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Linus Tech Tips issues response to Madison's accusations (aussie.zone)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[–] 122 points 3 years ago (35 children)

From what Madison said it sounds like it goes far too deep for this to change much. I hope things get better (since it's unlikely LTT just up and disappears immediately), but from what we've seen this culture of dismissal goes right to the top.

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  • [–] 83 points 3 years ago (22 children)

    I honestly believe that Linus is a well intentioned dumbass. He likes his people and believes that everyone can just get along and that nobody would harass another employee seriously. He knows that the mistakes are just honest mistakes which is why he gets so defensive, take the whole "trust me bro" thing... I think it never occurred to him to fuck his customers over which is why he didnt handle it well.

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

    But that kind of attitude just doesnt work with so damn many people, he should have hired a full time HR manager YEARS ago, as well as the company lawyer on staff. He SHOULD NOT be doing the WAN show, or if he does it should be on a 5 minute tape delay with someone from legal and hr present.

    The reason why so much bullshit corporate structure exists is to largely protect the company from itself.

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  • [–] 25 points 3 years ago (3 children)

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

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    A couple people have said this now, but can you link some examples? I've been watching the channel for a while and don't recall things like that, but it could just be that I was watching with rose colored glasses.

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  • [–] 21 points 3 years ago (11 children)

    Source: trust me bro?

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  • [–] 38 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    The whole "Trust me bro" thing comes from when they released their backpacks. They had issues with some of the zippers and people wanted to know what the warranty was. Linus said they didnt explicitly have one but that he would look after anyone with issues. When people got a bit rightly pissed about this, he got a bit defensive. "Trust me bro" sprung up as a meme out of that whole saga.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    So... No source then? You just kinda think Linus is nice from watching videos?

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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    What source are you looking for, exactly? You asked about a specific incident and got a fine summary. If you want more context, it's very easy to find.

    If you are looking for a "source" for a subjective opinion of someone's personality... I don't even know what that would accomplish or what form you think that would take.

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  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago (6 children)

    If you've seen enough wan show you can get a pretty good idea of his personality. He spouts so many controversial takes without thinking through the consequences, so he's doing a terrible job if he's actually an evil mastermind. Most people are well intentioned and Linus is no different.

    He's also naïve, arrogant, and defensive, as we've seen lately.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    There's a huuuuge margin between 'evil mastermind' and 'well intentioned', containing 'selfish misogynistic jackass', 'careless greedy capitalist', 'self-important egotistical manchild', and many other aphorisms that we could ascribe to this tear-stained apologetic corporate head that would be far more accurate.

    In other words, just because he's not the smartest or most sinister bad actor doesn't mean we should trust him or give him our money or time.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    But any of those can also include well intentioned. Well intentioned, negligent, naïve, egotistical, arrogant, focused too much on business. All are fair adjectives.

    Even huge assholes are usually well intentioned (Elon Musk springs to mind), but they have a warped view of the world and get distracted by other things, and without realizing it end up doing more harm than good.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (2 children)

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

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

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago

    Also, having a union makes contract negotiations simple, because the contract has already been negotiated with the union.

    But here's the thing: the union ensures the contract is fair, and a lot of businesses don't like dealing fairly with their employees.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago*

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

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

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  • [–] 29 points 3 years ago (11 children)

    Sounds like they need to totally overhaul HR and give them real power to action to whatever complaints are coming in. A lot of management will have to go in order to change the culture. Unfortunately culture starts at the top and I’m not sure Linus himself can lead that change.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 years ago (5 children)

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

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  • [–] 36 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    He and his wife are still the majority (perhaps only?) owners, so Linus is still in charge even if he is pretending to delegate some duties.

    I think the fact he appeared in the latest video and was still so defensive is enough evidence to prove that point.

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  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Linus is the founder, his name is on the buildings, he was CEO at the time of all this shit, he is the cheif on camera personality and he is the majority shareholder. Of course he would be in the video.

    Hiring Terren was the smartest thing he could have done, he probably should have gotten someone who understands this shit onboard a long time ago. Even if they were subordinate to him.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Linus also wants LMG to be about more than him, and a huge part of the controversy is tied to his decision making power overruling everyone else who says they are working too fast.

    He could have appeared, that's fine, but that nobody was able to get him to drop the defensive attitude and just finally say "sorry" without any pity pleas would have been a very strong signal. That they either didn't think to do that, couldn't get Linus to agree or don't have the power to force him also sends a strong signal in the other direction.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    While I do agree, Id say the counterpoint would be that putting Terren out front when all this happened under Linus's watch could have come across as disingenuous.

    "Heres our new lightning rod, yell at him" sort of thing. I very much think they are in a no win scenario with most of this.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago*

    Linus is still in charge even if he is pretending to delegate some duties

    It may be different in Canada, but AFAIK a CEO has full decision powers over everyday functioning of a company. They can get fired by the Board (owners) if they don't do what the board wants, but it's not like members of the board can waltz in and make random decisions with the CEO watching.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (1 child)

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

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    A good HR department protects the company by protecting the employees though. Not good business to get your business involved in expensive lawsuits because your HR department took the path of least resistance.

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