What started as criticism over errors in recent YouTube videos has escalated into allegations of sexual harassment, prompting the company to hire an outside investigator.

That culture comes from a lack of process and experience of large organizations. The second that a team grows beyond 7 people it has grown beyond the direct control of any one person and the culture takes on a life of it's own. If not addressed early in growth, issues typically spiral and are either not caught or are allowed to exist out of a perceived necessity.

Small organizations are nimble so they do not need to formalize cultural and HR processes in the same way that large organizations do. If the leader sees something they don't like, they address it. It isn't just about basic respect. We all bring our own cultural issues to an organization. A lack of professionalism comes hand in hand with smaller creative organizations. That's what makes them entertaining. It also enables the toxic tendencies of some people as they are allowed to slip in and as the pressure builds. Don't confuse professionalism with respect.

These things don't happen immediately either. It happens over time as people get tired and impatient so they are not on their best behavior. We all go through a storming process. That's when toxic culture can set in if good lower level leadership doesn't catch and address it. That takes training and a formal approach to organizational structure, not just production processes.

I am one of those outside consultants.

I've seen the exact same thing on a company that went from 5 to 50 employees in a similarly short time frame.

The issue happens if you start with a friend group without decent structures or leadership "because we are friends/anyway". This works if you got 5 people but it doesn't if you have 50 or 150. Because you don't just have friends who are enthusiastic about the mission there, but you have to fill the ranks with people who actually want to treat this like a job. Now the "bro" culture starts to fall apart.

With this size you start to get real issues at work that need to be handled with a correct structure, which you don't have because senior management still feels this is just a startup full of bros.

Bros don't mind working 60 or even 80h/week, every week, because of the mission. Employees do mind. So now you have a workload designed for 60h/week per employee that is shouldered by a 40h/week employee. So either they work 60h (probably without compensation for the overtime) or they cut corners and deliver crap quality.

Same with the way people interact with each other. Bros don't mind some rough jokes, but employees usually don't like it that much if their real concerns get brushed aside with the suggestion to maybe "calm your tits".

When going from startup to real company, you need to make big changes to the structure and work culture. If you don't, an LMG ensues.

This reminds me of sexual misconduct allegations in the electronic music scene. When EDM blew up it elevated a bunch of basement dwelling computer nerds to rock star status. Musicians like Datsik and Bassnectar let that status go to their heads and immediately abused it.

Of course, there are many "learn-on-the-job" organizations that have gone forward and done amazing things.

However, while I agree that these issues don't naturally manifest themselves and stem from unprofessionalism and basic respect, I would argue that specialists and professionals in those functions (HR, Finance, Ops, etc) can help establish policies that mitigates and discourages such behaviors. If people can't do that voluntarily, then policies and consequences are enacted to enforce it.

This is why many companies (and I've worked in a few in the tens/hundred thousands of employees) have clear business conduct guideline policies and enforcement, because people who lack professionalism and basic respect for fellow humans are actually quite prevalent in any and every company. I've witnessed a few myself that led to immediate termination of my colleagues.

Are you suggesting that Linus Sebastian, age 36, is somehow a Gen Zer?

You know that a cultural and organizational happy medium somewhere between LMG’s YOLO approach and IBM exists, right? It’s not a binary XOR.

Yeah I've recently come across the same understanding... In my management career I've never worked with a third party HR, so I don't know how effective that model is.

Realisticly he was brought in last month so he wouldn't have had time to properly analyse the corporate side of the company. Right now this is the best time or a fresh face on the top who could create change from the top down where these kind of discussions now has real weight behind them.

I think the best way to discourage misogyny is to suspend Linus who would be looked at as the source of it for 30 days and demote Colton who failed in his duties to protect every employee at LMG. Get someone outside LMG to manage Human Resources. Maybe one day that trust might return.

Correction to my original comment: up until 7 weeks ago..

But while I'm sure discussions have been started, having been exposed to new leadership in my experience, it does take a while before new leadership can really roll out required changes. Most of the time spent in the first 30-60 days is to listen and understand the lay of the land (which Terren also mentioned). But even then, grave issues like the ones Madison called out usually won't be known to new leadership until later, unless a report/exposure is made (like what Madison did).

Oh yeah, let’s jump to thinking people are creeps because of the way they look.

You’re clearly coming at this from a mature and well thought out area, not one of sexism and abuse.

he seems like the type of dude who closes ranks and thereby perpetuates the culture of misogyny.

Perfect for HR then!

The key here is external. HR workers often have an incentive to quiet down such cases.

The process has to be triggered, and if the good old boy network decides to do nothing, there is now an auditable external paper trail that this was reported.

This is why I actually like the new CEO's response, especially since he's on the "good ol' boy network". Let's rope in a third party that's impartial. I'm glad he's not just going the "we investigated ourselves and didn't find ourselves at fault" route. Let's hope the report does come out and does make sense for the situation. But there is always the risk of the third party not finding anything because LMG is paying them. I hope whoever they use has a good track record and the reports that come are clear (and most importantly that actual actions are taken to right the wrongs found/identified). That's the problem with implementing stuff reactionarily, you never really know. But considering the CEO stepped in... what? 7 weeks ago? This is a really good step for him. There might be hope for LMG... but only if Linus stops with the petty shit and stops driving everything into the ground.

If it takes an extra 500$ to test something properly... he should do it. He should know this innately because he's spend hundreds of thousands on "The Labs", but this mentality still shows when he talks candidly on WAN show and other spots. Makes it hard to believe him and his responses contradicting Madison's story when we see this type of mentality elsewhere.

Don't be so sensitive then, it's just a joke!

I can't believe you said that

TBH... I have a feeling some of who you named are part of who she is calling out.

iirc James would have technically been her boss during her time there.

It's a play on the Dark Knight quote.

"You either die a hero or you live long enough to become a villain"

GN probably would've done it anyway. He is not completely in the right because as unbiased as he wants to be, at the end of the day, he is still criticizing a competitor. I doubt those comments actually prompted his response. They had a lot of examples in their video and have probably been compiling it for a while.

Edit: I mean to say that criticizing a competitor can damage your reputation. I think GN was entirely justified in creating the video. The point I was trying to make is that, after the backpack warranties scandal, Steve basically came out saying that they would be paying closer attention to LMG's credibility. So I think this video would've come out eventually regardless of whether or not staff at LMG made those remarks about GN.

No, but the comments by their staff that op was referring to stoked the fire that created all the exposure and I imagine prompted her to come forward too.

Jesus Christ you've got a problem. You're picking fights which aren't there.

You have to admit the timing is interesting. Why come forward now, perhaps, if it is true, she never would have felt comfortable coming forward unless she felt that there was public support. I literally think that is the only point the comment was making, and here you are, going off the rails accusing somebody of not caring. That is absolutely not what I read from the comment.

I knew it all along.

People are leaning into the hate circlejerk way too hard, apart from the forum rant they have handled this situation pretty well. They addressed GN's concerns in their apology video by improving their workflows and communication, and are now hiring an investigator for Madison's claims. I can't really think of anything more that they could do, but I guess some people just want to be mad.

Yeah, what are the chances that a company mismanaged by a bunch of incompetent unrepentant techbros also fostered a culture of sexual harassment?

I thought people loved LTT. Theres only hatred now in the internet.

I really like LTT. All the stuff about mistakes and inaccuracies dont feel that bad to me personally and I feel like LTT would be in a better place regarding accuracy and testing after this.

Regarding the sell of the cooling system, yeah its bad. But I do believe it was a miscommunication and mismanagement within LTT. And int that case at least money can solve it.

Regarding the sexual harassments or “sexually bad environment” yeah this is really bad. I do attribute this to their male dominant eviornent. All those little sexual jokes are so fucking lame and really belong to the distant past of history. They behave like they are 16. The fact that they dont have women in the front of as presenters really shows they are all so sexist. Or at least the one at the top. I do hope justice will be done and everyone accountable gets the proper punishment. And I hope that after this the company will finally grow up and realize they can be still funny and with high quality without the need to oppress women.

I want to keep having fun and getting informed from LTT and i hope they can solve all that.

No pitchforks and no hatred.

I think an important thing people forget is even if they hate Linus, there are a lot of other people who work there that will be negatively impacted if LTT is "burnt to the ground". I am hoping they step up, take the criticism professionaly and improve. Anything else is a major disappointment.

Yes and no. Only a fraction of Redditors migrated, and that fraction is overrepresented by people who care about privacy, ethical business models, community projects and stewardship. And we've seen that the Lemmy discussions have been a lot more humane and productive.

I myself have remained pretty silent through this entire LMG saga. Maybe I represent a silent majority? Or maybe just a few? It's time to put down the pitchforks. The company has responded, let's wait and see what comes of it. At the end of the day, vote with your wallets. The LMG fanbase is starting to move out of "concerned citizenry" territory and into "self perpetuating angry mob" territory.

Mindchop’s channel shows no harassment that I can see so far.

Even now his most recent video is 10:1 dislike to like ratio:

He then went and auctioned off the prototype without the knowledge of the manufacturer, only offering to make them whole once it had already been auctioned off.

There's a few bits more around this that have come to light that makes it even worse....

The manufacturer emailed asking for the cooling block to be returned as it was their only prototype and LMG said they would return it, with the manufacturer chasing several times before LMG admitted that they had auctioned it off for charity.

They only offered compensation once the situation had been revealed in that expose video the other day.

Lol just fuck off back to whatever sterile hell you live in where nobody's feelings get hurt.

Honestly getting close to not hinging any more. But will see how it goes. I like the content and am hoping the truth has a nuance that we are missing. Let’s see.