[fnimick]

He's also vocally anti-union and actively tried to stop his employees from marketing themselves on personal social media (to stop them from building a following and then leaving, I'm guessing), so I refuse to watch any of his content or support his business in any way now.

[armadsen]

I know this is completely subjective, and his millions of subscribers tell me my opinion is far from ubiquitous, but he's also just straight up obnoxious to me. One of those people whose voice, demeanor, appearance, everything, just immediately turns me off.

[Dracophoenix]

Because he sounds like the stereotype of a Hot Topic-shopping turbonerd c.2002 ? Personally, I find it nostalgic, and even endearing.

[girvo]

I find his semi-rare discussions of 2000s tech nostalgic.

Yes sir, very Atomic. I miss that era.

[p1necone]

Yeah it's kinda awesome to me too. I want to travel back in time and go to a lan party with 16 year old Linus.

[fartcannon]

It seems like he creates a fun environment at the workplace too. I bet they have awesome work parties.

[bigDinosaur]

I think he, personally, is largely entertainment. His company does produce some genuinely useful (as in, not total SEO spam) reviews etc. though.

[teg4n_]

Agreed. I always think of his Amazon go video where thinks he “stole” tampons that were actually pads.

[rhyzomatic]

Do you mind sharing some links to back up these claims?

Just watched a video [0] where he clearly comes across as being pro workers rights, and against passing prop 22 in California. He seems to be generally pro-union while still trying to point out some general issues with them. He also says he would be "offended" if his employees unionized at LMG, which while maybe is a bit stupid to say, I don't think counts as anti-union.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpyiNOD-MOk

[bradlys]

People should also understand why he said he would be offended. He would be offended because it meant they didn’t talk to him and work with him - and that he did such a bad job as a manager that they decided to unionize.

He’s pro-union - he just hopes he is a good enough boss that his employees don’t feel like they need to unionize. He clarified his viewpoint in later videos. Offended was probably not the best choice of word - and he admits that too. I don’t recall the video but someone can find it. (I’m on mobile and on vacation - idk why I’m even here)

[9935c101ab17a66]

Anyone who is truly “pro-union” would recognize that seeing yourself as a good manager/boss doesn’t mean you don’t take advantage of your employees. Furthermore, there is ALWAYS a power dynamic at play that makes it difficult for individuals to speak up about their concerns or ideas for improving working conditions — even “nice” managers will disagree or see certain things as pointless / unnecessary / frivolous. Not to mention, Linus is both the owner AND the manager of LMG, making the relationship between employer / employee even more complex and unbalanced.

Unions are a tool to give individual workers more leverage in negotiations that almost always favour employers / managers.

A side note: Linus could be a great day-to-day manager, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a bad “ceo” if that’s what he calls himself. He can be incredibly personable and kind and supportive, but also have unreasonable expectations about work hours, employee’s social media activities, compensation, etc.

[freemint]

Do you have a source for the work hours? I had the impression that he very much tries to not ask for more then he pays for. Do you have a source that the compensations at LTT are somehow unreasonable?

As for not having a YouTube channel, i find that a reasonable demand for employees of a company running YouTube channels. They are allowed to do game streaming stream on Twitch and stuff like that.

[fartcannon]

Pro-union but would be offended if his employees made a union?

That's the kinda double speak I'm talking about.

[bradlys]

It’s really not. People tend to only form unions when they feel that they’re being unjustly treated and this is one of their last resorts.

[fartcannon]

If you're pro-something, surly you'd want people to do it?

[bradlys]

I’m pro-choice - does this mean that I think every fetus should be aborted?

[framapotari]

This is an extremely American -- and misinformed -- view of unions. Where I'm from unions are the default, not formed as a last resort to unjust treatment but a natural counterbalance to corporate/institutional power.

Someone saying they'd rather not have their workers form a union is not pro-union. That's like saying you support workers sharing information but you would be offended if your workers talked about their salaries because that would infer that they don't trust you to be fair.

[bradlys]

Is it misinformed if it’s just generally how they work in the US?

[junkieradio]

I watch one of his employees stream on twitch, I found out about his channel from a Linus tech tips video, I don't think your second claim is all that true.

[fartcannon]

I googled it and there's this. I'm not sure if it's what OP is talking about or not. Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bTHSwBZVNI

[nighthawk454]

a lot of LMG employees have personal social media and either YouTube or Twitch streams, often getting viewers from fans of their persona on LMG videos. I think the issue is only with competing content and/or leveraging the LMG platform. For example, if an employee started a GPU review channel and called it out in an LMG video, like ok yeah probably not. More like non-compete than some draconian restrictions

[fartcannon]

Ah, that's pretty brutal. Thanks for the information I will keep that in mind. Seems less funny now. :/

[dx034]

Honestly, I would expect that from him as CEO. He only makes money off people watching the channel and subscription numbers are hugely important. Any efforts by employees to gain subscribers for their channels could dilute visitor numbers and subscribers to LMG. And obviously he doesn't want to create competition.

In the end he's still a CEO and the others are his employees, not his friends. For that, he doesn't appear to be a terrible boss.

[normaler]

Can you elaborate in the anti-union thing? I can't seem to find anyone discussing this.