Madison Reeves on why she left LMG

remember when linus spoke out against unionizing :)

That and the “We don’t discuss wages.” remark. Screw that mentality. And from what Madison wrote, If promissory estoppel is a thing in Canada, then it sounds like she had a strong case. Especially if there was any paperwork.

There’s tons of shit they could get LMG for. But it seems that they intentionally hired people that don’t know any better, and it’s no real fault of their own since they just are appearing to use predatory hiring processes. It’s ridiculous to think everyone young should know employment law.
- promissory estoppel
  
  Surely verbal contracts are still enforceable in Canada like they are in the US, assuming Madison can prove they happened.
Linus "spoke out" against unionizing by saying that he couldn't legally do anything to stand in the way of his employees unionizing and wouldn't want to stand in their way if they ever decided to. But he wants to make a workplace where people don't feel the need to and if they did then he would see it as a personal failure.

There's plenty to criticize Linus for right now, but I don't think that his "anti-union" stance is one of them

Edit: in the context of these allegations, then yes, his employees certainly should unionize if the actual criminal crimes in this thread are even partially true. And if that happens then I will be singing Solidarity Forever for the LMG employees, but until that happens and we see how Linus responds to that this is just not a good read on Linus' stance towards unions.

Edit2: it feels weird to have posted what could be seen as a defense of Linus under this particular post. I'm not a Linus Stan, Just a union advocate that wants criticism to be levied where it's actually called for and this doesn't seem like it is
- I'm not saying he meant anti-union by that line, but that's classic anti-union line saying my employees don't need unions.
  
  Very much in line of "unions means less money for you" statement.
- An genuine employer who isn't against unions and has their employees wellbeing as a top priority should encourage the employees to unionize.
- Lol, sounds like what someone with a reputation to uphold would say if he hated the idea of his workers unionizing.
  
  It's manipulative doublespeak meant to discourage unionization.
  
  The employer is by nature profit-seeking and all communication must be viewed through this lens.
Wow, that would be the last straw. You have a link to his comments?
- It was a wan show a while back if I remember right (not op), but basically trashed unions and said businesses should do better and vaguely acted like all the employees of the world could just quit and find something better on a whim if things were actually bad where they worked.
And here I thought they were just sometimes a little inaccurate on the information they presented. Holy shit it's so much worse.
"Honestly, my stance on this isn't gonna change. If people felt like we weren't taking care of them, yeah, I would feel like we failed. If you wanna interpret that as a bad thing, you can, but you're reaching pretty hard."

Yeah, I'd say it's about time for LTT staff to unionise.

I think that "taking care of people" smacks of the same rhetoric as "we're like a family" and "I like to think that all staff are considered equals here" and just about any other lie I've heard from exploitative upper management types.
Pepperige farm remembers.

I always figured LTT was a boy's club, considering how few female employees they have, but I had no idea the environment was that bad. Rather naive of me, tbh.

Ugh, I don't think I can continue watching anything from LTT anymore. 😭 I hope Madison is doing better these days.

Edit: I've zero issues blocking bad actors. =)

It's a lot of techies and IT guys. Sadly it's basically expected that there will be a toxic environment for women. It's HR's job to put a stop to that shit so the company does not get sued. However, when the boss' wife is the head of HR and the boss is the one allowing the toxic environment, it gets swept under the rug until it becomes a huge issue.
- She isn't the head of HR.
  
  Downvote if you want, but it is true.
Maybe let both sides talk before picking a side? Or I guess you can just unsubscribe like a child.
- Lol this fanboy
- What a stupid thing to say. Unsubbing is a mature response.
- Both sides HAVE spoken. The fire was stoked by the shitty LMG response.
- I'm confused about your comment. Why assume it's childish to act in a way that distances you of any drama?
  
  Why that us vs. them attitude of name calling someone as childish? How is that any different of the childish behaviour that is being hoisted upon in the first place?
  
  Perhaps that's an indication that a side is already being chosen?
  
  Anyway, don't take my comment in a wrong way. I really have no dog in this fight. I barely know who this Linus guy is. I just dislike seeing people being rude to each other, unneedingly escalating discussions by being unkind.

And this is why Lienus hates unions so much, cause it would have held him and his company accountable for the nasty, abusive shit they do behind the scenes.

Am I missing something? When had he expressed his hatred for unions? As a union man, if he had said something like that it would've pricked my ears. As far as I know, he's said that he doesn't want his employees to feel like they need a union, but wouldn't stand in their way if they wanted one, which is about as good as it gets for a North American business owner.

If this stuff is true then they should unionize immediately. Solidarity Forever

Edit: I'm not going to double down. This was a blind spot for me, maybe because my union is already established and fairly strong, but I'll hold this L and learn from it
- in one of the WAN shows he went on a big handwringing tirade about how "unions means I'm a failure as an employer" with undertones of "You wouldnt want to make me a failure by unionizing, right?"
- Based edit. Also, happy you’re in a union <3
- which is about as good as it gets for a North American business owner.
  
  Meanwhile, Dave Oshry being a fucking chad (yes I know he lives in NZ, but he's from the US)
  
  spoiler
  
  Sorry to anyone for whom spoilers don't work

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.

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

I never publicly made any statements regarding my time there because I feared even more backlash from a community that was already attacking, defaming, and sending me death threats.

Fuck man, pretty much nobody should have to deal with that.

I was actually called a tattle tale

Been there done that.

"snitches get stiches" is the phrase I've been told many times

I was told I was arguing, when I was trying to discuss my point of view.

This too

I remember getting told off for taking my sick days, as in the days you're entitled to.

I am still, to this day, hesitant to take days off from this kind of shit

I was asked to twerk for a co-worker at one point.

I know some ladies who were asked by the CFO of a previous company to jump in place while to get a company t-shirt that other employees received.

I was told I was chunky, fat, ugly, stupid. I was called "removed" I was called a "removed"

I was called "stupid" to my face in an open office with fifty other staff in the room.

I was also the one tasked with managing the Only Fans account.

Something I said I didn't want to do.

I had to read comments from people talking about how they wanted to fuck me and my co workers.

I saw peoples dicks, and vagina's.

I said no, and was told only a little longer.

You should never be obligated to do things you don't want to do. No job is worth it.

Please don't attack individuals who don't actually have power at this company, most of them are blameless or powerless to actually change anything.

This absolutely. For every one person who speaks up there are usually multiple tens who do not.

Also "why didn't you take legal actions"

Many of them don't know better. Many of them feel like they're trapped: they require the paycheck and so they feel obligated to endure abuses.

... Or, at least, that's been my experience with employers. To be clear: I do not, and have not, worked for LMG. I'm not trying to make it about me, just trying to relate. It's unfortunate easy to relate.

She's got some tough issues and I wish her to have better employment opportunities in the future.

These days I work for a company where "everything is awesome" and I get to work on really cool things every day without too much drama. I wish everyone could do that. I certainly couldn't have without deciding to leave an abusive employer. I encourage everyone to seek better employment if you feel like you can relate to any of the issues she's brought up.

So here's some tips. There's a lot to unpack though.

keep a personal record. Keep it at home. If it's on a computer or phone then keep it on a personal one so you still have it if you do quit or are fired. Write down the good times and the bad times.
- if you're hourly, make sure to include your clock-in and clock-out times
if you live in a single-party-recording-consent state, then record your conversations
if anything comes up, your personal records can be admissible in court
if nothing comes up then at least you can look back at your records and remember how often good things or bad things happen. it will help you to make decisions objectively and judge your emotions for them

Sending unsolicited sexually explicit messages (even just text) or images is a federal crime and can be included in sexual harassment claims. If your employer does not address the problem then your employer may be held accountable. It's important that you keep records of your complaint to your employer and their inaction!

So, learn about harassment and discrimination laws. Everyone has a right to not be harassed (sexually or otherwise) or discriminated against. You can file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Office or your state's equivalent (not all states have an equivalent).

https://www.eeoc.gov/

This is an excellent and thoughtful response. Thank you for taking the time.
- Agreed. Also thanks to you for noticing and hilighting the value of their response. An equally awesome move.
- Thanks :)
  
  I'm not party to the accusations. Things can be interpreted many ways. So I tried to keep an open mind and my response fairly applicable to anyone in general.
  
  It's clear that someone is being deceptive. I have no idea whether it's some of the LMG team or Madison. I have to trust someone claiming to be a victim though.
  
  These are serious, possibly criminal, accusations that Madison is making on a very public platform. Big accusations like this honestly belong to the courts and I hope that courts will figure out the truth -- that's what they're there for. If it all just boils down to PR and settlements out of court then IMO that is a miscarriage of justice for every would-be third party victim of harassment.
  
  It's true that just about any online platform has to deal with sexually explicit content. But OnlyFans has a particular reputation about it. So if LMG has an OnlyFans account and she was managing, producing for, or interacting with it then I most certainly believe she'd have been exposed to sexually explicit material. If I were to investigate, I'd start truth-finding from there: find out what management's policies are/were with regards to dealing with that content and find out what actual actions were taken for that content. Subpoena OnlyFans to produce copies of the content and correlate their own reports of whatever action LMG claims to have taken. From there, the rest of the accusations will fall into place with weight.
Adding this link for Canadian workers: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/workplace-health-safety/harassment-violence-complaint.html
Sending unsolicited sexually explicit messages (even just text) or images is a federal crime and can be included in sexual harassment claims.

Are US and Canada law similar in that aspect?
- I'm a citizen of the USA and have only worked for US businesses. I don't know about Canadian law (nor am I a lawyer in the US) but I would be surprised and saddened if they don't have a strong legal system to protect victims.
Thanks for this! I'm a male manager of a team of mostly men and one woman, and we have a handful of other women on our broader team.

Fortunately, our company has never done any of this nonsense, and I hope nobody in our department (or company for that matter) would ever think of it. Our head of HR is female, as is our department's HR rep, and we did a big push for DEI training over the last couple of years (the best company meeting imo was a Q&A with a panel of women, immigrants, and racial minorities). That has mostly run its course, but we still have mandatory, short, digital trainings every year, and a longer in-person one for new hires that repeats every few years for existing hires.

I'm going to bring up some of these points with the women on my team and ask them politely to let me know if they have anything they'd like to mention. It's hard enough to attract women in my field (software development), so I want to keep whatever women we can find. But if my company is not a healthy working environment for anyone on my team, I would prefer they leave than continue somewhere they don't feel comfortable, but I'd like the opportunity to try to fix the problem first.

So thanks again! I hope you're in a better work environment now.

What a shit place to work at. Linus sounds like a real "winner".

The dude has always seemed so smarmy to me so hearing this really isn’t that surprising. I’m happy they’re getting their comeuppance but doubt it will be as much as they deserve.
- A few years back I remarked that Linus always came off like a bit of a douchebag. I was at the time heavily downvoted, but holy fuck. This is worse than I expected.
- I dunno. Run through a browser news tab and it has more than a few stories about Linus/LTT, like this and this.
He and his/team's content always came off to me as basement dwelling PC gamers trying to be real IT professionals. Garbage content and apparently a garbage company.
- I'm neither close to this (I've seen a few LTT vids here and there) nor that interested in dogpiling or anything ... but this is exactly what LTT/LMG and Linus himself always felt like to me and it always kinda creeped me out. Like I'd watch something and get that feeling of, am I the only one seeing that or is it me?

What the actual fuck

I mean, in hindsight, I don't know why I assumed differently. If it looks like a bro club...

Makes you wonder about Maxine leaving now.
- No it doesn't. She moved far up North to be with her boyfriend. Can you stop trying to make shit up?
I'd like to think that it's generally safe to assume that a company doesn't conduct itself in this manner, but employers will always be incentivized to exploit it's workers so we must be ever vigilant.

Wow. I’m glad she spoke up and I hope she’s doing better now. I hope more people at LTT are empowered to speak out/leave by her courage.

Just imagine how bad it is, behind closed doors and with the Cameras off, considering what the employees said in that LTT employee opinion video on camera, that GN repeatedly referenced, that they were over worked and didnt have time to make anything right.

Reading that made me sick to my core

Update: LMG to hire external investigator on this matter.

Our HR team will be conducting a more thorough assessment of the allegations,

Tip for LMG: don't have the founder's wife be head of HR.
- She's not - Yvonne is accounting and business, I've never heard of her as being remotely involved with the HR department.
- HRs job is to protect the company... from employees. So they dont sue.
  
  So they pressure the leadership: you cant do this, because then X will sue.
  
  You cant do that coz then the government will give us a large fine etc etc
  
  Thwy are not there to help the employees. At all. Ever. Lol.

This is the leat surprising information anyone could have told me about working for LTT/LMG. Time and time again, tech jobs and game dev jobs in workplaces run by "old internet edgelords" always (always) results in shit like this.

Jesus Christ on a motorbike. They have no idea what they had with her, does she still create content?

Jesus Christ on a motorbike.

Here you go!
- I'm disappointed. Jesus of all people should know how dangerous it is to ride without proper gear. Where's the helmet? Where's the armor? And, Christ... are those Sandals?? ATGATT!
- Good bot
- Wonderful.
She is on twitch and youtube https://linktr.ee/suop

I believe her.

I have been in the tech industry for almost 30 years. These things she talks about are not new and will keep happening unless more people talk about them. I gave that Linus guy a listen once or twice, was never impressed. His fans are delusional, this thread contains a few of them!

Agreed. However, I still want to see facts, because it is possible that she's exaggerating. Until I see facts, I'm going to believe Madison.

That said, I rarely watch LTT or any related channels. I find them to be shallow, often click-bait, and their merch advertising is incredibly annoying. I get my tech news and entertainment from other channels, such as Gamer's Nexus, Level1Techs, Louis Rossmann, OptimumTech, Tech Ingredients, and SomeOrdinaryGamers.

I don't understand the rabid following LMG has, but I do try to be objective in my criticism. I think GN's coverage recently was pretty revealing (the one about testing quality), especially when paired with this article.
- What is she exaggerating? It's her perspective. The things she described are not exaggerating.

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

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.
- 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"
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.
- 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.
It's possible their turnover is low enough that a Glassdoor review would be easy to figure out the author, even if anonymous
- 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.
- Very true
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.
- 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.
- 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?
She did write a review on Glassdoor, and Linus downplayed it then IIRC
- 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
Linus is not declaratively stating it didn't happen, he's using PR doublespeak to minimize his legal exposure down the road.
- 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
at least put an anonymous negative review on Glassdoor

the review on glassdoor is hers.
- I know, that's why I meant someone besides Madison when I said anyone else. Sorry if that wasn't clear
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!
- 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
She did leave a 1 star review in glassdoor when she quit.
- 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
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.
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.
- 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)

Jesus, that is beyond awful. I'm really sorry she had to go through so much bullshit and I'm really glad she's speaking up.

It seems they may be deleting comments urging them to address Madison's experience on their apology video too.

Do you have proof of that. Cause if true this is really bad.
- I've had 2 comments deleted. Can't prove it because when a comment is deleted from a video it's removed from your YouTube profile as well... but I'm sure you can test yourself.
- I think they were early on. I caught the comments within an hour of the video being posted before there were a gazillion comments and after hitting refresh, the initial comments with mentions of Madison were gone. There were some more, refreshed again and any of them older than 10 minutes were gone. By the time I made a couple comments, the comments seemed to be sticking around.

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.

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
- Tong committed to make the results public. Let us hope he does exactly that.
I'm sorry, what benefit of the doubt? What could they possibly say to make anything look differently?
- 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?
- 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

If you are in a similar situation... remember that you don't have to say "yes" to everything at work! It's the professional thing to say "no" when it's appropriate instead of overworking yourself and lowering the quality of your work.

You have a very privileged job if you're just allowed to just tell your employer no when they want more work out of you...
- If my workload means I consistently have to put in more than 8 hours a day, it's my responsibility to report that. I have a contract for 40 hours a week, I'm not a slave.
- A lot of folks here haven't actually entered the real world yet.
- It is your duty to at least state how much work you already have and let the boss decide what to do.
  
  I had a boss who acknowledged it and told me that it's fine if i'm not too accurate for couple of things.
  
  Not saying anything, burning out and just delivering shit work non-stop isn't going to help either you or the employee, your job is to do your best and your boss has to figure out the rest.
  
  Although i have to say i quit that job, because doing half-assed work is nothing which fulfills me.
- Idk, that's a very core part of our company's culture.
  
  I'm a SWE at a manufacturing company, so I'm certainly in a privileged group. However, the whole company has been pushing the narrative of empowering individuals to say no (i.e. the andon cord at Toyota). And given how frequently it's brought up in company emails (esp. in incident analysis communications), I have reason to believe it's actually being done at the plants. Our company's #1 stated priority is safety (due to the nature of the products we produce), and saying "no" is a huge part of that. We as SWEs have complete power to say "no" (we make our own estimations for work), and I believe our manufacturing workers have a similar ability to manage their workload.
Sounds like she wasn’t given a choice.

Christ. I didn't care too much about the gamers nexus video, but this sounds awful.

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!

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.

Wow. LTT, LMG, and Linus are just plain shit (given this, other reports, GN's latest videos, and how Linus has responded). I'm still quite glad I never bought into their hype. Now I know to actively avoid the idiots.

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 😂😂

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

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.

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...

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

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.
- 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.

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

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.
- Depressed and harassed people that is who. Get some empathy.
- 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.
I don't doubt she experienced harassment, but Jesus Christ. This is a grown woman and she can't just say I'm taking the day off and just do it? I'm starting to think part of the problem was her needed some kind of mental help if this is how she's getting days off. This is not a healthy mind.
- If your employer tries to convince you not to take days off; if you're employer doesn't say "okay" when you ask as long as you've given the handbook-defined required notice; if they punish you for taking time off; if you are required to put your foot down and take the day off even if you think you might be retaliated against for it: then your company is an absolute shit show and you need to run for the hills.
  
  Your post is victim blaming at its finest. We accommodate requests for accrued time off without question because we have no idea what they are going through and we have no right to pry into it. If their unavailability causes significant harm to the company that is a STAFFING problem, not a problem with the person talking the time off.
- she can’t just say I’m taking the day off and just do it?
  
  Considering all the other harassment she dealt with, I highly doubt she felt comfortable enough to do that.
- I'm starting to think part of the problem was her needed some kind of mental help if this is how she's getting days off. This is not a healthy mind.
  
  Yeah, I think that's what she's complaining about
- Definitely she needs mental help, some meds and a while on a mental asylum

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)

Seems like a real shit hole place to work

Holy fuck. I'll never give LTT another view. Fuck Linus and his company. I hope the good people there get out and find success, but anyone that stays has no integrity in my opinion.

imo this is an extreme reaction when the story has barely matured and we dont know whats true. I feel like the reactions by people at lmg have been decent so far, but time will tell what becomes of it. hopefully for everyones sake they fix their problems like they seem to be on track to doing.
- I don't think the reactions by people at LMG have been decent, but I also think "never" is a bit of a strong word. I'm waiting to see details, and until then, I'm going to believe Madison, especially given the revelations by Gamer's Nexus about focus on profit (i.e. video quantity) over quality. The culture there just seems to be wrong.
  
  That said, I'd love LMG to prove with actual facts that things aren't as bad as this article makes it out to be.

How come anytime I read about this guy it always involves his groupies sending death threats?

I have never felt the need to use YouTube for anything aside from classic comedy clips, music, gameplay clips and trailers. So, YouTube personalities like these pass me by. I'm one of those types who instantly closes a video if I hear commentary or talking over it. I don't want to hear that shite.

Maybe it's because I grew up without YouTube, unlike my daughter. She watches so much utter shit on there, unfortunately.

However, I have watched one LTT video before when doing some electronic engineering classes, and we were shown one to explain some thing I can't remember. I do remember saying the guy seemed like a right prick, to the chagrin of others in my class. A smug, know-it all prick.

Well, guess who feels vindicated today! Me!

You might enjoy Tom Scott's videos. His style of videos is inspired by British television in 80s-90s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceWZslOfEjs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUF4afxMpQk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN9JzxzDXU0
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=ceWZslOfEjs
  
  https://piped.video/watch?v=mUF4afxMpQk
  
  https://piped.video/watch?v=EN9JzxzDXU0
  
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I'm like you, grown up without YT and I rarely watch it, for some video clip, or when I need to check how to disassemble my laptop or washing machine. I never watched a "YouTuber" or never ever went to twitch
- I've never actually used twitch before. Ever.
  
  I'm getting old...
  
  But yeah, if I need a walkthrough on how to do something, I'll always prefer written instructions/guides.

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

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

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?

If they want to and voluntarily do it, what is the issue? I can't imagine anyone is being forced to.
- 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.
- You are not wrong. But with allegations of SA in the room, the fact that the pictures exist gets a bitter aftertaste.

Yep, I'm never watching Linus after this.

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.

Who?

Madison was a person chosen for ROG reboot (Asus sponsored LMG to make PCs with people after they made a video explaining why they should get one) and her video was really popular (5th most viewed on LTT channel with 12mil views) and people enjoyed her personality/dynamic. Later, there was a job offering posted for social media manager/coordinator and she ended up getting the job, after that you can read what she says happened (not saying it did, not saying it didn't, just saying what we do know). She also posted about some of this stuff before I'm pretty sure, but I don't remember exactly what she said (it was in the same vein as this, but I'm pretty sure this is more in detail though).

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?

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 "removed" or "removed" is fucking disgusting no matter how good or bad her work was.
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.
Even if it was, no one should be talked to that way

Why am i seeing gossip on technology? Mods should not allow these sorts of posts

It's the biggest tech outlet with major accusations, sure just ignore it.

But why post?

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?

You have the empathy of a pebble.
- Great value add. Did you have any input or just here to assert your domineering intelligence? Back to reddit, maybe?
Please, for the love of everything good, do some reading on mental health. You're way off base.
- Should I just google, "mental health," or should I take your word? I've worked in Behavioral Health for over a decade.
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
- 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.

Let's wait for both sides before picking. The internet has a history of the "victim" lying.

We shouldn't witch hunt but this should be taken very seriously.

As for history of the victim lying... Never fall into this toxic mindset, even if it does happen you should never rush to this conclusion either. It's disgusting
- Sitting here waiting for both sides is disgusting? Fuck off lol.
I think their response was covered in her post(s).. lol
- They've not responded to her. If you think what SHE is saying they said is a response, it's not.
Yep. There was a situation like that with LTT and Naomi Wu before, turned to be just drama.

Hovewer, given her and LTT staff characters, I tend to believe most of what she said. Though, I expected Max to come out with it, not Madison.
- True, but the scale is completely different, Madison worked there for years and Naomi Wu was just a random idiot.
  
  I'm all for covering both sides and this needs to be addressed.

Basically a twitch streamer not being able to adapt to a working envoirenment. Streaming games all day long to working at least 8h a day is a big difference tbh

Yeah, these people just can't adjust to the real world of (checks notes) being inappropriately touched by coworkers and being silenced and threatened when speaking up about it.
- How dare they expect human decency? Goddamn GenZ are SO entitled.
- How do you know thats true? We only heared ONE PERSON for now. She could very well be lying or overexaggerating for sure.
Ah yes, being groped by a man and being called a removed removed is totally her inability to conform to working a desk job

You're a brain dead twat
- Please don't use personal attacks.
Of all the takes you could have taken from this you chose this steaming pile of shit.

After I came forward about being assaulted, Someone accused Linus of inappropriate conduct on twitter.

He came over to my corner and started BERATING HER. Calling her insane, mentally ill, an attention seeker, and just digging into this poor woman who had felt wronged by him.

Is this "adapting to a working environment" to you?

I see employee abuse.
- This might sound like im a fan boy but i just can't imagine Linus doing that. She already was in such bad from all the stuff. She might have made it up to be something really big without it being that as well
Working 8 hours a day gets a lot harder when everyone above you in the company is actively working against you.

Not to mention, if you read a little further down they mention multiple instances of sexual harassment with basically no response from HR. That is absolutely unforgivable.