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Madison Reeves on why she left LMG
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this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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People don't speak up for many reasons. Retaliation is a big thing: if you speak up then your job there is toast whether or not you're still employed there. You still "have" to work with or around the people you're accusing, until and unless you leave. Have you ever had to work with someone who's abused you? It's... not fun.
If you need the money, you're kind've stuck: if you quit then you have to have a savings account to keep you afloat while you look for another job. While you're looking for another job, your accusations here can prevent you from getting another job. Whether or not you leave, you still have to deal with the fallout: investigations take time, especially your time. If you have to take time off of work (eg, to see an attorney or visit a court) then that time might not be paid -- can you afford to take that time off? Worse; you might even have to pay someone for that time (eg, an attorney). Can you afford that? That's especially true if your compensation barely meets your financial obligations such that you're not really able to put away savings. There's a term for that: wage slave. Those costs are partly why there's government agencies designed to help you.
Thoughts about cost is just the tip of the iceberg. Many don't realize that they're being abused. A lot of people don't realize that others might also be victims too. Some people trivialize it. Friends around you tell you that it's "normal" behavior or that it's normal for coworkers to "socialize" and banter, that they didn't mean anything about it. People start to second-guess themselves.
When's the last time your company gave you anti-harassment training? If it's been more than a year (or never) then you might want to speak up about it and ask for it to be provided. Or, reach out to your government agency and ask for some training guidance.
Glassdoor is notoriously business-friendly. It's fairly trivial for businesses to have reviews removed.
I knew speaking up publicly wasn't very likely for most for the reasons you talked about and I was more expecting anonymous complaints, maybe didn't phrase that part well
For the anonymous negative review, I didn't mean just Glassdoor, I meant in general we haven't really heard very much negative about working at LMG besides it's somewhat stressful because of the fast pace at which everything runs. If it was as bad for everyone as Madison claims it was for her (reiterating, not claiming it didn't happen, just we don't know anything definitively yet) then at least one other person in the 100+ person company would have contacted someone like the Verge or Coffeezilla or anyone else who does news/exposés. Even if most were trivializing it, there should be at least more than just Madison realizing it with how bad she was saying it was. Also, she talked about some of her coworkers apologizing to her for others' actions, so at least some of them realize that not everything is just "normal"
I've been at companies with 150+ employees where people didn't speak up in official complaints about perceived or observed issues. We'd all go to a bar after work and talk about things after a few drinks. I don't know how many things weren't mentioned at the bar and I certainly didn't go to every company social event. "Keep things in the family" was a strong sentiment. Were things mentioned online? I'm aware that we did end up with some very poor Glassdoor and Indeed reviews -- those were shared directly to me by former employees. But those eventually disappeared. So, after some time, generally nope.
Several people, including myself, would bottle up the problems and just decide to leave after the bottle filled. It's not healthy to keep that bottle full and it's a personal decision about whether to raise the concerns or find employment elsewhere.
I'm no saint. I've made mistakes and I've had some talkings-to about them, both at the bar and outside of it. I've learned from them. It's important for everyone to admit when they make mistakes and talk about what they've learned from them. It's part of the reason why anti-harassment is one of the things I'm passionate about.
So I'm speaking from third party (w.r.t. LMG) experience. So, back to the topic at hand.
Perhaps people did speak up about LMG but those complaints didn't weren't public or didn't gain public traction. For example, I remember some drama about Linus and Naomi Wu a few years ago. What came of that? Those events aren't (as far as I'm aware of) related to Madison Reeves. But honestly it doesn't matter except that, if true, it can set a pattern.
I don't think anyone should assume that people would have spoken up about issues prior to Madison. Even if someone did, Madison's statements deserve to be viewed on their own merit regardless of other people's statements. Now that the accusations are public, if they bring other statements public, then those can be viewed in their own light as well.
Perhaps there's someone from LMG who will provide a contrasting experience. That would be interesting. Even if that happens, quite honestly, the investigation should default to being private until and unless one party chooses to share more information.
I honestly and wholeheartedly agree with this. Anytime there's a problem of this nature it should be looked into and investigated. My main point is just, at this point, it's hard to definitively know the exact, full truth (again, just to be clear not saying it didn't).
Given how personal and private this investigation is, I wouldn't want the specific details to be released unless Madison/others who were hurt want to reveal their own details. However, I would hope whoever does the investigation would reveal simply if this is true or not and if so to what extent (like is everything Madison said 100% true, is most of it, is a little, or none of it)
Edit: Apparently the CEO said they will publish the findings of the external investigation, which is good. He seems like he wants to tell the truth, so that's good.
Keep it balanced. The investigation should only state what changes to the company are recommended as a result of the investigation. If staffing changes are recommended, then no statement of why. Further information is relevant only to the parties involved. Anything else can cause further problems.
I just found out the CEO said they will publish the findings of the external investigation, and I think they won't release anything that's personal unless the victim themselves wants it released as that would just make the situation worse (on top of just not being a nice thing to do)