rob_ob

The reports of a toxic working environment really troubled me. To me, it was clear things needed to change after hearing the leaked audio of the team meeting, which really disappointed me. Since then I've been holding off on watching any videos or support of any kind until I saw some meaningful movement on that front, but over a month later I haven't seen any video addressing this.
 
Did I miss something? Was this ever addressed on the WAN show? I haven't seen anything in the forums either. They previously committed to sharing the results of this, but I'm worried they're now hoping people will just forget.

This is the internet, please refrain from a calm considerate understanding of someone else’s points and apologizing.
 
/s
 
nice to see this!

Hey man, I think you're projecting some stuff on me that isn't fair. I don't want all the dirty laundry aired. I don't want anyone named. I'm not "demanding inside info". I want to know what the outcome of an investigation was/will be. That can be as generic as "we identified these 3 issues, and here are the steps we're taking to make sure they never happen again". That's all. Please stop acting like I'm foaming at the mouth for personal details. It's not a good look, for either of us.

I believe this if from a post on Floatplane regarding the topic:

 
 

Hey man, I think you're projecting some stuff on me that isn't fair. I don't want all the dirty laundry aired. I don't want anyone named. I'm not "demanding inside info". I want to know what the outcome of an investigation was/will be. That can be as generic as "we identified these 3 issues, and here are the steps we're taking to make sure they never happen again". That's all. Please stop acting like I'm foaming at the mouth for personal details. It's not a good look, for either of us.

Agreed, i was grouping you with other comments from other places, that was not fair of me, i apologise for that.
(you indeed did not ask for that much detail)

But many have asked, and it would be really hard to go into any detail besides 'we have fixed it' or something vague like that.
As most likely (imho ofcourse) it's more a people problem then a company or policy thing.
I've been in such a situation where such allegations where made (never disclosed whom but could guess) and never anything was disclosed besides "its fixed now".
As legally they could not disclose any more information. (but thats here in the Netherlands).

Hey man, I think you're projecting some stuff on me that isn't fair. I don't want all the dirty laundry aired. I don't want anyone named. I'm not "demanding inside info". I want to know what the outcome of an investigation was/will be. That can be as generic as "we identified these 3 issues, and here are the steps we're taking to make sure they never happen again". That's all. Please stop acting like I'm foaming at the mouth for personal details. It's not a good look, for either of us.

Hey man, I think you're projecting some stuff on me that isn't fair. I don't want all the dirty laundry aired. I don't want anyone named. I'm not "demanding inside info". I want to know what the outcome of an investigation was/will be. That can be as generic as "we identified these 3 issues, and here are the steps we're taking to make sure they never happen again". That's all. Please stop acting like I'm foaming at the mouth for personal details. It's not a good look, for either of us.

I believe this if from a post on Floatplane regarding the topic:

 
 

The reports of a toxic working environment really troubled me. To me, it was clear things needed to change after hearing the leaked audio of the team meeting, which really disappointed me. Since then I've been holding off on watching any videos or support of any kind until I saw some meaningful movement on that front, but over a month later I haven't seen any video addressing this.
 
Did I miss something? Was this ever addressed on the WAN show? I haven't seen anything in the forums either. They previously committed to sharing the results of this, but I'm worried they're now hoping people will just forget.

The reports of a toxic working environment really troubled me. To me, it was clear things needed to change after hearing the leaked audio of the team meeting, which really disappointed me. Since then I've been holding off on watching any videos or support of any kind until I saw some meaningful movement on that front, but over a month later I haven't seen any video addressing this.
 
Did I miss something? Was this ever addressed on the WAN show? I haven't seen anything in the forums either. They previously committed to sharing the results of this, but I'm worried they're now hoping people will just forget.

I can tell you've never actually worked a single day in your life based on what you're throwing out here not to mention you have not talked to any humans.
 
Why should it be the responsibility of Madison to leave a toxic/sexist environment? Should it not be the responsibility of the management and employees to behave in a professional company? Do you think its okay for LMG to have a culture like this where they ask women to twerk or act unprofessionally because "haha lols funny"?

8. Don't listen to BigFatTeddy

Some thoughts on fixing/improving things I've had over the last few days:
 
Slow down. Obviously. **Editing to elaborate: there seems to have been an attitude from Linus developing lately of "good enough" which seems to be in contrast to the quality he wants to tout. I think if you want to live up to what you as a company claim to be, then "good enough" is not good enough. If you are aware that something isn't up to the high standards you set yourself, then it needs to be delayed and/or shelved until that quality can be attained.  Terren needs a proper opportunity to ingrain himself as CEO, and Linus clearly needs a perspective refresh. I think Linus taking a 6 month sabbatical would be really good for him. Linus (and others) have talked about how Linus can be a "force of nature", etc. but over the course of all of this I think that might have been some polite code for steamroller. I think he needs to take some time to work on his active listening and work on taking criticism on board rather than digging into his own opinion. After this has passed, and things have quieted down, LMG need to hire experienced, qualified, in house HR. Ideally someone with a legal qualification. Through all the leaks it's painfully obvious the internal HR isn't trusted (with good reason it seems), the anonymous reporting internally isn't well known/understood by staff, and external HR is almost always a joke that just band aids problems and protects the company. LMG employees clearly need better people ops. Delegate responsibilities internally. Yvonne was in the past (maybe presently also) far too overloaded (HR, finance, set dec, etc. etc), and from the apology video it looks like Colton is wearing far too many hats. The result of company structures like this is that no one really knows who to go to for what, or if there's a conflict that needs resolving between two departments and report to the same person, often one department gets the second rate treatment.  The external investigation is a great step, but the scope needs to increase. I think LMG should widen the net to ex employees. If done in a trustworthy, anonymous way, I think there'll be a lot more to come out if an independent 3rd party gives former employees a chance to have their say. This is actually standard practice everywhere I've ever worked. Any time I've left a job for any reason, I've had an independent 3rd party exit interview in addition to my internal exit interview to give an opportunity to be more honest than I might want to be with my former employer directly. Linus needs to lower his bar for being overruled. One take away from this is that LMG clearly have people internally that are better at a lot of this than Linus, and going forward Linus' opinion on LMG direction shouldn't carry as much weight as it does.

Not that this will ever happen, but if it did, I think we'd see a different, more petulant side to Linus than we've ever seen before. I don't think he has the chops, or maturity, to stand up to Steve's kind of in depth scrutiny in real time. Linus would end up either moping or rage quitting.

Lots of good suggestions in this thread. I'd add one more...
 
It's time for LMG to actively encourage its staff to unionize and put into place a labor relations mechanism. Improved HR processes are important but are generally more geared for work force management than labor relations. I get Linus' resistance to a union is coming from a place in early LTT days when it was a handful of people and things could be easily handled on a one-to-one basis. With 100+ employees this is not practical at all. Contracts needs to be standardized and an entity representing LMG staff needs to be in place so there's a vehicle for larger issues, like the crunch culture, to be comprehensively addressed. This wouldn't necessarily prevent the sexual harassment that Madison experienced but union leadership could have been an alternate vector to address the matter since LMG management wasn't taking it seriously.

1) Education
 
Do the harassment trainings that are needed by BC requirement. If you are already doing so, step up when you do them. Even if your policy doesn't change yearly, mandate your employees take it every year. Pay to have an online course developed, or buy some courseware from a known company that provides this training and an LMS/LXP system and make sure it's adhered to. This also holds true for export control training, customer support training, etc. Also offer other training for your employees. If someone feels that they are lacking in a skillset, say it being communication or effective writing, offer them training on it. You should allow employees to feel empowered that they can grow in their position.
 
2) Human/Employee Resource
 
Form a new HR team that is not attached to the existing LTT/FP structure. Do not simply give the position to someone; bring in people who have experience in HR to lead it. Allow them to develop policy and determine application of that process. Make sure they don't answer to most of the C-suite, and only answer to the CEO. The ownership should have zero say in HR; it's a dangerous road to travel when a company's owner gets in the way of HR and policy. HRCI and SHRM are certifications that hold value. Hold yearly audits from external compliance organizations to ensure everything is on the up-and-up. Check with other media groups, like Bell or Rogers, to see what their communications team can release on standards. Make sure your employees are being granted their rightful compensation and protections that are laid out in law. Check your legal requirements going the other way as well.
 
3) Distance
 
LTT isn't a group of friends hanging out in a rented house in Langley making quirky videos anymore, nor are you some little start-up that's trying to gain traction. You're a multi-million dollar organization that has clout and visibility, and you should start to act like it as an organization. Put checks and balances in place to hold everyone accountable.  C-suites and management should be held to higher standards with different responsibilities. A C*O shouldn't be hosting programs or videos. They should be doing their job as the chief of a department making sure it runs correctly and in adherence to the requirements of an organization. Also remember that while your employees may be your friends, at the end of the day you are a business. There has to be a line at a certain point where being friends stops and being accountable as employee/manager/employer begins. Being friendly and buddy-buddy is cool and awesome... until it's not. Set limits, adhere to them. 
 
4) Agility
 
From what I can see, LTT is not very agile; develop that mindset. Compartmentalize, set limits that everyone can achieve, be flexible with your goals. 
 
5) Humanize
 
Your editors and writers are humans, not automata. If they need 3 weeks to make a video, so be it. Instead of chasing sponsors and ad revenue mindlessly and pumping out a video a day on some internal mandate, think of how to better use your staff. Don't crunch them. Let them breathe and create. Nothing breeds sloppy work in a media field like grinding creative minds down. Daily videos are not as cool and good as 3-4 videos a week that are polished, accurate, and more rounded. 
 
6) Transparency
 
Do better. Be honest about your team's ability. Don't make claims you can't back. Make sure you set QC on every aspect of your company and stick to them. But make sure your standards aren't so high it's a grind to reach them. Accept mistakes happen, but don't forgo standards for a deadline. If a number looks off, hunt it down and retest. If something seems too strange or off, it likely is and follow up.
 
7) Reassess
 
This one is hard... take a very good look at your staff now. Review them with utmost care. Act as if you're taking LTT over and you want to make changes. You may find that you need to refresh some parts of your teams. As was tied to point 3... make some hard decisions if needed. At the end of the day it is a business. If you have to let a friend go, so be it. Review, weigh, determine long term value and address.

Hmmm, yes. Lets play individual paying out of pocket for a lawyer where the only evidence is not recorded vs. a multi-million dollar company whose image to the public is paramount. Surely that will go over well, especially if the lawsuit's existence were to leak.

https://twitter.com/suuuoppp/status/1691693740254228741
 
I think this is my last straw. Unsubbed from everywhere. to have a place of employment where employee has to injure themselves to take sick days. Awfull deplorible
 
Linus and ltt should be ashamed. We need more employees to come forward and expose this shit show and unionize.

Since Linus only cares about money, the obvious thing to do is to cancel your Floatplane subscription. Also don't buy their merch. Who in their right mind is going to pay $250 USD or $70 USD for a backpack and screwdriver respectively?

Because he isn't obliged to. Linus proved in his response that he wouldn't have taken that opportunity for comment in good faith and would have instead used it to try and discredit GN. Linus already tried that in his response; he claimed that everything had been settled with Billet Labs, but following GN's latest HW news, and Billet Labs post on the LTT subreddit, it's clear that Linus never reached out to them to settle this until GN's original video went live, and when he posted his response, he had only agreed to pay the cost of the prototype that Billet mentioned in a throw away comment, and hadn't even waited for a response from Billet before telling everyone on the forum that was sorted. Billet haven't even received anything. 
 
Linus has proved over the last 24 hours that he does not deserve the kindness of being reached out to for comment, and has demonstrated that he would only use such an opportunity to obscure facts and protect himself. 
 
Honestly it's good that Terren is CEO now, maybe this transition period can be a course correction too. If I were Terren I'd put Linus on, say a 6 month sabbatical. Let the new CEO really ingrain himself into the company and force Linus to let go of the reigns. Linus clearly needs to go touch grass, and this is a perfect opportunity to do so.

Sheeple gonna sheep

Because he isn't obliged to. Linus proved in his response that he wouldn't have taken that opportunity for comment in good faith and would have instead used it to try and discredit GN. Linus already tried that in his response; he claimed that everything had been settled with Billet Labs, but following GN's latest HW news, and Billet Labs post on the LTT subreddit, it's clear that Linus never reached out to them to settle this until GN's original video went live, and when he posted his response, he had only agreed to pay the cost of the prototype that Billet mentioned in a throw away comment, and hadn't even waited for a response from Billet before telling everyone on the forum that was sorted. Billet haven't even received anything. 
 
Linus has proved over the last 24 hours that he does not deserve the kindness of being reached out to for comment, and has demonstrated that he would only use such an opportunity to obscure facts and protect himself. 
 
Honestly it's good that Terren is CEO now, maybe this transition period can be a course correction too. If I were Terren I'd put Linus on, say a 6 month sabbatical. Let the new CEO really ingrain himself into the company and force Linus to let go of the reigns. Linus clearly needs to go touch grass, and this is a perfect opportunity to do so.

Sheeple gonna sheep

Sheeple gonna sheep