I don't think they're beyond redemption. My hope is that Linus can take a step back and let the CEO work on improving the workplace culture. No idea if he's up to the challenge but time will tell
Beyond redemption, no, but refusing to acknowledge any wrongdoing doesn't paint a pretty picture for the future. In the days since I've heard "we couldn't have done any better", "yes we messed up but it wouldn't have made any difference if the numbers were right", "no one could expect us to spend 500 dollars to redo a messed up review"
Not once did I hear a mea culpa or we'll try harder to do better in the future. Not a good look.
After digging into this whole fiasco and it’s various aspects, I’m coming to think that this is a leadership problem, pure and simple, and that the leader that allowed these pretty egregious situations to exist and metastasize is Linus. So sure, good for him for basically bootstrapping a company up to a ~$100M valuation… but that is absolutely not an excuse for, and in no way justifies the internal and external ethical lapses.
The best case here is if the new LMG CEO forces a sharp, top-down culture shift that enables more sustainable working practices, better employee treatment and culture, increased rigor in the data they present, and an explicit public acknowledgement that their previous high-handed interactions with some creators and brands - and ethical conflicts of interest with others - did, in fact, occur, and will be seriously investigated in the interest of not repeating those failures in the future. But given Linus’s continued “woe is me”/borderline gaslighting, I’ll believe change is coming when I actually see it. For now, I’ve unsubscribed.
I hope every unethical company goes over and everyone who works at all of them remains unemployed for at least 3 months actually. Unethical companies = employees often complacent and part of the problem.
It isn’t guilt by association. It’s not caring about several people losing their jobs as a result of their employer’s decision to sexually harass women. The few jobs lost isn’t that big of a deal compared to the trauma the female employees were put through. Those people will have no problem finding new work.
My thoughts go to the dependency on jobs for survival but that leads into a conversation about AI, the end of enough jobs for humans and the need for universal basic income. Job loss doesn't much affect my choice to interact with a corporation or wish for it to change (which may affect jobs).