The biggest thing that gets me about this #LinusMediaGroup thing is how bad must the working conditions be where someone felt they needed to record an HR meeting the day after Madison left. Seriously. The person who recorded this meeting must have known SOMETHING about Madison and her situation, or was experiencing the same.
In all my years of working for companies big and small, I have never felt the need to secretly record any meeting, let alone an HR meeting.
You know what else I haven't felt the need to do? Tell an inappropriate joke after an HR meeting.
The entire Linus Tech Tips apology rings pretty hollow to me. I'm tired of them reiterating, "oh we'll be transparent about this." Yes, transparency is good, but having outside people read your dogshit homework isn't better than putting the effort into doing your homework right in the first place. They offload a lot of things to the community that benefit them to do so, while actively hiding things from the community that might harm their brand.
Which brings me to Madison Reeve. Are the allegations really shocking to anyone at this point? There have been numerous reports in the past that Linus Media Group cultivates an incredibly misogynistic "boy's club" that's hostile towards women. Linus saying, "They aren’t consistent with my recollections" is completely horseshit. Of course they're not consistent with your recollections. When you treat your company like a frat house, I'd imagine harassing women probably doesn't seem so bad. It's like a bunch of white people at a country club trying to figure out what a microaggression is. The lack of diversity at LMG should be the biggest red flag ever. While Madison's allegations are new, similar allegations are not, so where was the transparency then?
Also speaking to transparency, what about the wage theft? What about the burn out? What about the (apparently not illegal until recently but highly reprehensible) practice of forbidding employees from discussing their pay? Where's the transparency there? Linus and LMG have never addressed the criticisms whatsoever. The egregiously anti-labor employee handbook was leaked, yet they didn't feel like that criticism was worth addressing, as it doesn't benefit them to do so.
Seeing people look at their apology video and soften on their stance about LMG is driving me insane. Fixing some of their testing errors is not the issue. Their entire corporation is the issue. Until they agree to diversity-inclusive hiring practices (the channels desperately need more women presenting the content), more rights for their workers with equitable pay and a healthy work/life balance, warranties for their products, all in addition to the quality-related issues with their videos, I really don't see how anyone can have an interest in LMG's content.
The standard rebuttal is, "that's just capitalism", but if you've predicated your brand on not being a greedy capitalist, then your brand really falls apart when you treat your employees and consumers the same way that any other greedy capitalist does.
Oh dear. In the wake of the community criticism of #LinusTechTips & #LinusMediaGroup, Madison is also writing about her experience at LMG and why she quit.
I’ve seen how cringeworthy Linus talks about & interacts with his wife Yvonne on camera, and the bro culture in the company is clearly visible in a lot of videos.
I think I'm finally ready to unsubscribe from Linus Media Group channels. Between their rampant misinformation, their questionable conflicts of interest/ethics violations, a corporate handbook that forbids discussion of wages (which is illegal in British Columbia, by the way), and clear demonstrations of wage theft by the company, Linus's entire facade of being a for-the-people reviewer is obviously fake. Linus Media Group's entire goofy atmosphere seems to hide an underlying corporate culture that values quantity of content and profit over all-else.
So, due to #LTX, there’s probably no shortage of #LinusMediaGroup tour videos online right now. However, if you’re into the details about the #camera, #audio & #lighting gear they use, you might be interested in this one:
He's not going away though, and will instead focus on the parts he loves: Realizing his vision and caring for his audience. He and his wife Yvonne will stay the sole owners of LMG. You can expect as many videos with him as before, if not more.
New CEO will be Terren Tong, Linus' old boss from NCIX.