Madison reveals experiences working at LMG

[Uttamattamakin]

One thing I am a bit fuzzy on.  Did Linus say they have a outside HR Firm or outside HR Counsel? 

I may be mishearing.   When I think of a 3rd party HR Firm that would be available to employees I think of an outside company to which LMG has contracted their HR headaches.  Such companies do exist in the USA likely in Canada.  So if an employee is going to HR 3rd party means going to that outside company which would then bring to LMG's attention any serious issues.   Just googling something like this https://magentahr.ca/

 

VS

HR Counsel which is a good move but sounds more like a employment lawyer who would work for, represent only the interest of, and answer to the principal shareholders of LMG.  

I think the first one might be what people envision when we say 3rd party HR.  LMG might not feel (or be) large enough for that to make sense.   It is also notable that an employee union would be able to provide the same  sort of venue where a grievance can be processed.   There are reasons such structures exist in organizations that are firmly beyond being small businesses.  We are all observing why in this situation. 

[Donut417]

7 minutes ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Did Linus say they have a outside HR Firm

According to the post on Floatplane they hired a 3rd party HR investigator. My guess is they will look in to the incident and see what they can find out, while also looking at HR policies and procedures to see what LMG can improve.  

[Uttamattamakin]

59 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

According to the post on Floatplane they hired a 3rd party HR investigator. My guess is they will look in to the incident and see what they can find out, while also looking at HR policies and procedures to see what LMG can improve.  

Yeah now I mean back then when Madison was there... did they have an HR firm she could've reached out to OR did the top bosses have an HR counsel as in a lawyer they can consult.   That's what people are curious about. 

Get it?  

[Why_Me]

This is another she said he said. Looking at that gals twitter it's pretty obvious she's a whackjob.

[jos]

1 hour ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Yeah now I mean back then when Madison was there... did they have an HR firm she could've reached out to OR did the top bosses have an HR counsel as in a lawyer they can consult.   That's what people are curious about. 

Get it?  

They had hr firm. That handled hr stuff. So .... could reach out to them.

Like any organisation it would be try to solve problems with people you have problem with. Contact your pm of it is not resolved. If still not resolved, contact hr. If hr not taking seriously, try contacting. Some stakeholder. If nothing works out. Quit.

If the issue is assault, approach law enforcement, they may help you to get proof as well.

And if you are imagining things, there is little you can do. 

Some companies makes employees work beyond possible, you can quit in that case.

They can do an audit on the hr policies in practice. Also can do a complaince audit.

[Donut417]

7 hours ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Yeah now I mean back then when Madison was there... did they have an HR firm she could've reached out to OR did the top bosses have an HR counsel as in a lawyer they can consult.   That's what people are curious about. 

Get it?  

Like most companies I have worked for they probably had a poorly trained person or persons that handled most of it. They could have used an external company like Paycom to handle some of the things like Payroll, Time off Requests and such but likely they didn't have the proper people in place. If they had counsel or an HR firm this wouldn't have likely happened. Because any lawyer or firm would have warned LMG that this was a lawsuit and a shit storm waiting to happen. 

 

Interesting fact, my sister was involved in a salutation at her last job where a male employee was harassing multiple female employees. The company terminated EVERYONE involved. They didn't want any of them working there any more. The victims were offered severance as long as they signed documents stating they wouldn't sue. 

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, HenrySalayne said:

Oh, boy. This is sending exactly the right message! - Not...

 

The way they looked at it, everyone was a liability. In any case my sister got a much better job working for the government. 

[Uttamattamakin]

8 hours ago, jos said:

They had hr firm. That handled hr stuff. So .... could reach out to them.

Then the issue really is that such contact information is not in the handbook from the time.  A copy of which was uploaded to reddit.   So there was no way to get that information other than complaining to your supervisor, whom she claims was in on it. 

A lot of people are not bold enough, especially when very young, to take on the Cool Kid in class. 

 

8 hours ago, jos said:

Like any organisation it would be try to solve problems with people you have problem with. Contact your pm of it is not resolved. If still not resolved, contact hr. If hr not taking seriously, try contacting. Some stakeholder. If nothing works out. Quit.

You left out one very important thing. 

The BC government, not unlike most us states, has a department to which sexual harassment at work, or other violations of human rights at work, can be reported.  One does not need to quit to make such a report.  I know people in my state who made such reports, sued, and still kept their jobs and got paid.  Granted they work for the government but I know it happens in the private sector too. 

 

Ideally an employee handbook would have contact information for the outside HR firm, as well as the Canadian equivalent to the provincial and /or federal EEOC. 

8 hours ago, jos said:

If the issue is assault, approach law enforcement, they may help you to get proof as well.

Yeah some people online did conflate sexual harassment with sexual assault.  One of these things is criminal the other is a civil offence.  One thing you call the EEOC (or similar government agency) for and a lawyer ... the other you call the cops. 

That said serious sexual harassment and calling the cops they'd advise on what government agency can help with that so that wouldn't have been a bad move as long as a false report of a crime was not made. 

As an example in the US most employee handbooks and HR specifically inform an employee of their rights to contact the EEOC (and I know BC and Canada have similar organs of government).    The EEOC has even been known to sue employers who violate employee rights. 

 

For BC I had to google for what the time limit was to file a complaint to get to this fact sheet.  Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment fact sheet - Human Rights in BC (gov.bc.ca)

 

The only other thing I was able to find was like the online, and public, HR website for BC public servants.  (Maybe because google knows I work for the govt of my state so YMMV). 

Launch a formal complaint - Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca)

 

Compare to what California has online.  CRD | Civil Rights Department (ca.gov) Though I could just not know what word to search in Canada. Likely neither would Madison as she grew up in the United States of America. 

8 hours ago, jos said:

And if you are imagining things, there is little you can do. 

Some companies makes employees work beyond possible, you can quit in that case.

They can do an audit on the hr policies in practice. Also can do a compliance audit.

I kinda hope she was imagining it all.  Since if she wasn't imagining it all then terrible things have been going on behind the wrapper and perhaps honestly without LS knowing.  

Edited August 28, 2023 by Uttamattamakin
Wanted to provide examples

[Uttamattamakin]

6 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

The way they looked at it, everyone was a liability. In any case my sister got a much better job working for the government. 

Sounds like that company didn't much value their employees skills or valued not having to deal with the legal issues more.  

They could've sued for wrongful termination in most US states.  That severance package must've been generous. 

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, Uttamattamakin said:

They could've sued for wrongful termination in most US states.  That severance package must've been generous. 

Most people won't sue for wrongful termination as most people are ignorant in the law anyway. I dont recall what the severance package was. 

 

2 minutes ago, Uttamattamakin said:

valued not having to deal with the legal issues more.  

Look at what happened to Blizzard. Lawsuits, FTC fines, and bad press. A wrongful termination suit would have been less bad in their eyes. While I won't share the name of the company, you may have done business with them at one time. They are a fairly large and recognizable company. 

[wamred]

I do wonder what is going to come from this. I wonder if this will be the type of thing that we never hear anything from again. I could see the legal system trying to put a lid on this.

[jos]

4 hours ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Then the issue really is that such contact information is not in the handbook from the time.  A copy of which was uploaded to reddit.   So there was no way to get that information other than complaining to your supervisor, whom she claims was in on it. 

A lot of people are not bold enough, especially when very young, to take on the Cool Kid in class. 

 

You left out one very important thing. 

The BC government, not unlike most us states, has a department to which sexual harassment at work, or other violations of human rights at work, can be reported.  One does not need to quit to make such a report.  I know people in my state who made such reports, sued, and still kept their jobs and got paid.  Granted they work for the government but I know it happens in the private sector too. 

 

Ideally an employee handbook would have contact information for the outside HR firm, as well as the Canadian equivalent to the provincial and /or federal EEOC. 

Yeah some people online did conflate sexual harassment with sexual assault.  One of these things is criminal the other is a civil offence.  One thing you call the EEOC (or similar government agency) for and a lawyer ... the other you call the cops. 

That said serious sexual harassment and calling the cops they'd advise on what government agency can help with that so that wouldn't have been a bad move as long as a false report of a crime was not made. 

As an example in the US most employee handbooks and HR specifically inform an employee of their rights to contact the EEOC (and I know BC and Canada have similar organs of government).    The EEOC has even been known to sue employers who violate employee rights. 

 

For BC I had to google for what the time limit was to file a complaint to get to this fact sheet.  Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment fact sheet - Human Rights in BC (gov.bc.ca)

 

The only other thing I was able to find was like the online, and public, HR website for BC public servants.  (Maybe because google knows I work for the govt of my state so YMMV). 

Launch a formal complaint - Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca)

 

Compare to what California has online.  CRD | Civil Rights Department (ca.gov) Though I could just not know what word to search in Canada. Likely neither would Madison as she grew up in the United States of America. 

I kinda hope she was imagining it all.  Since if she wasn't imagining it all then terrible things have been going on behind the wrapper and perhaps honestly without LS knowing.  

Most companies shares the link to hr policies on joining. Don't know about specific countries. Also any changes should be notified. The only way doubts can be cleared is doing an audit and publish it's findings. I still behave some kind of professionalism is missing in the LMG culture. May be it is due to the industry. 

Example

Asking employees can someone come and help me in moving, I will giving hourly wages. I would say no, but some may feel, what if i say no, will this affect my promotion.

your boss come to your home and give a pc and shoot everywhere, I would reject the gift. Maybe allow him till the living room to give a coffee.

 

[Uttamattamakin]

Just now, jos said:

Your boss come to your home and give a pc and shoot everywhere, I would reject the gift. Maybe allow him till the living room to give a coffee.

 

I would take it and spend all about half of the 5K dollars on a professional grade GPU.  That's part of the deal.  That said I am certain anyone who wants to refuse to take part in that, or any other fun thing, can do so.  Let's just hope that if someone decides to keep it 100% professional and keep their worlds separate no one thinks any less of them at work, at LMG. 

A full colonoscopy of an HR audit could find that such things are a problem IF that is the case. 

I've seen and worked at places where if you didn't want to go to the college presidents barbque they'd act weird.  I've also worked at a place where they want you to pre register for it....   The first situation is far more of a problem. 

[jos]

6 minutes ago, Uttamattamakin said:

I would take it and spend all about half of the 5K dollars on a professional grade GPU.  That's part of the deal.  That said I am certain anyone who wants to refuse to take part in that, or any other fun thing, can do so.  Let's just hope that if someone decides to keep it 100% professional and keep their worlds separate no one thinks any less of them at work, at LMG. 

A full colonoscopy of an HR audit could find that such things are a problem IF that is the case. 

I've seen and worked at places where if you didn't want to go to the college presidents barbque they'd act weird.  I've also worked at a place where they want you to pre register for it....   The first situation is far more of a problem.

Yes I do agree, if you reject 5k upgrade LMG or LS will tell ok. And won't think about it again, but the problem is fear of an employee to tell no, I have seen that a lot.

[wanderingfool2]

Has LMG detailed any information in regards to the 3rd party HR that they are going to use for this audit?

 

I mean, I hope the audit isn't done by their current HR company (but if it was, would we even know).

 

2 minutes ago, jos said:

Yes I do agree, if you reject 5k upgrade LMG or LS will tell ok. And won't think about it again, but the problem is fear of an employee to tell no, I have seen that a lot.

In a case like that, I'd be surprised if they didn't have some system of submitting yourself to be part of the contest.

 

I've always wondered though, does LMG properly account for things like this; along with all those other things the company is given.  Giving away $5k of stuff, means in theory they should be reporting it as taxable benefits for their employees.

 

5 hours ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Then the issue really is that such contact information is not in the handbook from the time.  A copy of which was uploaded to reddit.   So there was no way to get that information other than complaining to your supervisor, whom she claims was in on it. 

A lot of people are not bold enough, especially when very young, to take on the Cool Kid in class. 

And this is the point that so many people are missing.  If it's not really documented; there really isn't too much way a new employee would know.  Especially if her verbal warnings claim is true; as it essentially would imply that there was a culture where they would punish you without creating a paper trail.

 

The concerning thing that I do find is that it wasn't present in the handbook, along with the fact that Linus has stated if you want to be treated by the rules you will be treated by the rules.  That's all good and well, but in cases like HR that can really have a negative atmosphere, where it essentially  is the whole complain and you will be treated differently

[roxsonixx]

16 hours ago, eric79x said:

Have you never worked for an actual company? LoL
Any corporation I've ever worked for has an HR orientation in which those exact things are spelled out directly; because of assumptions such as yours have led to innumerable incidents such as the thread topic, over the decades. I've seen the same 'training videos'  (conceptually if nothing else) and policy handbooks a hundred times and you have to sign confirmation that you've received and agree. (almost like a TOS, )

Nobody knows for sure what anyone else does or doesn't know unless there's been a demonstration one way or the other. In corporate/business situations, it's critical to have, well just about everything clearly defined and confirmed mutual understanding - especially concerning topics such as HR/policies/etc. That's no less critical than terms of business transaction agreements, because that's what employment is at the end of the day - a business agreement; it's just business-to-employee instead of business-to-business. Never assume someone's knowledge or experience without a verifiable demonstration of such.

Yes I have worked for several companies ranging from one of the largest employers in the U.S. to one of the largest restaurant chains in the world all the way down to a small distribution company of just under 1,000 people. They all had basically the same procedures for this kind of thing. Generally, you go to your direct supervisor and if for some reason you can't, say the complaint is about your direct supervisor, then you go to the next person higher. "Climbing the ladder." If such issue warrants it, HR gets involved and does an investigation and turns those finding over to whomever is handling the issue and action is taken based on those findings. In many cases you also had the option of going straight to HR and they would turn the issue over to a Manager or in some companies, an outside ethics department depending on this issue. This all applies here. This is more or less the general procedure and again, is pretty common knowledge. 

[jos]

21 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Has LMG detailed any information in regards to the 3rd party HR that they are going to use for this audit?

 

I mean, I hope the audit isn't done by their current HR company (but if it was, would we even know).

 

In a case like that, I'd be surprised if they didn't have some system of submitting yourself to be part of the contest.

 

I've always wondered though, does LMG properly account for things like this; along with all those other things the company is given.  Giving away $5k of stuff, means in theory they should be reporting it as taxable benefits for their employees.

 

And this is the point that so many people are missing.  If it's not really documented; there really isn't too much way a new employee would know.  Especially if her verbal warnings claim is true; as it essentially would imply that there was a culture where they would punish you without creating a paper trail.

 

The concerning thing that I do find is that it wasn't present in the handbook, along with the fact that Linus has stated if you want to be treated by the rules you will be treated by the rules.  That's all good and well, but in cases like HR that can really have a negative atmosphere, where it essentially  is the whole complain and you will be treated differently

Usually all rules will be hosted somewhere and you gets the link on joining, in all companies I worked so far, especially if you are working in tech industry. So I am guessing it is same here as well. But 99% will not look that. Especially if it is 1st job. Current HR cannot do audit, they have not told, they will do audit, but only investigate claims by the person. I think full hr audit and HR complaince audit should be done. Yup the 5k is taxable the recieving party should pay the tax.

In every organisation anything verbal is useless, everything should be documented. I think since this is so public it is being done.

If you adhire strictly by rules, you can expect everything by rules, so there will change in treatment to you, as long as it adhires to the rule. 

Example they should not give you projects that are of not so high profile due to this.

[Uttamattamakin]

29 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

And this is the point that so many people are missing.  If it's not really documented; there really isn't too much way a new employee would know.  Especially if her verbal warnings claim is true; as it essentially would imply that there was a culture where they would punish you without creating a paper trail.

Can't agree more.  I had a job at a small college that was all about extracurricular (literally) "fun" that if one did not take part in it one got the side eye.  If one was not a family person as in a wife or husband and children, at the family picknick,  one got the side eye.  That same place also had a habit of acting as if wanting to document the mere fact that a meeting was had and a conversation took place with an email after the fact was "hostile".  At least my direct supervisor did and others above him.  I then contacted the incoming provost whom I had worked with at another institution ... then was fired...before that man could formally take office.  Rather than bother with suing I gave copies of all my information to him. 

 

I came to find out that particular college covered up the alleged rape of a student.   I won't name where for obvious reasons but not the place I mention next or work now if anyone sleuths it out... please don't.

Another place I once worked, and at which some managers were allergic to documentation and formal procedures ... got busted for giving diplomas to dead people after I left. https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20151017/ISSUE01/310179995/how-city-colleges-of-chicago-inflates-graduation-rates  (They considered it a problem if students who didn't do the work failed). 

 

So, I may be projecting.  Others may be projecting.  We are all just reacting based on our experiences.  

The problem I hope LMG realizes is that such a lack of formal procedure, while friendly, also allows for abuses and corruption of all kinds. The appearance that such an environment exist at a company that banks on their appearance is a HUGE problem. 

 

29 minutes ago, wanderingfool2 said:

The concerning thing that I do find is that it wasn't present in the handbook, along with the fact that Linus has stated if you want to be treated by the rules you will be treated by the rules.  That's all good and well, but in cases like HR that can really have a negative atmosphere, where it essentially  is the whole complain and you will be treated differently

Yes.  SO much.  One way to stop people from exercising their rights is to make the ones who do so the odd person out.   It might not be a conscious thing or some Machiavellian plan.  If you are the boss and try to be a nice fair person it might not occur to you that others you hire will not have the same personal ethics.     You know...none of this has to have happened by malice but by inexperience. 

[wanderingfool2]

30 minutes ago, jos said:

Usually all rules will be hosted somewhere and you gets the link on joining, in all companies I worked so far, especially if you are working in tech industry. So I am guessing it is same here as well. But 99% will not look that. Especially if it is 1st job

Well the thing is while it is stand to have that kind of thing; it's also pretty standard to have it all written in the employee handbook.  All of the places I worked, specifically ones that are the size of LMG; all had it where you were initially told where the handbook was (it was in the lunchroom), and it did lay out things like that.

 

1 hour ago, jos said:

Current HR cannot do audit, they have not told, they will do audit, but only investigate claims by the person

You miss my point.  I'm hoping that the current 3rd party HR team isn't the one that does the audit into this situation.  As it creates a conflict of interest.  There's nothing stopping LMG lets say saying we are doing a 3rd party independent audit and using the same HR team that they current use.  It's why I'm saying I wonder if details like that will be released.

 

1 hour ago, jos said:

Yup the 5k is taxable the recieving party should pay the tax.

You missed the point again though, I know it's taxable; I'm kind of curious if LMG does it that way though.  Like in theory all of the harddrives they got for their videos and such should also classify towards the business as taxable income; yet many people don't bother.  Even the video where they got the press release car; that is taxable income.

 

1 hour ago, jos said:

In every organisation anything verbal is useless, everything should be documented. I think since this is so public it is being done.

But the allegation by Madison was essentially saying that they did have verbal warnings/reprimands.  That's why I'm saying it's not necessarily easy for someone to get to HR; if you suspect you will get in trouble (as they will know who it is, and if they already are willing to do things undocumented).

 

1 hour ago, jos said:

If you adhire strictly by rules, you can expect everything by rules, so there will change in treatment to you, as long as it adhires to the rule. 

Yes and no.  It creates a very bad precedence; in that you can now internally question; if I go to HR about issues xyz, are they going to start enforcing everything else.  Like if lets say you are putting in 10 hour days, but take 2 hours off the next day.  That flexibility is great, but if you go to HR about a SH case and management decides that since you did that you want things by the book and no longer offer the flexibility of 10 hour shifts followed by 6 hours; it creates an incentive to essentially stay silent or "suck it up".

 

[Jaja92]

7 hours ago, Uttamattamakin said:

Then the issue really is that such contact information is not in the handbook from the time.  A copy of which was uploaded to reddit.   So there was no way to get that information other than complaining to your supervisor, whom she claims was in on it. 

A lot of people are not bold enough, especially when very young, to take on the Cool Kid in class. 

 

You left out one very important thing. 

The BC government, not unlike most us states, has a department to which sexual harassment at work, or other violations of human rights at work, can be reported.  One does not need to quit to make such a report.  I know people in my state who made such reports, sued, and still kept their jobs and got paid.  Granted they work for the government but I know it happens in the private sector too. 

 

Ideally an employee handbook would have contact information for the outside HR firm, as well as the Canadian equivalent to the provincial and /or federal EEOC. 

Yeah some people online did conflate sexual harassment with sexual assault.  One of these things is criminal the other is a civil offence.  One thing you call the EEOC (or similar government agency) for and a lawyer ... the other you call the cops. 

That said serious sexual harassment and calling the cops they'd advise on what government agency can help with that so that wouldn't have been a bad move as long as a false report of a crime was not made. 

As an example in the US most employee handbooks and HR specifically inform an employee of their rights to contact the EEOC (and I know BC and Canada have similar organs of government).    The EEOC has even been known to sue employers who violate employee rights. 

 

For BC I had to google for what the time limit was to file a complaint to get to this fact sheet.  Sex Discrimination and Sexual Harassment fact sheet - Human Rights in BC (gov.bc.ca)

 

The only other thing I was able to find was like the online, and public, HR website for BC public servants.  (Maybe because google knows I work for the govt of my state so YMMV). 

Launch a formal complaint - Province of British Columbia (gov.bc.ca)

 

Compare to what California has online.  CRD | Civil Rights Department (ca.gov) Though I could just not know what word to search in Canada. Likely neither would Madison as she grew up in the United States of America. 

I kinda hope she was imagining it all.  Since if she wasn't imagining it all then terrible things have been going on behind the wrapper and perhaps honestly without LS knowing.  

She is a liar, she isn’t imagining anything she is trying to get some clout to boost her twitch shit because the type of person who thinks posting two Tik toks a week is some crazy workload then cuts themselves to avoid work will not be able to function in the real world. 

We can literally see how she lied about her workload by going through LTTs past social media accounts actively. The fuck was she even doing there

 

[wreakinghavoc]

"I was asked to twerk for my coworkers one time", "they asked me how I liked to fudge".

 

It seems to me that she thought her dream job would be to just show up, record videos with Linus and make a lot of money. Her allegations don't even make sense. Who said those things to her? Was it in a group conversation where people were being funny? Was she forced into it? If you're not comfortable with the subject you just leave, don't play along or else people are going to think you're ok with it. If you're by coworkers to do things like that and even worse by your manager, YOU LEAVE. Who would want to work in a place like that? It seems like she couldn't handle the work and it wasn't what she was expecting. She has blocked everyone that has questioned her in her tweets and isn't taking what she has said to be 100% true. 

 

I hope LMG does a thorough investigation on the matter and if the things she mentions did happen the ones involved do get punished. But also, she must take full responsiblity and follow through her accusations, saying she wouldn't sue LMG because she doesn't have the money to do it doesn't cut it.  

[wreakinghavoc]

7 minutes ago, Jaja92 said:

She is a liar, she isn’t imagining anything she is trying to get some clout to boost her twitch shit because the type of person who thinks posting two Tik toks a week is some crazy workload then cuts themselves to avoid work will not be able to function in the real world. 

We can literally see how she lied about her workload by going through LTTs past social media accounts actively. The fuck was she even doing there

 

I think she took the job wishing she'd have the opportunity to appear on camera more often because of the ROG popularity video.

[wreakinghavoc]

Do you guys honestly think the environment at LMG can be half as horrible as she made it to be? If so, ANYONE who works there could record any of these injustices and end the whole company. 

[Rikere]

They used to have a pretty extensive security system, with object tracking and all (old video linked below). I don't think there's been an update posted, but we know Linus tends to keep data a long time. Chances are if they retain security camera footage for any long-term spans, they may have caught something. Facial recognition can cut down on the search time or using any emails/complaint records would let them find exactly what happened.

 

Depending on how extensive their security setup is. Even in the video below, the full capabilities were never showcased, just that the system had some really neat abilities.

 

 

[EpochMedia]

2 hours ago, roxsonixx said:

Yes I have worked for several companies ranging from one of the largest employers in the U.S. to one of the largest restaurant chains in the world all the way down to a small distribution company of just under 1,000 people. They all had basically the same procedures for this kind of thing. Generally, you go to your direct supervisor and if for some reason you can't, say the complaint is about your direct supervisor, then you go to the next person higher. "Climbing the ladder." If such issue warrants it, HR gets involved and does an investigation and turns those finding over to whomever is handling the issue and action is taken based on those findings. In many cases you also had the option of going straight to HR and they would turn the issue over to a Manager or in some companies, an outside ethics department depending on this issue. This all applies here. This is more or less the general procedure and again, is pretty common knowledge. 

I think the problem is your last sentence - this gets drilled into your head if you work for a company that regularly has to worry about and deal with liability and HR issues. 
 

From what we’re told, LMG wasn’t really that place. Coupled with the fact that you have explosive growth of a lot of younger generation people, or socially awkward (by stereotype of the industry, techie nerds) people, you have a lot of potential for this “standard corporate communication” to be missed, ignored or not get sought out properly when little issues happen. For how many people is LMG their first job? 
 

It’s entirely possible that the Madison issue(s) are/were the first major HR incident to take place at the company.