And there are many (Many!) thousands that turned out to be true and more of this stuff is occurring every day.
As to guilty until proven innocent, you're literally applying that logic to Madison's claims being lies.
What I see here is a small company that got big real fast, staffed by a majority of tech nerds that does not yet have the appropriate support in place in terms of official policies, disciplinary processes and employee support structure. They've been assuming they can get by without such "red tape" and while they were smaller probably could.
In the leaked twitter HR meeting video (from a couple of years ago apparently) - Linus asked if people knew about the support available to employees and a significant number did not know what was available (where he asks for a show of hands). This should be a standard part of the employee onboarding process.
Yes, its big company red tape stuff, but big companies don't just do this for fun or to justify people's jobs (as much as it may seem that way) - the reality is (at least in my experience), if you have more than about 5-10 staff in a group, you're going to have some form of conflict and need a dispute/resolution process and a support structure in place. The fact they got this big without a blowup like this (if they did, I'm sure there's more to come out of this) would be absolutely incredible.
LMG has grown very fast in recent years once it hit critical mass and Linus is (or was, getting a real CEO is one of the best decisions he's made recently - but this stuff will take time to take hold) still trying to run it like a plucky startup out of his bedroom. It simply doesn't work for a company of LMG's size, and you simply can't just be friends with everyone and let the innuendo, etc. slide too far or for too long or it eventually escalates beyond an acceptable point or you have a new hire not fit in and get hurt (Which sounds like what happened to Madison - in addition to other, even less savoury things).
Look, it happens. All I am saying is that the community needs to just stop talking about it. It can spiral into the death of LTT and Linus' image if it's false and people decide to just believe her at face value. It is ignorant to not follow due process and take these investigations seriously. Yes, there are legit accusations but it doesn't make it okay when there are FALSE ones that people just assume are correct because they simply read a tweet.
I think it really irks a lot of people when things like this get brushed to the side. I guess having someone close to me being impacted by false accusations made things a lot more difficult for me. That person's life literally got ruined for something proven false YEARS later. Not everyone can lawyer up and battle this in court.
Now, some of the stuff in the tweets are, and I will be frank here but do NOT take this as I do not care, that it was just how the company operates. I have had times in my career where I was prevented or needed to have VERY GOOD REASON for taking time off. We had crunch times at certain points, due to regulatory timelines (think when tax deadlines are coming up). Some companies even have mandatory overtime at certain points during the year....and you need to have an excuse if you can't work the full 60+ hours. I was prevented from taking vacation at the time and they did question some "sick days" just due to how things work sometimes. I have worked on 24 hour shifts, been on call nearly all my work life.
Some of the requests in the tweets did not seem that horrible. This is not an LTT problem, but an overall business problem impacting many many MANY MANY businesses. Like I said, I have been through grind sessions. I have had similar things spoken to me about my early career if I spoke about being overworked. This is an inherit problem with small businesses growing to be larger. I agree with what you said about closest thing to state on it is "tech bro" culture. And I agree. Men talk to men the way some of the statements read in the tweet and men brush it off in most cases.
Like it or not, this is why major corporations have MASSIVE training, handbooks, even to some degree not allowing ANY jokes (there are some statements Linus makes in the videos that would have NOT been accepted in a few businesses I worked at) except boring dad jokes....if that. You are required to do things yearly to keep up your harassment training, HR regularly telling you that you CAN speak up etc. This stuff is boring to a lot of people but as you can see with the current state of things it is NECESSARY to have a well-running business.
I have been lucky, but also been unlucky with some of my jobs and some of them have had bad experiences like the one discussed.
Do we know to what degree the "inappropriate touching" was? Again, please please PLEASE do not mistake this as saying she is WRONG.....this is what you need to do for INVESTIGATION.....I have seen cases where someone's backpack or shoulder brushes against someone and they FREAK out.
That is ALL I am saying.....this needs to be investigated. Not just believe someone at face value. Don't take twitter messages as evidence, even if there are people that back her up it doesn't prove anything. This is why a third party is involved to do this investigation impartially.
Also, people are going NUTS about this....She said so herself that Linus did not know everything and to what degree. All she could have said to Linus that she was uncomfortable....which is in-line with the meeting LTT had...and he could have not known to what degree. Which makes his statement about being "shocked" accurate. He was shocked to the degree of the allegations. As proven by her.
I do not understand how people are making the leaked meeting a major issue. This is how some corporations handle this. Some send out a random immediate harassment training or revised handbook for you to sign if something happens. But this is why companies have this discussed YEARLY...so people understand that they can speak up.
Things need to be done VERY VERY carefully with opposite sex. You can NEVER have one on one meetings with that person, always have a third person there. Use an office with a glass door if you need to speak about something in private, bring an HR person with you.
Again, please do NOT take what I am saying as I don't care. I have been through this with a personal friend of mine and it turned out to be false. All I am saying is let's stop the speculation and let the investigation do its thing. Having the community try to "guess" the outcome and come to the conclusion that LTT is horrible, then start to boycott leading to their business being ruined all if it turns out to be false or not as severe?
I don't even shake hands with someone of the opposite sex in a business setting if I am alone with that person. People do take advantage or think something happened when it did not. I take the stance that Keanu Reeves does....have you ever notice that he never touches opposite sex fans when it poses for pictures? For this reason.
I think we are mostly on the same page here. And I don't want to get into it more than I have but lets just say my past experiences (as I mentioned a few times now) makes it more difficult for me to accept something like this at face value. Give me the investigation report and I will make my judgement at that time.
