IMHO, there’s anything wrong with the occasional one-off optional event, like a bowling night or picnic. That said, I’ve always felt like events are more of a risk/liability/personality assessment - if my manager doesn’t think I’m a fun activity buddy, does that mean I’m screwed?

Agreed on your point regarding Madison/LMG - it really isn’t our business to begin with and the best to hope for is that everyone involved is able to resolve it privately.

A lot better of a response, but I think Linus missed the point on toxic workplace/culture comments.

I’m sure they’re not able to comment on Madison (for good legal reason and they still need the third party firm to investigate), but Linus’ response just felt more “look at all the nice things LMG does” rather than a commitment about the long-term cultural issues. Anonymous employee surveys are really difficult to trust because a) they have a reputation of not being anonymous and b) if the culture has someone already scared to be open, it’s doubtful that there will be honest answers. It sounds like LMG did take their one-on-one meetings seriously, but time will only tell.

(Personal ancedote: I have had managers watch me fill out those anonymous surveys to make sure it was “filled out properly.”)

Yeah, it’s nice LMG gives decent Christmas bonuses and hold have all those off-hours events, but I can’t help but feel it’s designed more to keep employees trapped in the LMG bubble and when you feel trapped, it’s harder to push back and up for yourself.

I don’t want Linus/LTT to fail. Mistakes are bound to happen and I enjoy watching a tiny Canadian man put things down really fast. I honestly just don’t want to support a complete jerk that purposefully hurts other people and refuses to take accountability. If it comes out that everything with Madison is true and LMG takes no corrective action, I will have no issue hard blocking LMG content.

EDIT: Further thoughts after reading the responses:

• It’s really none of our business what happened between Madison and LMG. The only thing that matters is hoping Madison has a good support system in place and LMG makes the necessary internal changes in response to the third-party investigation.

• I don’t think it’s wrong that they shared their turnover numbers, but I don’t think it’s representative of the big picture. LMG’s roles feel more specialist in nature. I don’t imagine there’s a high amount of jobs in some areas that LMG offers, which means people are less likely to leave. It’s also possible that some parts of the company are shielded from what happens elsewhere. (It appears both Creator Warehouse and Floatplane weren’t as impacted)

• It’s good to at least some companies take anonymous surveys / one-on-one feedback seriously. Rewatching the video, it appears they are taking one-on-one feedback seriously, which I hope is the case.

WAN Show’s real appeal (to me, at least) has always been the unfiltered and real time conversations. Though as of late, those conversations have been more about creating controversy then real discussion 😐