Linus Tech Tips

The number of daily items the Social media role at the time was expected to fill was incredibly high. I was expected to post 3 tweets, 2 Instagram posts, and 2 TikToks minimum per day.

I was also expected to plan, film, edit, and post 2 Floatplane exclusives per week.

This included wrangling people to be in them when they were also all struggling to get their work done. I was also expected to manage, plan, come up with, execute, get approval for, and schedule out all the sponsored content on socials (not including YouTube)

All while being told not to complain because my job was "the fun job". I cannot speak on what it's like now, but they have an entire team working on (seemingly) what I was expected to accomplish alone.

I misspoke originally when I stated I had signed an NDA. (I thought the employee handbook acted as one, I am not a lawyer) I never publicly made any statements regarding my time there because I feared even more backlash from a community that was already attacking, defaming, and sending me death threats.

I also feared for my future in this career given that LTT is large and has industry connections. My time at this company brought my mental health to an all time low. You could talk to anyone who was around me during my employment and they would confirm it.

I would not have recommended anyone I knew to work there, especially with my experiences as a woman in the office. I was consistently belittled by certain members of upper management.

My work was called "dogshit" I was called "incompetent".

When I would reach out to managers and try to get help with these situations, I would be told to "put on my big girl pants" and be "more assertive". It doesn't matter if you think I am, or am not stupid. This behavior is not appropriate.

After enough complaints from me, I was pulled into a meeting. In that meeting the writers room was pointed to and I was asked "do you think any of these people would have a hard time getting a job?"

I said no (keep in mind this was about a month into working there)

I was then pointed to and asked "What about you?" I was scared, I remember asking "are you going to fire me?"

I was laughed at and told to stop being so pessimistic, as if my job and ability hadn't just been vaguely threatened.

I was then asked to agree to a verbal "no drama contract" The verbal part is important! In this moment I realized I was no longer considered part of the team.

I was now a threat because I was putting up a fuss when I believed I was being treated unfairly and inappropriately.

This verbal agreement wasn't right, it was a behind the scenes warning with no record. A warning that came very shortly after I had come forward stating I had been inappropriately grabbed multiple times in the office, amongst other issues.

I was barred from being in videos. So when you ask what happened? Why wasn't she in more content?

This is why. There is this perplexing fear that people will leave LTT and start their own thing if given a platform.

So if that platform could threaten negative things coming out about your company or you, you'd probably want to squash it too. In my experience there is a belief that everything you accomplish, no matter how much it is created by your own effort, is ACTUALLY due to Linus giving you a platform.

This was what I was told when I moved from Arizona to Vancouver to take this job. After it was publicly announced by Linus that he was hiring me (without my knowledge or consent to that situation) and also before I was even offered the job, or shown the salary.

I agreed and signed the employment contract. I had asked and been told during my interviews that I would be allowed to monetize my YouTube channel and be allowed to join Floatplane in exchange for shutting down my Patreon.

ONCE I moved I was presented with an entirely new contract/handbook that I was not told existed. It detailed that I was given incorrect information and would actually have to make changes to my plans if I wanted to continue being employed at LTT.

This was AFTER I had moved entire countries and given up my visa status, I couldn't just go back. Some corrections were made as apologies for the miscommunication but I was still upset.

I later went to Linus about this and stated that the effort to remediate the situation wasn't sitting right with me.

He told me perhaps I should change my priorities. He was in this instance referring to the fact my brother had suddenly passed away not even a week before I moved for this job, and that perhaps I should just ignore that I had been mislead because that was more important.

I cannot tell you how upset I felt in this moment. The opportunities LTT presented to me were nothing in comparison the day to day issues I faced.

It did not matter if I spoke to someone with evidence of an abuse of power, or inappropriate workplace behavior, it was considered tattle taling.

I was actually called a tattle tale I was told I was bossy, when I was trying to be assertive. (like I was asked to do)

I was told I was arguing, when I was trying to discuss my point of view.

I was told to "calm my tits", "stop being such a removed", and other comments to similar effects. There were numerous instances of misinformation being given to me purposefully to negatively impact my work.

I only know this because co-workers would tell me they overheard the actual information I should have been given.

It felt like a horrible teenage drama movie. Work from Home was a whole issue. If you took 3 minutes to answer a personal email, you could get in trouble. (happened to me)

There is a system of micro-managing and a level of distrust because the amount of content they have to push out daily is so insane, no one gets a break. I remember getting told off for taking my sick days, as in the days you're entitled to.

This no days off, "grindset" culminated in the real moment I realized I had to leave.

I purposefully cut my leg open so badly I would have to go to the ER to get it stapled back together. It was genuinely the only way in my mind to take a day off without being harassed for a reason why.

I had spoken to managers about how I was struggling, and how the workload was too much for one person. But I was belittled and told "you just have bad time management skills" There are so many instances that led up to that moment.

Some of them I have replayed over and over asking myself what did I do wrong, how could I have changed the situation.

But I don't think I could have. I was not treated fairly and in the moment I couldn't even see that because I was told I was the problem by people I had looked up to for years.

I had co-workers come to me saying "I didn't like how you were treated, glad you got out." And only then did I realize it wasn't me. I haven't shared any of this besides with my closest friends and family because I couldn't, at the time, take any more hits to mental health.

I couldn't deal with how small and worthless the job had made me feel all to push out some mediocre shit posts. I am still scared shitless of what the response will be, since I am a woman, and have already been called dramatic.

I'm not stating what happened to me because I am seeking clout, I'm stating it because it has been eating away at me for 2 years. There ARE GENUINELY amazing, compassionate, and incredibly intelligent people who work at this company and are driven to just share the cool tech they love.

It sucks that ego and a bottom line are slowly destroying some of them, and hurting the entire reputation of the company. I didn't ever want to say anything for fear of hurting those people and their employment, but at this point I am hurting myself keeping this all in while also being CONSTANTLY bombarded with questions about LTT and jokes made at my expense I have been patient and tried to ignore these comments.

But some of you don't understand the mental anguish and nights of crying, feeling like I did something wrong and ruined my life, that I have had to go through.