Fades,

So many of these fuckin YouTube content farms are like this. Reminds me of the rooster teeth fiasco

HughJanus,

I think most male-dominated industries/businesses are this way.

happyhippo,

I remember getting told off for taking my sick days, as in the days you’re entitled to. This no days off, “grindset” culminated in the real moment I realized I had to leave. I purposefully cut my leg open so badly I would have to go to the ER to get it stapled back together. It was genuinely the only way in my mind to take a day off without being harassed for a reason why.

Holy shit that’s insane

bungiefan_af,

She’s not right up there in the head, who would hurt themselves just to get a day out of work? seems beyond childish and immature. harassed for a reason? just give them one lol, she sounds like she was hiding something.

TwinTusks,

she sounds like she was hiding something.

I don’t get this impression at all, although I do agree that she seems a bit unstable as shes taking self harm to avoid work, she do admit that during her time working there, shes depressed, that might explain a bit.

magnor,
@magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh avatar

Depressed and harassed people that is who. Get some empathy.

Lionheart,

That is absolutely shocking. She is such an amazing personality and is being thrown unter the bus so hard. Really wish her all the best. Unsubscribed from the out of touch coorperation being focused on money only (which is in “some way” natural of course but never should the care for the employees being put aside, no thank you)

ronflex,

The shit about telling her that she tries to be funny because she doesn’t have any other skills. Wow, that’s completely fucked up. I couldn’t even imagine someone close to me saying something like that let alone someone who has direct authority over me.

Thing is though, if that is true where comedy is one of her strongest aspects, what’s wrong with that? She was obviously very fun and charismatic to get noticed by them in the first place, in my opinion people should be put in roles that best suit them and can show off their talents rather then putting them in roles that almost directly set them up for failure. In the videos I saw her in I honestly thought she was very funny and likeable.

Sounds like they needed a zoomer to help liven up the vibe but weren’t willing to stop shitty traditionalist work environment that zoomers all around the world are starting to wise up and stand up to.

As much as people want to see (maybe not so much now) LTT as a progressive company, this shit just makes it obvious they are just playing the same capitalist game as every other huge company in the world.

Good job LTT, you managed to go from a home-grown and likeable team to a giant faceless corporation that plays the same game as all of the other big dogs and act just as terrible. Everything your company stood for when it started has been completely shit on and thrown in the dumpster.

Why is it that when companies start making good money, increasing that cash flow becomes the sole focus of all daily operations and and values fall to the wayside? Honestly thought shit like this would be better in Canada than US 😂😂

hackitfast,
@hackitfast@lemmy.world avatar

Why is it that when companies start making good money, increasing that cash flow becomes the sole focus of all daily operations and and values fall to the wayside?

Ironically, their sponsors will now probably pull out and cause the company to collapse.

magnor,
@magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh avatar

Greed and the pursuit of profits and “success” are poisonous as all hell. Fuck that system.

catapult7724,

This is heartbreaking to read. I’m done with LTT after this and I hope this leads to waves within the company.

Stabbitha,

Same here, just unsubscribed. Issues like this speak to a larger cultural issue within an organization, and Linus leading such an organization says a lot about him.

excitingburp,

unsubscribed

I was an avid fan since 2015, fortunately I adopted their perspective about shitty companies and what to do about them. I don’t preorder, I don’t tolerate shitty ethics, I don’t purchase half-finished videos/products, which means I certainly don’t consume LTT content.

Madison is a hero for stepping up like this.

maxprime,

Same. It’s a shame. I started following Linus since the GT 400 series in 2010, in the NCIX days. Bought my first graphics card under his advice (an MSI GT460 Cyclone). I always appreciated his consumer first approach to reviews, and found his ambition and entrepreneurial spirit inspiring. Watching his company grow from the ground up was very exciting and I was always happy to see the next stage of LMG unfold. Watching him move into the house and make the kitchen set, do the whole room water cooling, and then the warehouse (to name a few) have been really exciting milestones that I’ll never forget.

The past few years have been different. He’s started to become quite the narcissist, and it’s been weird watching him try to defend his awful hot takes on WAN show. It’s bizarre watching him never admit fault or admit that something that he’s done was wrong. Even in the most petty of objections, like a stupid contest on Channel Super Fun. I’m pretty sure he’s won every contest he’s been in - the race against Emily in the tech support challenge, all (I think) of the scrapyard wars he was in, and pretty much anything else that comes to mind. I always found that to be kind of pathetic for the CEO/leader of a company. I’ve always wondered if that kind of mentality bled into other aspects of his leadership.

I’ve mostly stopped consuming their content but occasionally I’ll watch a couple of their videos. I’m not sure if I’m going to cut them out cold turkey but I think I’ll take a break at least until the dust settles. Certainly, if/when Emily returns I would really like to support her.

uninvitedguest,
@uninvitedguest@lemmy.ca avatar

Honest question, what were you a fan of? Their videos never quite landed with me.

excitingburp,

Mostly the IT stuff (server builds, networking, etc.) and especially the home stuff. I’m a fiend for information, and it was a pretty digestible format.

slugbones,
@slugbones@lemmy.ml avatar

I thought it was weird they gave her a behind camera job when she was so clearly good at being a presenter. To me it seems like Linus felt threatened or jealous of how much the audience liked her.

Proud of her for going public. I’ve faced a lot of the same bullcrap in the workplace as a guy, I can only imagine how miserable it is with gendered harassment on top of it.

natryamar,

She could have been a great foil in videos and someone who could have maybe taken his place as an entertainer when he wanted to quit. But maybe he was just talking about that to get people emotional and sympathetic…

Retiring,
@Retiring@lemmy.ml avatar

What’s really creepy is, Linus let’s his employees and wife model in underwear to peddle his merch. I mean, what’s the job description there? You are a writer and an underwear model?

ante,
@ante@lemmy.world avatar

If they want to and voluntarily do it, what is the issue? I can’t imagine anyone is being forced to.

jvisick,

It entirely depends on the culture around it. Is everyone expected to model underwear for their store? If someone doesn’t want to - is the culture supportive, neutral, dismissive, or antagonistic? Are they expected to do it but just allowed to choose not to? Or is there no expectation to do it, but volunteers are welcomed?

I can’t imagine anyone is being forced to, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the company culture is dismissive or demeaning of people who would rather not.

ante,
@ante@lemmy.world avatar

Well, we have literally no insight into this so it’s kind of strange to speculate about it with nothing other than “these pictures exist.” I’d rather save my outrage (and I’m using that term very loosely in regards to this whole matter) for actual problems that have been demonstrated.

Retiring,
@Retiring@lemmy.ml avatar

You are not wrong. But with allegations of SA in the room, the fact that the pictures exist gets a bitter aftertaste.

Ganrokh,

Yep, I’m never watching Linus after this.

pascal,

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!

sugar_in_your_tea,

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.

Froglicg,

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.

Squirrel_Patrol,

My heart breaks for Madison because as a woman in tech myself, many of her experiences sound familiar. HR leaders, in many companies, exist primarily to serve the executive team and play PR for them. I’ve met very few who truly have employees backs and even they’re considered rebels. The best option most of the time is to leave the company because even if they call in a 3rd party, it’s lawsuit prevention and not an attempt to fix things. If anyone is in a situation where they’re the victim of inappropriate behavior and the company brings in their lawyer to talk to everyone, do not talk to them. They’re just gathering information so they can refute claims if litigation is presented. They work for the company, not you.

Oneobi,

It’s such a shame when great talent leaves the organisation because of the continued primitive traits. It must be so exhausting.

magnor,
@magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh avatar

This is good advice. Oftentimes, if the workplace really is that toxic, they have methods in place to keep being that way and punish whistleblowers.

1984, (edited )
@1984@lemmy.today avatar

Jesus, never trust HR, ever!

I thought everyone understood this. They work for the company, not for you.

There are a lot of weird people in tech. They end up there because computers dont require social skills.

But there are also a lot of really good and nice people. I never watched Linux tech tips because unlike most, I didn’t like him at all. His vibe is shitty. It’s obvious.

My colleagues at work are great though. But they don’t use social media, which I think is part of why they are great. The constant need to be seen must be unhealthy.

ineedaunion, (edited )

I’m going through it now after being terminated for having the gall to stand up after a store manager and the HR rep took advantage of an underaged girl. The Home Depot everybody. I’ve been essentially blacklisted in this shit city in a state that looks like a face.

Squirrel_Patrol,

I’m so sorry this happened to you but also proud of you for what you did. That takes a lot of courage and if you haven’t already, retaliation can be reported and you may still be able to collect unemployment. I wish you all the best in your job search

ineedaunion,

I was denied both my appeals today for unemployment. It will be retribution then.

diskmaster23,

Not to be mean, but perhaps her work wasn’t that good? Is it possible to have mental health issues and have your work not be good?

SeaJ,

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.

Ikelton,

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.

IgnacioM,
@IgnacioM@lemmy.ml avatar

Even if it was, no one should be talked to that way

cordlesslamp,

Yikes.

Never knew she quitted LTT. Back then I was so happy for her for getting her “dream job”, she seem so happy.

She is charming and I love every second of her on screen. She was having a huge approval from fans for every videos she was on, even though there’s not much of them, only a handful afaik.

I was wondering why she wasn’t appear in more videos but then I just thought since her main role was social media, she needs to focus on that.

Now I feel really bad for her after reading the whole thing.

For now, I’ll give LTT the benefit of the doubt and waiting for their response.

xusontha,

I just typed a whole response and it just got deleted ugh. I’m going to just summarize what I’m saying:

I think this is terrible if it happened, but if it did then why hasn’t anyone else had the same thing happen to them/talk out about it/post something anonymously? Not saying it didn’t, just wondering how we got to this situation and what the actual facts are. I’ll be waiting for facts from a third party to make my final judgement though (think I got it all)

Also here is a response from Linus via the Verge:

I was in a state of shock reading through these allegations, plain and simple. They aren’t consistent with my recollections. They aren’t consistent with our internal processes. They aren’t consistent with our company values. We pride ourselves on maintaining a safe and inclusive environment. In addition to our existing report systems (both anonymous and otherwise) we’ve proactively reached out internally today to encourage members of our team to report any workplace bullying or harassment they might be experiencing so we can take quick and decisive action. Our HR team will be conducting a more thorough assessment of the allegations, and when we are ready, we will release a more complete statement. For now I would ask that we allow our team the time they need be as thorough as possible.

Also forgot to add, the new CEO Terran Tong is also hiring an outside investigator to look into it. I would like for those results to be made public

magnor,
@magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh avatar

Tong committed to make the results public. Let us hope he does exactly that.

msage,

I’m sorry, what benefit of the doubt? What could they possibly say to make anything look differently?

cordlesslamp,

It’s only fair, right? Always hear all sides of the story before judgement.

Remember recently, a video on social media of a white “karen” seem to try stealing a bike from a black man and try to “play victim” by crying? Turned out she’s a nurse that rented that bike first and was harassed by the man to the point she’s crying and yelling for help?

msage,

What side?

A company that will try to save face because they have a lot to lose?

What in the world do you imagine they can say? That they will corraborate her story?

alertsleeper,

If you aren’t willing to give them the benefit of the doubt you are also part of the problem jumping to conclusions before hearing all the arguments

msage,

Please answer the question: what could they say to make you feel any differently?

alertsleeper,

I honestly have no idea. Right now I don’t believe I’ll ever watch LTT videos the same way just because I know behind cameras the whole thing might be a shitshow. But probably the result of this whole investigation might change my mind

msage,

You do understand that it’s incredibly hard to prove workplace harassment beyond reasonable doubt? Which is why victims almost never go public? Since nobody believes them and want to hEaR bOtH sIdEs?

This isn’t two ex lovers arguing, this is workplace harassment ffs.

alertsleeper,

I do realize that. But by the way you wrote this comment you completely despise the idea of

to hEaR bOtH sIdEs

So we should just take one side’s word and run with it? Sounds awfully dangerous tbh

msage,

Yes, I completely despise it.

It makes sense to hear both sides when the sides are equal - like Depp vs Heard. But when you get an entire novel written about workplace harrassment and abuse, I don’t care what the PR dept will cough up. Specially after hearing the response to GN video.

Give me other ex-employees, give me third party investigations, but I absolutely do not give a damn about the company response.

xusontha,

I’m going to copy and paste my comment from another post here:

If this is true this is bad. Like, really bad

I say “if” just because I don’t really know what the facts are, I just know what some people are claiming

To be clear, I’m not saying it didn’t happen, I’m just saying that, at the moment, it’s just Madison saying these things did happen and Linus essentially saying they didn’t

My question is if she had such a bad experience, why hasn’t anyone else said anything, or at least put an anonymous negative review on Glassdoor or something? Did she just have a awful experience that was unusual, or is everyone/a large number of people treated like this? I don’t think it’s the second or it would’ve come out already and from more than one source (and the turnover is pretty low for LMG if I’m not mistaken, so that also doesn’t make sense), but I don’t really know. That’s really the crux of the situation, is I just don’t know. I’m glad they got an outside investigator though; hopefully that’ll clear everything up

circuscritic,

Linus is not declaratively stating it didn’t happen, he’s using PR doublespeak to minimize his legal exposure down the road.

xusontha,

That’s why I said “essentially saying they didn’t”. He’s doing it for business reasons, but at it’s core, his message was he wasn’t aware of it and didn’t think it was happening, while Madison was saying he did know and didn’t care Maybe one is lying, maybe both are, maybe neither are. At this point, we really can’t know until something like that third party investigator releases their results

potustheplant,

She did leave a 1 star review in glassdoor when she quit.

xusontha,

I know she did, but what I was saying was why didn’t anyone else

I only see two other reviews on their Glassdoor which are both positive, but that isn’t a lot so it’s hard to draw a definitive conclusion

goferking0,

They may have but the company has the opportunity to get those removed

xusontha,

Yes, see the comment I made to [email protected] in the same thread

inetknght,

why hasn’t anyone else said anything,

People don’t speak up for many reasons. Retaliation is a big thing: if you speak up then your job there is toast whether or not you’re still employed there. You still “have” to work with or around the people you’re accusing, until and unless you leave. Have you ever had to work with someone who’s abused you? It’s… not fun.

If you need the money, you’re kind’ve stuck: if you quit then you have to have a savings account to keep you afloat while you look for another job. While you’re looking for another job, your accusations here can prevent you from getting another job. Whether or not you leave, you still have to deal with the fallout: investigations take time, especially your time. If you have to take time off of work (eg, to see an attorney or visit a court) then that time might not be paid – can you afford to take that time off? Worse; you might even have to pay someone for that time (eg, an attorney). Can you afford that? That’s especially true if your compensation barely meets your financial obligations such that you’re not really able to put away savings. There’s a term for that: wage slave. Those costs are partly why there’s government agencies designed to help you.

Thoughts about cost is just the tip of the iceberg. Many don’t realize that they’re being abused. A lot of people don’t realize that others might also be victims too. Some people trivialize it. Friends around you tell you that it’s “normal” behavior or that it’s normal for coworkers to “socialize” and banter, that they didn’t mean anything about it. People start to second-guess themselves.

When’s the last time your company gave you anti-harassment training? If it’s been more than a year (or never) then you might want to speak up about it and ask for it to be provided. Or, reach out to your government agency and ask for some training guidance.

or at least put an anonymous negative review on Glassdoor or something?

Glassdoor is notoriously business-friendly. It’s fairly trivial for businesses to have reviews removed.

xusontha,

I knew speaking up publicly wasn’t very likely for most for the reasons you talked about and I was more expecting anonymous complaints, maybe didn’t phrase that part well

For the anonymous negative review, I didn’t mean just Glassdoor, I meant in general we haven’t really heard very much negative about working at LMG besides it’s somewhat stressful because of the fast pace at which everything runs. If it was as bad for everyone as Madison claims it was for her (reiterating, not claiming it didn’t happen, just we don’t know anything definitively yet) then at least one other person in the 100+ person company would have contacted someone like the Verge or Coffeezilla or anyone else who does news/exposés. Even if most were trivializing it, there should be at least more than just Madison realizing it with how bad she was saying it was. Also, she talked about some of her coworkers apologizing to her for others’ actions, so at least some of them realize that not everything is just “normal”

inetknght,

For the anonymous negative review, I didn’t mean just Glassdoor, I meant in general we haven’t really heard very much negative about working at LMG besides it’s somewhat stressful because of the fast pace at which everything runs. If it was as bad for everyone as Madison claims it was for her (reiterating, not claiming it didn’t happen, just we don’t know anything definitively yet) then at least one other person in the 100+ person company would have contacted someone like the Verge or Coffeezilla or anyone else who does news/exposés. Even if most were trivializing it, there should be at least more than just Madison realizing it with how bad she was saying it was. Also, she talked about some of her coworkers apologizing to her for others’ actions, so at least some of them realize that not everything is just “normal”

I’ve been at companies with 150+ employees where people didn’t speak up in official complaints about perceived or observed issues. We’d all go to a bar after work and talk about things after a few drinks. I don’t know how many things weren’t mentioned at the bar and I certainly didn’t go to every company social event. “Keep things in the family” was a strong sentiment. Were things mentioned online? I’m aware that we did end up with some very poor Glassdoor and Indeed reviews – those were shared directly to me by former employees. But those eventually disappeared. So, after some time, generally nope.

Several people, including myself, would bottle up the problems and just decide to leave after the bottle filled. It’s not healthy to keep that bottle full and it’s a personal decision about whether to raise the concerns or find employment elsewhere.

I’m no saint. I’ve made mistakes and I’ve had some talkings-to about them, both at the bar and outside of it. I’ve learned from them. It’s important for everyone to admit when they make mistakes and talk about what they’ve learned from them. It’s part of the reason why anti-harassment is one of the things I’m passionate about.

So I’m speaking from third party (w.r.t. LMG) experience. So, back to the topic at hand.

Perhaps people did speak up about LMG but those complaints didn’t weren’t public or didn’t gain public traction. For example, I remember some drama about Linus and Naomi Wu a few years ago. What came of that? Those events aren’t (as far as I’m aware of) related to Madison Reeves. But honestly it doesn’t matter except that, if true, it can set a pattern.

I don’t think anyone should assume that people would have spoken up about issues prior to Madison. Even if someone did, Madison’s statements deserve to be viewed on their own merit regardless of other people’s statements. Now that the accusations are public, if they bring other statements public, then those can be viewed in their own light as well.

Perhaps there’s someone from LMG who will provide a contrasting experience. That would be interesting. Even if that happens, quite honestly, the investigation should default to being private until and unless one party chooses to share more information.

xusontha, (edited )

Madison’s statements deserve to be viewed on their own merit regardless of other people’s statements

I honestly and wholeheartedly agree with this. Anytime there’s a problem of this nature it should be looked into and investigated. My main point is just, at this point, it’s hard to definitively know the exact, full truth (again, just to be clear not saying it didn’t).

the investigation should default to being private until and unless one party chooses to share more information

Given how personal and private this investigation is, I wouldn’t want the specific details to be released unless Madison/others who were hurt want to reveal their own details. However, I would hope whoever does the investigation would reveal simply if this is true or not and if so to what extent (like is everything Madison said 100% true, is most of it, is a little, or none of it)

Edit: Apparently the CEO said they will publish the findings of the external investigation, which is good. He seems like he wants to tell the truth, so that’s good.

inetknght,

I would hope whoever does the investigation would reveal simply if this is true or not and if so to what extent (like is everything Madison said 100% true, is most of it, is a little, or none of it)

Keep it balanced. The investigation should only state what changes to the company are recommended as a result of the investigation. If staffing changes are recommended, then no statement of why. Further information is relevant only to the parties involved. Anything else can cause further problems.

xusontha,

I just found out the CEO said they will publish the findings of the external investigation, and I think they won’t release anything that’s personal unless the victim themselves wants it released as that would just make the situation worse (on top of just not being a nice thing to do)

ipkpjersi,

She did write a review on Glassdoor, and Linus downplayed it then IIRC

xusontha,

I know she did, but what I was saying was why didn’t anyone else (on Glassdoor or anywhere else) (also the downplaying isn’t very good, it was someone’s legitimate feelings even if you/others disagreed with them)

I only see two other reviews on their Glassdoor which are both positive, but that isn’t a lot so it’s hard to draw a definitive conclusion

ipkpjersi,

Sure, it’s not a great indication. Everything I’ve seen so far, and the leaked 2021 meeting with James seeming to have made a sexual joke at the end of a sexual harassment meeting… it’s not looking great.

If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck… it might be a duck.

xusontha, (edited )

It very well might be… though I hope (less and less now) it’s just a weird pigeon

Edit: That recording of the team meeting with James’ joke really doesn’t help

tenochtitlan, (edited )

A former employee of LTT responded to Madison’s departure announcement supporting her decision to leave LTT.

Here is the tiktok of the employee vagueposting about a possible toxic work environment. (Name is Maxine).

v.redd.it/ihu19dp22u981

xusontha,

That link doesn’t work cuz the post is deleted, but here’s an archive of it

I’m a bit confused on how it supports her decision though, can you explain? (not saying it doesn’t, I’m just not into a ton of zoomer tiktok stuff and think there’s something I’m missing)

tenochtitlan,

I forgot to mention that she showed support on a different platform, twitter .It all occurred at the same time, that’s why I lumped it all together. Can’t link since I don’t have an account. I’m pretty sure I saw people mentioning Max’s twitter support in the comments of the reddit post. It was in the form of a liked tweet which is big because everyone can see your liked tweets.

The old version of the post works but not the redesign for some reason.

old.reddit.com/…/maxine_vagueposting_about_why_ma…

xusontha,

Was the support just Max liking the tweet or was it more than that like a comment? I’m not sure I’m fully understanding what you’re saying

tenochtitlan,

Apparently to the zoomers its a big think to like a tweet since everyone can see that you liked it. Its like a sly “retweet”. Retweets are when you just post the same tweet to your followers.

magnor,
@magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh avatar

I wasn’t aware of that leaked meeting. What are you refering to ?

ipkpjersi,

There was a meeting the day after Madison quit, and at the end of the meeting, James seems to have made a joke about sexual harassment. It wasn’t a great look. That meeting recently leaked.

magnor,
@magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh avatar

Ah yes this one. Quite awful indeed.

chaorace,
@chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

My question is if she had such a bad experience, why hasn’t anyone else said anything, or at least put an anonymous negative review on Glassdoor or something? […] (and the turnover is pretty low for LMG if I’m not mistaken, so that also doesn’t make sense)

Indeed, why is that? Why would she have such an abnormaly bad experience at this particular company? I can’t seem to think of any particular traits that she might have which would have caused her to be treated differently. If sexist comments and sexual harassment are such a problem, then why do people like Gary, James, Ed, Nick, Colton, or Luke apparently seem blind to it? I have no idea what disparity in the distribution of power could possibly account for this phenomenon!

xusontha,

The fact she is a woman is different than the majority, however there are other women at LMG and most likely/hopefully, not all the men at LMG are sexist so most likely at least one person from one of those camps would object/want to do/say something (I would hope little to none would be sexist, but we don’t work there so we don’t know)

But the point she is a woman makes it more likely/harder is entirely valid, yes

chaorace,
@chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

The fact she is a woman is different than the majority, however there are other women at LMG

I don’t know how to respond to this without speaking condescendingly. I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to trust me when I say that women can still be subjected to workplace harassment in situations where they aren’t literally the only girl in the building. I’ll leave it at that unless an actual woman wants to step in and expand on this subject further.

not all the men at LMG are sexist so most likely at least one person from one of those camps would object/want to do/say something

That’s just how power works. If you’re in the minority, your needs and concerns get less attention. If you’re in a very small minority, they become practically invisible. Organizations aren’t immune to this. Sexist outcomes can and will readily emerge from systems where none of the individuals directly intend to do a sexism.

As evidence, I’ll point to the statistic itself. A gender gap as steep as this one doesn’t happen by random chance. The only way you get this far skewed is with a feedback loop.

xusontha,

I’m sorry, but you’ll just have to trust me when I say that women can still be subjected to workplace harassment in situations where they aren’t literally the only girl in the building.

I didn’t mean it didn’t happen, what I meant is there are other people who would be going through the same thing she did. I understand that it happens that’s why I said your point about her being a woman is valid

That’s just how power works. If you’re in the minority, your needs and concerns get less attention. If you’re in a very small minority, they become practically invisible. Organizations aren’t immune to this. Sexist outcomes can and will readily emerge from systems where none of the individuals directly intend to do a sexism.

Again, I think you missed my point. I’m not saying it didn’t happen (or did; we still don’t have the report from the investigation), rather I’m just wondering why no one else said anything (again, just to be perfectly clear, I’M NOT SAYING IT DID OR DID NOT HAPPEN I’m just trying to understand the situation and how we got to this point. Maybe she was directly under a single person who was really bad. Maybe all the women are treated bad. We just don’t know, at least not until the results from the external investigation come out.)

chaorace, (edited )
@chaorace@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

You’re of course within your rights to remain unconvinced, but I fail to understand the mindset that would lead a reasonable bystander to look at what Ms. Reeves has said thus far and think “there’s a significant chance that this is untrue”. Why? For what purpose? She stands to gain nothing by lying unless you start imagining that a much broader conspiracy is somehow at play.

If you’re willing to entertain the idea of a hitherto unsubstantiated conspiracy from one side, then why not also suspect that LMG will conspire to hire a crooked auditor or otherwise hide unflattering findings? Why take anyone’s word for anything?

xusontha,

Why take anyone’s word for anything?

What I was trying to say is I’m not really taking anyone’s word for anything, I’m just trying to put the puzzle pieces together about what might have happened to result in the statements and facts we do know (which are really not a lot)

I fail to understand the mindset that would lead a reasonable bystander to look at what Ms. Reeves has said thus far and think “there’s a significant chance that this is untrue”

My mindset is this: I don’t know Madison, nor do I know Linus or anyone else at LMG. So I don’t really trust either them (more specifically I don’t immediately believe what either say without other reasons to believe it), since all I’ve seen of them is what they’ve allowed people to see of them. However, just because I don’t immediately take what they say as fact doesn’t mean I dismiss what they say; rather instead it means I want to look into and figure out whether it is true

Lettuceeatlettuce,

This dropped a few hours ago, so let’s wait a bit and see. Often times rot gets exposed in waves. One skeleton falls out of the closet and then a bunch of other skeletons follow.

Even if Madison is the only employee that ever experienced this (doubtful) that is already horrific. She isn’t claiming that it was a single small incident that might have been a bad joke or a misinterpretation of some comment. It’s a bunch of incidents, so not like one thing got blown way out of proportion.

Why has nobody else said anything before? There’s tons of reasons why that might be the case. First, maybe people have and it has remained internal/supressed. Maybe other instances were more “mild” and the victims didn’t feel the need to quit. Maybe the other victims were too frightened, felt they had too much to lose, were pressured more harshly.

I’m standing with Madison until proven otherwise. There have been plenty of hints of this sort of thing for a while, and like I said, scandals tend to come in waves. Nobody says anything for a long time until something bad enough happens that triggers the cascade of testimonies.

Best case scenario, LTT is a toxic workplace that overworks its employees, places profit and marketability over quality data/reviews, and is more and more in bed with corporate powers vs consumers.

Sad, I grew up with LTT through my tech journey, now bye-bye to yet another company/project that fell to the effects of capitalism and enshitification.

xusontha,

CEO said the external investigation’s results will be made public, so I’ll wait to make my opinions then. However, if it turns out they’re true, then they’ll lose a large part of their fanbase, including me.

PrettyFlyForAFatGuy,

I dunno, Linus recognized the fact he is not a good CEO and hired a replacement to fix that problem. If the investigation comes back that there were issues and the perpetrators are purged from the company (or at least severely sanctioned) then I’m willing to give Terran a chance to right the ship

crashoverride,

Shoulda recognized that 10 years ago

PrettyFlyForAFatGuy,

10 years ago they were like 5 guys in a rental house. Completely different situation

xusontha,

I should clarify: if the allegations are true, then they will need to handle it well to convince me to stay. If they just do a mediocre job then I’ll probably just dip

eestileib,

This reads like every rape apologist asking why the person didn’t react like your idea of an “ideal victim”.

To be clear I’m NOT saying that you would ever help create a permissive environment that passively encourages the type of behaviors described in her post, my question is just why you’d feel compelled to write 750 words of “I’m just asking” around your structural dismissal?

Wouldn’t you realize that you’re parroting a rhetorical style that has been used to justify and paper over mistreatment of women in business and personal settings? If this were a good faith statement why would it repeat every trope trotted out by Joe Tacopina?

I just don’t know, I’m not saying I do or do not think that OP’s statement is an example of unwitting enrollment in institutional sexism, or whether I do or do not think it’s trolling.

I just don’t know.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I don’t think OP has any reason to side with Linus here, I think the thrust is just that there’s only two pieces of evidence here, and both from people with opposite motives.

I’m more likely to believe Madison here, but I think there’s a good chance she’s overreacting too. It seems she was treated poorly, and that makes it easier to justify exaggeration.

I’m not particularly hopeful that an external investigation will really help here (after all, they’re likely being paid by LMG), so I’m hopeful that some current or previous employees can corroborate at least some of the claims.

So I guess I’m kind of siding with the OP here, I’m going to reserve judgement until I have more evidence. If I had to pick today, I’d probably side with Madison because her motives to lie are weaker.

eestileib,

I never said that OP was “siding with Linus”, I said OP was using a rhetorical style that can be used to dismiss/minimize claims from pretty much anybody, regardless of the situation.

I wanted to call OP’s attention to the fact that that style of argumentation is used in bad faith more often than not.

More than a couple people in my life have been sexually assaulted and if you’ve ever actually been close to somebody who has, the callousness of the “well why didn’t you…” line of nitpicking is glaring.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Oh, I completely agree. I think the default should always be to side with the victim, even if there’s a good reason to doubt them.

I just think we sometimes go too far and ignore the other side when it doesn’t line up with what the victim says. Weigh the evidence and the motives of each party before making a decision. The bigger the power difference between the two, the more you should suspect the larger party of malice.

I’m more reacting to the strength of the language here, not the general idea.

eestileib,

I had a false accusation of sexual assault leveled against me in a court filing (as soon as we got in front of a judge it got tossed). It is pretty awful to have something like that stated about you in an official document, even when the outcome is “Dismissed”.

And fwiw, to take the Carroll case in NY, I thought the line of argument “she can’t remember what year it was?” was a pretty reasonable thing to have doubts about.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I’m talking about social media reactions here, not police policy.

The police should always assume innocence unless you have proof to the contrary, because the opposite is a potential loss of liberty for innocent people. If you’re a regular joe, you should side with the victim until the other side posts evidence to the contrary, because the opposite is potentially normalizing bad behavior of people in power.

Pieisawesome,

Even if the external investigators are good and it is truly the intention of upper management to get to the bottom of it and they are fully prepared to fire anyone who did something wrong, (I’m not casting doubt on their motives) I truly believe that the external investigation will clear them or they’ll point to 1 person and fire them.

Reason being is memories fade, fear of reprisals, people make excuses or believe certain things weren’t as they were, and there is likely not a lot written down.

Unfortunately, it’s likely to be a he said/she said situation.

sugar_in_your_tea,

True. However, I can hope that, as a small-ish SM company, they’ll care enough to be more transparent than that.

$100M sounds like a lot for a company, but that’s still pretty small potatoes when it comes to companies. Some bad press could see a lot of viewers leave and the company could go under (or drastically scale back) very quickly. That’s just the nature of SM.

I think you’re probably right, but I’m optimistic that LMG will do more than most larger corporations do. I’m not expecting it though, just hopeful.

xusontha,

why you’d feel compelled to write 750 words of “I’m just asking” around your structural dismissal

I wasn’t trying to dismiss what Madison said she went through, I want her to get justice if she went through it. I was trying to just say there are a few pieces of concrete evidence and the rest is he said she said, and I was also just trying to think aloud about what factors could have coalesced into the current situation.

The 750 words of “I’m just asking” are just from a combination of I talk/explain a lot and I also just wanted to be very clear that I wasn’t dismissing the subject because I am staunchly anti-harassment and abuse (also people on the internet notoriously can misinterpret/misunderstand things, including me)

Did that address everything?

eestileib,

Yup.

bionicjoey,

It’s possible their turnover is low enough that a Glassdoor review would be easy to figure out the author, even if anonymous

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup, I worked at a small-ish company (~50 employees) and it would be very easy to identify an anonymous post. ~100 employees isn’t that much larger, so I’m guessing most people know each other there (see Dunbar’s Number).

So I, for one, would probably hesitate to leave a negative review, especially in a social space like YouTube where you could potentially call in a collab to get a new channel up and going.

My current company is a few thousand, and my office is ~200 people (half on a separate floor), and I just don’t know more than ~30. So there seems to be a point where there’s enough people that I don’t go out of my way to get to know others. But I’m guessing at LTT, most people in each building know each other because the company is small enough.

xusontha,

Very true

pascal,

at least put an anonymous negative review on Glassdoor

the review on glassdoor is hers.

xusontha,

I know, that’s why I meant someone besides Madison when I said anyone else. Sorry if that wasn’t clear

excitingburp,

why hasn’t anyone else said anything,

This question has been asked a million times. It has been shown time and time again that whether more people come forward has no correlation to how common something is. This is mostly because it’s really hard to do so while being bullied (which is really just abuse).

Even an outside investigator might have issues getting the real story, and is biased due to being on the same payroll as all the other employees. I have had personal experience with this: an outside investigator called in to resolve a conflict with a person whose bullying had previously caused multiple people to quit. It was resolved “amicably” (which is to say not at all). An employer only gives a damn so far as their bottom line goes, and that goes for Linus too. This investigator is going to come in and tip-toe around LMG’s and Linus’s involvement in this, mark my words.

Again, to summarize, Linus saying the things didn’t happen is exactly why people don’t come forward: my word vs the boss.

andruid,

I mean another piece of evidence is that she had really choose a hard path to walk IF there was nothing going on. She could have just left and kept this bridge unburned if their was nothing to this.

xusontha,

In this situation, one thing that is essentially certain: something happened which led to Madison leaving the company. The reason why is what is being looked into right now (aka are Madison’s claims true)

theroz,

This sounds like the ramblings of someone lacking certain mental faculties. "I purposefully cut my leg open so badly I would have to go to the ER to get it stapled back together. " What? What?

5714,

You have the empathy of a pebble.

theroz,

Great value add. Did you have any input or just here to assert your domineering intelligence? Back to reddit, maybe?

5714,

This sounds like the ramblings of someone lacking certain [“domineering intelligence”].

No, for real, I insulted you, because you did not show any motivation to understand how self-harm works and what Madison R. meant.

theroz,

I’m sorry you feel that way, but we shouldn’t jump on the bandwagon and entertain someone who didn’t do the right thing. You’re the kind of person who sides with the time blindness girl too, I bet. Then you run around accusing others of being insecure. ;)

5714,

I know that I do not know enough about self-harm, but I’m going to say that self-harm is super common (e.g. smoking), glorified, but its effects are at the same time shamed, which makes it difficult for people already facing difficult social situations (e.g. Madison R. at LMG). I don’t condone self-harm. LMG’s workplace toxicity didn’t help.

Derailing is bad talking infrastructure, ADHD exists, TikTok sucks.

Strangle,

This was really weird to read. Self harm like this is normally associated with pretty severe mental illness.

Like what did she think they were going to do if she called in sick? Beat her up? Definitely a strange part of the story.

She probably should have kept that part to herself

theroz,

Exactly.

Then, to combine that tidbit with the rest of the story, well… it just doesn’t seem possible.

I mentioned it on another reply, but I’ll say it here as well. I’m sure that the LTT facilities have camera and audio feeds everywhere. Pretty sure there was an episode about it as well. You mean to tell me that all of this happened in a technology company where everything is auditable? That none of it occurred digitally, where it’s tracked?

This person didn’t go to the police because the story is a fabrication. And they didn’t say anything at the time, because there was likely clear proof of the false claims.

magnor,
@magnor@lemmy.magnor.ovh avatar

Please, for the love of everything good, do some reading on mental health. You’re way off base.

theroz,

Should I just google, “mental health,” or should I take your word? I’ve worked in Behavioral Health for over a decade.

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