few years back I remarked that Linus always came off like a bit of a douchebag. I was at the time heavily downvoted, but holy fuck. This is worse than I expected.
I watched like five minutes of a video like 10+ years ago and found it obnoxious. Reddit has such a hard on for him. Maybe it’s because I’m old, but I cannot stand his style.
I’m a similar age and have a similar experience w/ LTT. I’ll occasionally watch a video because an early-20s coworker really likes it (something to talk about I guess), but I’m not a fan in any way. I mostly look at it as “what the average person thinks” and I don’t expect any actual analysis.
He and his/team’s content always came off to me as basement dwelling PC gamers trying to be real IT professionals. Garbage content and apparently a garbage company.
I’m neither close to this (I’ve seen a few LTT vids here and there) nor that interested in dogpiling or anything … but this is exactly what LTT/LMG and Linus himself always felt like to me and it always kinda creeped me out. Like I’d watch something and get that feeling of, am I the only one seeing that or is it me?
No. I’m just a “level 1” tech that have been doing this for many years, and I’ve always seen him and most of his channels as unprofessional, with the exception of the person now named Emily.
Linus himself didn’t seem like a great tech to me, mostly because he seem to struggle with anything else than Windows. I don’t care that much about hardware because I have been gravitating around hosting, mainframes (IBM i) and corporate so his channels and benchmarks are not of great interest to me. But that experience helped me see in his other tech videos that he was not serious.
And the way he “used” his employees to do anything unrelated to their job definition was weird. Like, I’m a tech and can install cable, but there’s people that you should hire for that. It’s not my job to move desks around or paint the walls while also having to do my regular tasks. Should have been the same with his employees.
He gave the impression of being someone that will use the “we’re just one big family” excuse to get his employees to do anything, while talking superficially about Windows computers and pushing merch.
I ended up asking YouTube not to recommend any of his channels.
I don’t think it’s fair to criticize his usage of employees… He’s operating a media company and all of his upgrades are essentially glorified media operations. Everyone on camera is a media personality playing a role.
The point isn’t to get cable installed, it’s to have an engaging personality on camera doing something interesting. Getting cable installed is a happy coincidence.
I have been in the tech industry for almost 30 years. These things she talks about are not new and will keep happening unless more people talk about them. I gave that Linus guy a listen once or twice, was never impressed. His fans are delusional, this thread contains a few of them!
Agreed. However, I still want to see facts, because it is possible that she’s exaggerating. Until I see facts, I’m going to believe Madison.
That said, I rarely watch LTT or any related channels. I find them to be shallow, often click-bait, and their merch advertising is incredibly annoying. I get my tech news and entertainment from other channels, such as Gamer’s Nexus, Level1Techs, Louis Rossmann, OptimumTech, Tech Ingredients, and SomeOrdinaryGamers.
I don’t understand the rabid following LMG has, but I do try to be objective in my criticism. I think GN’s coverage recently was pretty revealing (the one about testing quality), especially when paired with this article.
I don’t know, that’s why I want to see more facts about the situation.
So that’s why I’m defaulting to believing the victim until I have evidence to the contrary. She has provided her side, I’m waiting for LMG to provide theirs.
Poor girl. I remember the ASUS ROG video where lots of fans (me included) were screaming to Linus “hire her!” thinking about the fame and the dream job… Never chase your idols!
I have a coworker who wants to work for LTT, but they haven’t applied largely because they feel like they owe our org something (we took a gamble on their limited experience and it paid off). I told them I’m not going to stand in their way if they choose to follow their dreams, but I appreciate the loyalty.
I wonder if their opinion will change after this debacle.
There are appropriate ways to criticize someone’s work. Calling someone’s work “dogshit” does not fall in that category. Furthermore doing nothing about employees groping others or them referring to others as “retard” or “faggot” is fucking disgusting no matter how good or bad her work was.
I mean yes, that’s certainly possible. But there are business processes to handle performance improvement. There is no excuse to be nasty. Not to mention the sexual harassment, if true, is absolutely illegal.
I never publicly made any statements regarding my time there because I feared even more backlash from a community that was already attacking, defaming, and sending me death threats.
Fuck man, pretty much nobody should have to deal with that.
I was actually called a tattle tale
Been there done that.
“snitches get stiches” is the phrase I’ve been told many times
I was told I was arguing, when I was trying to discuss my point of view.
This too
I remember getting told off for taking my sick days, as in the days you’re entitled to.
I am still, to this day, hesitant to take days off from this kind of shit
I was asked to twerk for a co-worker at one point.
I know some ladies who were asked by the CFO of a previous company to jump in place while to get a company t-shirt that other employees received.
I was told I was chunky, fat, ugly, stupid. I was called “removed” I was called a “removed”
I was called “stupid” to my face in an open office with fifty other staff in the room.
I was also the one tasked with managing the Only Fans account.
Something I said I didn’t want to do.
I had to read comments from people talking about how they wanted to fuck me and my co workers.
I saw peoples dicks, and vagina’s.
I said no, and was told only a little longer.
You should never be obligated to do things you don’t want to do. No job is worth it.
Please don’t attack individuals who don’t actually have power at this company, most of them are blameless or powerless to actually change anything.
This absolutely. For every one person who speaks up there are usually multiple tens who do not.
Also “why didn’t you take legal actions”
Many of them don’t know better. Many of them feel like they’re trapped: they require the paycheck and so they feel obligated to endure abuses.
… Or, at least, that’s been my experience with employers. To be clear: I do not, and have not, worked for LMG. I’m not trying to make it about me, just trying to relate. It’s unfortunate easy to relate.
She’s got some tough issues and I wish her to have better employment opportunities in the future.
These days I work for a company where “everything is awesome” and I get to work on really cool things every day without too much drama. I wish everyone could do that. I certainly couldn’t have without deciding to leave an abusive employer. I encourage everyone to seek better employment if you feel like you can relate to any of the issues she’s brought up.
So here’s some tips. There’s a lot to unpack though.
keep a personal record. Keep it at home. If it’s on a computer or phone then keep it on a personal one so you still have it if you do quit or are fired. Write down the good times and the bad times.
if you’re hourly, make sure to include your clock-in and clock-out times
if anything comes up, your personal records can be admissible in court
if nothing comes up then at least you can look back at your records and remember how often good things or bad things happen. it will help you to make decisions objectively and judge your emotions for them
Sending unsolicited sexually explicit messages (even just text) or images is a federal crime and can be included in sexual harassment claims. If your employer does not address the problem then your employer may be held accountable. It’s important that you keep records of your complaint to your employer and their inaction!
So, learn about harassment and discrimination laws. Everyone has a right to not be harassed (sexually or otherwise) or discriminated against. You can file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Office or your state’s equivalent (not all states have an equivalent).
I’m not party to the accusations. Things can be interpreted many ways. So I tried to keep an open mind and my response fairly applicable to anyone in general.
It’s clear that someone is being deceptive. I have no idea whether it’s some of the LMG team or Madison. I have to trust someone claiming to be a victim though.
These are serious, possibly criminal, accusations that Madison is making on a very public platform. Big accusations like this honestly belong to the courts and I hope that courts will figure out the truth – that’s what they’re there for. If it all just boils down to PR and settlements out of court then IMO that is a miscarriage of justice for every would-be third party victim of harassment.
It’s true that just about any online platform has to deal with sexually explicit content. But OnlyFans has a particular reputation about it. So if LMG has an OnlyFans account and she was managing, producing for, or interacting with it then I most certainly believe she’d have been exposed to sexually explicit material. If I were to investigate, I’d start truth-finding from there: find out what management’s policies are/were with regards to dealing with that content and find out what actual actions were taken for that content. Subpoena OnlyFans to produce copies of the content and correlate their own reports of whatever action LMG claims to have taken. From there, the rest of the accusations will fall into place with weight.
I’m a citizen of the USA and have only worked for US businesses. I don’t know about Canadian law (nor am I a lawyer in the US) but I would be surprised and saddened if they don’t have a strong legal system to protect victims.
Thanks for this! I’m a male manager of a team of mostly men and one woman, and we have a handful of other women on our broader team.
Fortunately, our company has never done any of this nonsense, and I hope nobody in our department (or company for that matter) would ever think of it. Our head of HR is female, as is our department’s HR rep, and we did a big push for DEI training over the last couple of years (the best company meeting imo was a Q&A with a panel of women, immigrants, and racial minorities). That has mostly run its course, but we still have mandatory, short, digital trainings every year, and a longer in-person one for new hires that repeats every few years for existing hires.
I’m going to bring up some of these points with the women on my team and ask them politely to let me know if they have anything they’d like to mention. It’s hard enough to attract women in my field (software development), so I want to keep whatever women we can find. But if my company is not a healthy working environment for anyone on my team, I would prefer they leave than continue somewhere they don’t feel comfortable, but I’d like the opportunity to try to fix the problem first.
So thanks again! I hope you’re in a better work environment now.
I’ve heard similar before about her being HR in addition to CFO, but I went to confirm on their site and they don’t list anyone as HR staff that I could find.
I have never felt the need to use YouTube for anything aside from classic comedy clips, music, gameplay clips and trailers. So, YouTube personalities like these pass me by. I’m one of those types who instantly closes a video if I hear commentary or talking over it. I don’t want to hear that shite.
Maybe it’s because I grew up without YouTube, unlike my daughter. She watches so much utter shit on there, unfortunately.
However, I have watched one LTT video before when doing some electronic engineering classes, and we were shown one to explain some thing I can’t remember. I do remember saying the guy seemed like a right prick, to the chagrin of others in my class. A smug, know-it all prick.
I’m like you, grown up without YT and I rarely watch it, for some video clip, or when I need to check how to disassemble my laptop or washing machine. I never watched a “YouTuber” or never ever went to twitch
Linus always gave me creep vibes, especially that horrible fake laugh he has. Add to that all of the times others in his videos jibe at him for being a horrible boss, in a “joking” kind of way that always seemed like they were more than jokes. I did wonder why Madison didn’t appear in more videos, and I’m glad she’s out of there now. I have unsubscribed from LTT on YouTube and I’m glad I never got around to buying any merch.
It's hard not to empathize and immediately jump for pitchforks but... does she have any proof of this, or other people that can confirm any of these? From what I've seen all we have is her word.
I mean, remember few years ago when the internet collectively descended on Mick Gordon or Chris Avellone? And then only after years it came to light that they didn't actually do anything wrong and were falsely thrown under the bus by other people or companies? Or that thing with Bayonetta's VA and everyone coming to her aid even though in the end she was the one outright lying about the whole situation? Or the Disco Elysium situation, or probably dozens of other internet dramas fueled by emotion? I think we should collectively wait for something more than one person badmouthing on the internet before we jump to conclusions.
Listen, I’m not at all saying she’s lying, but I do not know her and people do shit for inexplicable reasons all the time.
She is getting a lot of attention, something I’m sure many people would not enjoy, but some of that is definitely being driven to her YT channel, so the whole “nothing to gain” position isn’t really true.
This is an important point. We're all pissed at LTT right now so are eager to jump on any story that supports that narrative. I'm not saying I don't believe Madison (what she says pretty much lines up with what I would expect). But before we convict Linus in the court of public opinion, we should allow him to argue in his defense.
“The number of daily items the Social media role at the time was expected to fill was incredibly high. I was expected to post 3 tweets, 2 Instagram posts, and 2 TikToks minimum per day. I was also expected to plan, film, edit, and post 2 Floatplane exclusives per week”
I think saying “incredibly high” is an exaggeration
I’m disappointed. Jesus of all people should know how dangerous it is to ride without proper gear. Where’s the helmet? Where’s the armor? And, Christ… are those Sandals?? ATGATT!
Basically a twitch streamer not being able to adapt to a working envoirenment. Streaming games all day long to working at least 8h a day is a big difference tbh
Yeah, these people just can’t adjust to the real world of (checks notes) being inappropriately touched by coworkers and being silenced and threatened when speaking up about it.
I cant think bad of a person who I watch since years and who has helped me get into this tech space without hearing his argument first. I don’t know why all you guys are hating on him for no reason 😣
Working 8 hours a day gets a lot harder when everyone above you in the company is actively working against you.
Not to mention, if you read a little further down they mention multiple instances of sexual harassment with basically no response from HR. That is absolutely unforgivable.
Of all the takes you could have taken from this you chose this steaming pile of shit.
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.
Is this “adapting to a working environment” to you?
This might sound like im a fan boy but i just can’t imagine Linus doing that. She already was in such bad from all the stuff. She might have made it up to be something really big without it being that as well
I just can’t believe how bad some workplaces are. A female friend of mine once told me that her boss said to her, in a meeting with others present: “I should throw you down on this table and rape you for suggesting that.”
I don’t care what was said. I don’t care how good that boss’ sense of humor is. I don’t care what kind of hilarity goes on in that office environment. Those words should never be spoken aloud in the workplace (or anywhere).
And as someone who works at a real, adult workplace where such things are not tolerated, I’m just floored to hear these stories. I once told a female coworker that she’d been harsh in a meeting and she fired back that I was being sexist, basically telling her to “smile more.” I shut my mouth and kept my head down for fear of being fired if she reported me.
And other people are threatening rape, calling people n-words, and all this bullshit - and getting away with it? I am just stunned.
Madison was a person chosen for ROG reboot (Asus sponsored LMG to make PCs with people after they made a video explaining why they should get one) and her video was really popular (5th most viewed on LTT channel with 12mil views) and people enjoyed her personality/dynamic. Later, there was a job offering posted for social media manager/coordinator and she ended up getting the job, after that you can read what she says happened (not saying it did, not saying it didn’t, just saying what we do know). She also posted about some of this stuff before I’m pretty sure, but I don’t remember exactly what she said (it was in the same vein as this, but I’m pretty sure this is more in detail though).
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