this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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They did an okay job of addressing the accuracy issue, but failed to even mention the issues of workplace culture and absurd quotas.
It does not matter if workers start and stop their shifts at particular time - as strictly required by law - when the amount of work they are expected to do within that time frame is unrealistic.
Upping the expections for quality, without lowering those for quality, will only make things worse for everyone working there.
Not to mention it didn't even touch on the note serious allegations of sexual harassment.
I wouldn't expect any company would address a potential ongoing sexual harassment case via a YouTube video. Especially one that Linus is in.
"First of all, we didn't harass female employees, we pestered them."
Yeah this, unless you have proof it’s better to just shut up. It never goes well otherwise
SA wasn't mentioned because that is a sensitive investigation. It is messy, and sadly boils down to, he said she said, most of the time. I don't expect that to be resolved for a while.
Don't worry, they lowered the quotas (while adding a shitton of process).
Linus just can't seem to get over the fact that employees should have some free time at work, especially in creative or highly technical fields. It's all about time being money.
If someone wants to take longer on a project just because they want to, there should be time for that. Salaried employees shouldn't have to account for their time down to 15 minutes increments outside of contracting work. The fee for that kind of time accountability is about 4x what a salaried employee generally makes.
If you do it right, having processes that are well reasoned and adhered to is a net time saver. I've been on teams with many different levels of processes. I can say from 20+ years of experience that there is nothing worse than a pipeline with too few processes. When every writer has a different way of delivering information to the editors, that's a time waster. When every tester has a different way of putting together a spreadsheet to hand off to the graphics department, that's a time waster.
Also, processes are supposed to serve the needs of the staff. Not the other way around. If a process adds too much effort for little reward, you can always change it or scrap it. Ideally, you'd have someone on staff whose job it is to manage your process flow, facilitate handoffs, and make periodic changes to the processes to close up inefficiencies and pain points for the staff.
Absolutely agreed. Work gets done faster with the correct processes. If I don't know what to do when I have issues, I have to pester multiple people until I get to the right person that can handle it. If I knew exactly where to go and what to do, I might not even need that person in the first place.
Regarding the sexual allegations, I doubt the independent review is concluded yet. I'm guessing we'll hear more when that shares it's findings.
For my own understanding, was there something that was missing in their content reforms/error handling and workplace culture segments? I think they had mentioned a commitment to reducing frequency, which I understand is a solution to those, no?
I was mistaken - they did say they would "reduce output." However, they said nothing about how, how much, or what that would mean.
They also heavily implied that they were not overworking people, despite that clearly and evidently being a real issue.
It's exceptionally difficult to address this sort of deep-seated issue, but they needed to acknowledge specific wrongdoing, and take concrete action to improve, as they did with the accuracy issue.
Yes that's true, but I do empathize with the difficulty of the situation, as a manager. A week is practically equivalent to a flash of time in normal business circumstances... Under normal circumstances, that is barely enough time to begin talking about issues, nevermind rolling out plans... I'm even shocked Linus announced a plan to begin with. I was fully expecting a vid to simply call out observations. And this to me demonstrates his commitment and dedication to the community.
So, as much as I've been critical of LMG in the past, I would probably give them the time to allow those details (how, how much, what it means) to organically surface over time. Otherwise, that demand is probably what unintentionally pressures LMG to have the output speed they have, because they want to satisfy the community.
Agreed - this announcement started well in detailing the positive changes to workflows and quality assurance, but quickly turned south once the finger wagging and defensiveness raised it's ugly head again.
FFS, this is the time to accept responsibility, take the criticisms on the chin, and show how you're going to make things better - not fall back on the "some people are being really mean to us and we're really the victims here" BS.
Am I the naive one in missing where they were finger wagging? I thought it was a good video throughout. It anything, I saw that they committed to even more process transparency of their business operations (which, to be fair, no company does unless they are an open source company).
Only time will tell, but if those changes had already been in the works even before the blowout, then I'm not sure if there actually is any other way of communicating that without simply unproductively crucifying oneself
No one is asking for public self-crucifixion - this the point in public relations where you want to make a fresh, positive start and be the bigger person. It's not the time to throw any more fuel on the fires of animosity by shifting the spotlight and directly attacking those critics that you feel did you wrong.
Linus, who obviously can't let it go, does this a few times during this announcement. Firstly in addressing the "people who wanted us to fail", but more noticeably when admonishing the people who allegedly harassed his team on social media and denounced them as "not members of our community".
While the toxic faction doing this don't deserve to be defended by anyone, this is simply not the time and place to call them out. Perpetuating this petty bickering when you should be moving forward positively and building bridges with the community is not a good look.
Toxic behaviour should be called out when it happens. That is the time.
ffs half of the video/issue is about the workplace culture at LMG. What kind of boss would he be if he didn't call out assholes issuing death threats to his team? That was the singular part of the video where he got emotional. Note that he didn't mention himself, who I'm sure could open up his phone and find a hellstorm of comments ranging from shitty to deranged.
"Petty bickering" is not constant harassment and threats to kill you. The time to call that shit out is immediately.
edit: and plenty of people are asking for a public self-crucifixion.
I guess it's a matter of perspective and opinion. Not that Reddit is anything to trust, but this thread clearly demonstrates that there are people who appreciate the approach Linus took: https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/161lh3f/heres_the_plan/jxslkvs/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Damn if you do, damn if you don't. What is a company to do? They have no choice but to take a position, even if that means a small number of folks be upset with them.
As someone in management, I personally feel Linus' response was pretty appropriate.