Linus Tech Tips issues response to Madison's accusations

So so so so tonedeaf. Video where Linus is stepping down? Sure, throw it in as a laugh, he's the butt of the joke, it was funny. Where you're being accused of serious wrongdoing in public? Not so funny. Read the room, folks

I think I heard that (and the jokes about the CFO being the "sponsor") had been trimmed out of the video (which I haven't checked.) The first time I saw it (just about an hour after posting) it was still included and you could still see the value that Billet labs was giving for their prototype was still unblurred and there was a comment from the head of labs about how they were going to post some sort of transparency video behind a paywall (on Floatplane.) When I rewatched later that day (to show someone) they had blurred out the value, they still had the jokes about selling stuff. I'm not honestly sure if they still had the thing about the plan for the paywalled transparency video. Later I saw a short reaction video to the drama that claimed all of those elements had now been removed from the LTT video.

And a trust me bro guarantee that no employees were harassed in the designing or making of this product

You only have to watch him interacting with his staff in a few videos and you can see that the bullying comes right from the top. That's not something that's going to change easily.

Source: trust me bro?

I think that takes far too rosy a view of Linus's involvement.

This says it all.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F3ogQ7sakAAhnCB?format=png&name=large

He doesnt believe his employees need a union because I dont know about you but if I owned a company Id hope that my people felt looked after well enough that they didnt feel like they needed one either.

If I owned my own company I would DEMAND my employees unionize. You can never trust your boss to have your back. Especially when your boss is me. Because I know me, and I suck.

He doesnt believe his employees need a union because I dont know about you but if I owned a company Id hope that my people felt looked after well enough that they didnt feel like they needed one either.

I'm not gonna blame them for wanting to be protected. Even if I treat my hypothetical employees right, what happens when I'm gone? Will my successor treat them right? History says no. With a union, I can rest easy knowing that, come what may, my people will be taken care of.

There's always ring 0, the initial crew who set the tone and culture of the company.

He stepped down as CEO six weeks ago. Hopefully the new one can bring some process maturity to LTT.

If I’m not mistaken, the allegation was on events from two years ago? It’s possible HR has already been overhauled and such.

Sadly HR exists to protect the company from the employees, not the other way around. This is always the case in the USA. Not sure about other places.

Maybe it's being in corporate america for a while, but holy shit that made my head literally swivel back to the video after kinda paying attention. That is definitely not something you say in corporate america, let alone literally listening to a speech about harassment.

You never even get close to anything sexual in corporate america. Just steer clear. I don't care if it's funny, or you think it's funny, or if you think everyone else will think it's funny, you don't. You avoid the topic completely. Make the joke later at home or with your friends but not in the workplace.

Even if the joke is only partially offensive, it's offensive. (If you aren't sure if it is or not - you don't make the joke. You're instincts are trying to tell you it's not the right place) You don't do that in the office, and to do that seconds after the meeting it shows how fucking terrible it is there. I'll be honest, I was taking Madison's allegations with a grain of salt, but that just solidified to me what the culture is like. If they don't have HR nipping that shit in the bud, what else are they letting fly

I think its more the implication that Linus looked like stripper on the table. But I appreciate that could be a stretch. I'm more concerned by a) instructing people to go directly to the person harassing them with no managerial oversight first, b) implying harassment complaints are drama, c) suggesting that its not their job to resolve harassment complaints by down playing them as "interpersonal problems" and d) intentionally or unintentionally suggesting that if you have a problem you are going against the fun environment, which instantly puts a harassment victim in an us vs them environment.

I'm coming at this from a lawyer perspective, as I am a lawyer (albeit not an employment or harassment lawyer) and I've witnessed first hand how harassment and discriminated employees are not respected by management. I've seen how that impacts people's mental health and how, especially for younger women, it creates a toxic cycle where it can be extremely difficult to leave because you've internalized the harassing and discriminatory experience to the point of thinking "well, who else will hire me? I can't just get another job."

I realize if you have not experienced that or witnessed that, its hard to understand how a toxic environment can lead to that mindset. So hearing someone joking around in an emergency all company meeting may not immediately seem problematic. But when the subject of the meeting is harassment, and a high ranking manager just jokes around like its not a big deal, and that joke is tacitly approved of by the executive level (where there isn't immediate correction), it all strikes me as a corporate culture that doesn't respect the seriousness of harassment.

I'm also biased as my office literally just had our annual harassment training yesterday.

If I Google "table dancing" (in a fresh new browser I just installed on incognito mode with a VPN and everything + I never watch porn or search this stuff or anything, so it's not just customizing it to be sexual for me - I encourage you to try this yourself) the first result in the Wikipedia article about it, which reads:

A table dance, or bartop dance, is a dance performed at (or on) a table or bar, as opposed to on a stage. It may be an erotic dance performed by a sex worker or it may be done as a leisure activity.

As you keep scrolling down, the next thing it shows is images of erotic dancers table dancing, the next thing is a list of nearby strip clubs, the next result is the dictionary.com entry for table dancing which reads:

a form of entertainment in which naked or scantily dressed women dance erotically at the tables of individual members of the audience, who must remain seated

The next result is videos of erotic dancers table dancing. And so on, and so on.

So, yeah, there's definitely, without a doubt, a strong sexual/erotic connotation/connection to the term and the joke they made.

Me too I guess. I can see it if I really try, but it seems a stretch.

Sounds like an American Psycho reference. Don't just stare at it, eat it!

Time saver. Fewer dremel related happy accidents. Less waste from the dremelless folks out there just throwing the fuckers out. Remaining stock could be recovered for re-branding (or as we here at shitty business like to call it, D-Branding) and remain in circulation, and out of the dump.

Shit, ask Madison to pick the design or color, throw her proceeds from the sale to a legal fund because, well, this kinda only ends one way so far.

Make sure you get yours for this because that's a surprisingly great one you got there if ya think about it.

"And you know who's sorry? Us, because we WERE the sponsors!"

They would absolutely do something like making a wrap marketed to specifically cover the LTT branding

And LMG would be stupid to say or release anything else on that topic! This is potential lawsuit country, they will walk very carefully and I would be surpised if they didn't check every public communication with their lawyer first.

Of course he didn’t write it. He lacks the grace and it wreaks of corporate backsludge, which makes it worse that he didn’t take the time himself to a) think about the situation and b) address his base directly (he’s a YouTuber right?).

Instead we get this PR boilerplate. Literally you can buy these and just fill in the blanks with names and specifics. Moreover, much of it, if you have watched them over the years, are just blatantly false.

It’s orchestrated better, but still on the level of the reply GM got.

Corporate speak sucks, but it's 100x better than Linus digging an ever deeper hole for himself at this time. Dude and his wife just need to take a backseat for a while and let pros fix their shit

People have been saying constantly that they need to stop having linus respond and instead of proper PR sanitised responses.

ChatGPT: How can I help?

Marketing: Imagine Ned Flanders dipping a piece of white bread into water. Now write an equivalent piece of meaningless corporate drivel.

It's reasonable to be fed up with fake bullshit apologies.

I hope they can begin some strong course corrections or else LMG will be the Laying-off Media Group. A lot of people say they want to see LMG burn and I don't think they realize over 100 people work there. The organization should be offered a chance at redemption regardless of whether Linus should or shouldn't.