this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 382 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago

Should be pinned ngl

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[–] [email protected] 135 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Holy shit

This is Billet labs all over again, they'll literally only do something if they're publicly called out

[–] [email protected] 104 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Yeah, it's called lack of ethical integrity.

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[–] [email protected] 122 points 1 year ago (9 children)

I'm starting a new conspiracy that Linus knew all this was coming and that's why he hired the new CEO. I have no facts but I said it on the internet so people will believe me.

[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I know you're kinda joking, but I think there is some truth to that. I think he made the decision because he could not manage the whole thing alone, and the workplace environment Madison described could well be caused by general stress and mismanagement

[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I’ve been under huge amounts of stress and have been mismanaged, but it never turned me into a grabass bully.

systemic issues like this don’t just come from nowhere. likewise, they didn’t just appear, either. nor will they simply disappear now that they’ve been exposed or with some glib promise to “do better”.

workplace atmospheres like this take time to develop and… fester. From what Madison described, it’s been this what from, at least, the time she started, which means these behaviors, these patterns, were existing, likely for some time.

What Linus knew, when, etc. may important in a civil case, but it’s not to me— He failed at his job, and didn’t ask for help/hire help to fix the problems until faaaar too late. If it was this bad for Madison, it had to be at least as bad if not worse for others before her who simply did not (or could not) speak out, as well as other who are still there.

Systemic issues do not affect only one person, and they don’t appear out of nowhere. Expect more bad news and expect that any resolution/fixes will take time and major change. If you don’t see any major changes over a reasonable amount of time, don’t trust claims that they’re “working on it."

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

Linus has a track record and proven history of doing/saying stupid shit. I think in this case, he recognizes that he's just shit at his job and wants help. He most likely didn't expect the Billet issue (no way he would have known Steve would have released a vid) and if he knew about Madison coming out, he'd have tried to prevent that sooner. Hiring a CEO won't fix the Madison problem, as that event had already occurred.

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[–] [email protected] 72 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Afaik this (third party) investigation was started by Terren Tong, the CEO, who was not in this position as of this year and Madison left a couple years ago. I think on this part we can at least give him the benefit of the doubt for now. Linus position might be a very different matter though.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean he also is a friend of Linus' going a long while back but I agree he should be given a chance to straighten this out

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Friend yes, but he was his boss, and in linus's own words, he was the only one who could manage linus. Idk, I am cautiously positive due to the new CEO, but he does still answer to Linus so...

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (5 children)

The end result will likely be something like: "We have investigated ourselves and found that we are blameless of any wrongdoing". Which is usually how these things end up.

Also, weird to not see them saying they'll reach out to Madison to get the story from her, but I guess that might be one of those obvious things so not mentioned. I hope.

[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 year ago (13 children)

It being a third-party investigator means they aren't "investigating themselves."

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Yeah yeah yeah, standard response. It won't work. People won't come forward and nothing can/will be done if anyone does come forward. It'll just be awkward for them for a while. Maybe someone will get blamed, fired or resigning ... and then... it'll happen again.

The damage is already done. There's no way to undo it.

They can't handle this by just asking people to snitch. Allowing or encouraging individuals to snitch on other individuals is not the way to stop this.

The proper way for a company to handle harassment cases is to prevent them from happening in the first place.

The proper damage control is to admit that they didn't do enough to prevent it from happening and then tell everyone about how they're going to follow proper OSHA guidance from here on. Let's hear about how they let their employees elect a representative and how they plan to implement preventive actions, and what the procedure is to handle any potential situations before they escalate into a shit show like this.

I guess their union representative could have told them this a long time ago, but hey, they don't have one, because they also thought they could handle everything without any. Look at where that got them.

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"Damage control, its there when you need to cover your ass. Speaking of covers this is the perfect segue to our sponsor, Dbrand..."

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Finally a normal safe corporate response rather than further digging a hole for themselves.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Now that people are watching and are angry, we care too, people"

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What a corporate answer that says, now that the public knows we suck I guess we need to address it.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (20 children)

What kind of answer would you rather have. I'm seriously asking what should the comment have been in order for you to be happy?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

I feel a good majority of people are just in the outrage phase and there's literally no response that would have been good enough.

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[–] Anonbal185 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I always thought his channel was really dummed down. I watched a video or two and then noped out of it. Wasn't many if at all any tips from the so called tech tips site.

Oh and stating the obvious but he's 'sorry' because he got caught.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It sounds like they are taking her harassment allegations seriously, but not the allegations of excessive levels of work expected, which IMO sounded far more serious. Like having someone grope you is no joke, but having to cut yourself just so you can request a day off is insane

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

Wonder how many international and domestic workers they've contract rugpulled, since this will probably be the one that flies under the radar due to all the other issues.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I had literally never heard of this company before now and all the threads on Reddit have thousands upon thousands of posts. Why is this such a BFD? Not saying it isn't, I just live under a rock.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 1 year ago

LTT is one of the biggest YouTube channels and commands a lot of influence in the PC gaming community. The parent organisation actually has a lot of channels on youtube and they pump out a ton of videos under a few different names so even if you don't recognise the LTT name you might have seen some of their other videos just in passing.

Why is it a big deal? Because the accusations are big, given their influence on peoples' purchasing decisions.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago

LTT, for better or worse, is a very popular tech/PC gaming entertainment YouTube channel. A lot of the younger folks in the nerd space probably grew up watching his content.

I started watching a little late, because I thought he seemed kind of annoying back in the day, but I actually do enjoy their content. It's clear they have some organization and communication problems internally that they need to sort out, though.

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