Linus Media Group CEO Terren Tong also responded via email, saying he was “shocked at the allegations and the company described” in Reeve’s posts. He went on to note that “as part of this process, beyond an internal review we will also be hiring an outside investigator to look into the allegations and will commit to publish the findings and implementing any corrective actions that may arise because of this.”
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.
Also, and this is key, Linus comes from the boom PC hardware market of the late 90s and early to mid 2000s. He learned at the feet of amoral cowboys in an industry that was peaking right before critical mass. He has only seen bad behaviour rewarded and bad actors escaping consequences. And he grew a brand based on being an irresponsible kid who would say literally anything to get views. As authentic as he may seem remember what he learned and how he learned and most importantly who from. His CEO is one of those amoral cowboys.
I’m still not a fan of speaking as if these are small business problems. They ARE NOT “small business” problems. It is a problem of failed management, full stop, regardless of how common or explanable it is.
Yea, startups and groups of “bros” are highly likely to mess things up in this way, but again… It’s a basic lack of professionalism and respect for others. That shouldn’t be accepted as “bro culture”. It’s being an immature twat.
Management is a part of that business and as all small businesses grow they hit a point where they deal with this. It’s extremely well documented.
and that should be strictly unacceptable, not expected. Exploiting people is exploiting people. Not paying employees for overtime is not paying employees and LITERALLY ILLEGAL in most places.
Again, I don’t f*cking care if something bad happens to EVERY business. It shouldn’t be acceptable to abuse others. Period. For any reason. Full stop. Employment or not.
Your opinion is what leads to environments where this ends up happening. By anticipating it, organizations can address it. If you expect people to be good and do not put controls in place, you are arguably negligent. It is not illegal to work harder for your business. Culture not intentionally shifting as it grows larger naturally creates a gray area where people can be exploited.
Alternatively, to not allow small organizations to work hard while being nimble is to defer the entire space to increasingly consolidating large corporations with these cultural checks in place. A corporatocracy has it’s own issues with organizational exploitation.
Just saying “be better” is not helpful because it is not actionable.
I am in no way what so ever either condoning the behavior or calling for a reduction in external tools for abused employees. What the hell are you even reading, because it’s not my posts?
It is YOUR attitude that creates room for abuse. You are directly saying it should be OK for small businesses to overwork their employees, yet it is me who is creating room for the behavior?!?
Get your head on straight.
It is not acceptable and it happens every time in every organization, business or not as it grows. Simply saying that it is unacceptable without adding to the conversation is what you are doing.
You should reconsider your language when you communicate. Words matter in tone and content. You have very little content but a lot of tone.
It doesn’t happen in every business, though. Saying that just belies the bad experience you’ve had.
Saying it is normal and happens all the time is language of normalition. If you understand it’s not good, stop making excuses for it. Stop saying things that sound like excuses.
Poe’s Law exists and causes tons of problems. It is YOUR language that is concerning if abusive work places should be viewed as a problem.
It doesn’t happen in every business because many account for it and address it in their growth strategies. I would love to see mitigations of these horrible things normalized. Otherwise you allow them to happen. I’m not sure what you think you are attacking here but you’ve singled in on some portion of my narrative and taken it in a way no one else has.
Are you not sometimes an immature twat to your friends or vice versa? Not saying its a good thing, but when you’ve got a large comfort level with someone, one will generally act a bit more carelessly and make more crass jokes or put downs in a joking manner that is usually understood as a joke on both ends.
Obviously there’s a limit to that even in friend groups depending on the individual people making it up.
Precisely! I’ve seen many startups in Berlin that had to fold because they didn’t realise soon enough that they can’t run a company the same way as organising a group of friends. That, and that products have to make a profit sooner rather than later…