- With over a hundred employees
producing nearly 20 videos a week,
there are very few companies quite like Linus Media Group.
So what's it like being an employee here?
I don't know, I'm the boss,
which is why my team has put together this video
to try and explain what it's like to work for me, with me,
and near me at this wild company,
and we're gonna see if I'm completely out of touch.
The only rules are that I'm not allowed to be involved
in this video at all, including watching it,
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- [Rappers] Disclaimer, dis, dis, disclaimer.
Woo, woo, daddy disclaim me.
Dis, disclaimer, dis, dis, disclaimer.
Yo, disclaimer, yeah.
- My name is Sarah Butt.
I'm a designer here and occasional host,
and I've been here for about three years.
- I'm Shawn Caldera.
I am our marketing lead here at Linus Media Group
and I've been working here since June, 2022.
- I'm Anthony, I'm a writer.
I've been working here since 2017.
What?
- I'm Emily.
I'm a video editor here,
part-time camera operator, sometimes supervisor, sometimes.
- My name's Arthur.
Some of you guys might know me as Artie.
I am the social media manager.
- I'm Maria.
I am the thumbnail artist
and I also take pictures for the merch store.
- I run TechLinked and LMG clips
and the pre-production part of the WAN Show,
and I've been here since April, 2018.
That was part-time though.
- I think if we look back at the original goal
of creating a team that was fun to work with and hardworking
and passionate, that it's absolutely been a huge success.
- [Interviewer] What's your favorite part of working at LMG?
- Oh, Jesus Christ.
Holy (beep).
- It's gonna sound cheesy but my favorite part
about working here is the people,
I know, blah, blah, blah, should be something better.
But.
- I find there's a lot of like-minded people
that I have very enjoyable conversations
with on a daily basis,
and I often find that I would rather
just hang around and talk with my coworkers than work, so.
- I think my favorite part of working here is the variety,
and there's also a lot of freedom to do the weird stuff
that nobody else would be able to.
- Every day and I'm learning something.
Every project whether it's something new
or something I already know about,
I'm gonna have to learn more about it.
- I get to come in, work on crazy problems,
most of which are Linus' fault,
but, you know, it's fun.
- My favorite part of working at LMG is probably
how different it is every day.
There's always, like, 600 different things I should be doing
and there's about 18 hours of work
that needs to be completed.
I think one of the worst parts about working
at LMG is that there's, like, 18 hours of work
to do every day and all the tasks are very varied.
- I would probably say Colton.
- It's fun stuff, but in a hurry.
Every week is stressful.
Every Friday, every day is hard.
The upside of that is that you don't look at the clock
and go, "Oh, it's only two,"
you go, "Oh my God, it's already two,"
which makes for a happier life, I think. (laughs)
It's just that your life might be shortened.
- We are growing pretty fast right now
and that presents a bunch of challenges
in terms of, like, getting systems in place.
I don't really think that's a negative thing,
that's just something we have to push through.
- I don't follow things up.
I am kind of scattershot when it comes to training,
especially documentation, like, creating processes
is not something that I'm good at at all.
- I find it frustrating sometimes.
I wish we could collaborate a little bit more.
And so I think that ties into,
I don't love that we have to release so many videos.
I don't know what our current count is weekly,
but I know it's very high
and every video has to make it out,
and there's not, you know, a huge amount of resources
or time that can be given to any particular one.
And so I find very rarely am I particularly proud
of a video I've worked on.
- Because of the rising production values in our videos,
I feel a lot like I'm crunching more than I ever was.
That and we're much more strict
about how much time we're able to work
in the course of the day.
So, like, I can't stay a little longer
in one day to make sure I don't have to rush the next day.
So everything's kind of more compressed
and there's more to it,
and I feel like a lot of the time I'm just, like, rushing.
- I don't like arriving at a set time.
I don't like leaving at a set time.
I don't like working exactly eight hours per day.
If I could do six one day and 10 the next,
I think that would be great.
The problem is that no matter what it is,
if you have any kind of flexibility,
someone is gonna ruin it for everyone.
And the bigger you get,
the better the chances that that's gonna happen.
(Colton laughing)
- I'd say fat.
I've gained 30 pounds since I started here,
and yet I'm somehow always tired.
- Parking sucks.
- There's no parking. (laughs)
- If you're not here by, like, nine o'clock,
you're probably not getting a parking spot
and you're gonna have to park on the street.
- I think the worst part about working here is
for a long time my direct report was Linus,
and he is the most stubborn person I've ever met
in my entire life.
- When he does, like, the thumbnail reviews with me,
one day he told me, like,
"Oh, why do you have my eyes blue?"
I didn't turn your eyes blue.
Like, what are you talking about? (laughs)
Like, he's in his own world and he's very busy.
- Linus is the only boss I've ever had who hides
in the bathroom to avoid doing work,
and that makes him very relatable to me.
- He farts a lot, just constantly.
- Generally he has a super good spirit about everything
that we're doing and he obviously cares a lot
about all of the projects that we're working on too.
- I think Linus is a very good boss.
He does have his ego, he does have his, like, you know,
biggest fish in this bowl kind of thing going on.
He does surround himself with like, dissenting viewpoints.
- I think working for me is the experience that you make it,
and I see that people will just kind of treat me however
they think a boss should be treated.
- We yell at each other a lot.
- The only thing that I can really do is say,
"Look, don't call me sir," or, you know,
whatever else, right?
- And I tell him he's an idiot.
- He's very demanding and he has really high standards.
He does change his mind, but it's usually for a good reason.
So I've only ever had to basically argue full stop once.
- I enjoy working with Linus a lot.
When I first started at the company I was worried, you know,
I would find him to be a rich guy weasel, full of himself,
but what I find is he's more grounded
and he's self-deprecating in a way that I really appreciate.
- If I had to distill down what makes me good at this,
I think it's a combination
of just generally being passionate about technology
and having ADD.
Really though, my superpower is that I get bored
before anyone else gets a chance to.
You know, it's from the writing team,
"Linus, we should do a video about this."
I'm like, "Ah, yeah, I don't know,
we've done something kind of like that,
I don't want to do that again."
You know?
Or the audience saying,
"We want more power supply unboxings."
And I go, "These are played out.
I have nothing left to say, I'm bored, let's move on."
I think that's what's kept the channel fresh
all these years.
- When I'm training new designers on my team to work
with Linus, the first thing I say is,
"Don't tell him no," right?
Like, he's gonna come with you with an idea
and he's gonna be super passionate about it
and your job is not to say no,
but it's to give him every single reason why not to do it.
Or if it's not a dumb idea, what challenges present him
in going the path that he chooses, right?
It's like, it's kind of like diverting his attention
into, like, a channel rather than him doing a shotgun
of, like, this is what it should be.
So working with Linus is like trying
to guide a river sometimes.
It's like, you can't stop it,
but you might be able to get it to move
in a particular direction.
There's a lot of energy behind it.
- Sometimes it's a little intimidating 'cause, like,
to me he's still, like, a celebrity.
I know we, you know, we work together.
You know, I'm able to talk to him whenever,
but to me he's such a, like,
he's that guy, you know?
I don't know.
- This is the Linus of Linus Tech Tips,
can be a little daunting,
but once you get comfortable in your position
and he starts to get to know you, he's a great guy.
When he's outside of his persona of like,
on and getting ready to be on camera,
he's super generous, super nice,
intense a little bit when he's filming,
but I think in the way of wanting to be constructive
and get things running the best they can do.
- What the (beep) is up with Linus?
He's not like other people. (laughs)
I have a psychology degree.
I could talk about Linus for decades.
- I think on camera he just has to be flamboyant
and really out there,
but that's not necessarily who he is all the time.
Otherwise he would like combust.
Like, you can't have that energy all the time.
- He's happy on camera
and a normal person when he's not on camera.
- Slightly more likable in person. (laughs)
- If you've seen the WAN Show,
you pretty much know what Linus is like in person.
- It's not, like, gonna be an Ellen DeGeneres situation
where he's, like, a jerk.
He's a very nice person.
He's very good at keeping his cool.
He's very professional.
Last time I saw him get, like, mad on,
like, pretty mad 'cause a shoot was a complete debacle
and very public was two years ago already.
But if I was in his position,
I would have a way worse reputation.
- I would describe myself as an A type chaotic,
generally trying to do the right thing,
but also resigned to the fact
that I can't change everything.
And I think that can come across badly sometimes.
I care too much. (laughs)
- [Interviewer] How has LMG changed since you've started?
- Bro, how has LMG changed since I started?
Oh my God. (sighs deeply)
- It's gone from, it's sort of a company
to it's definitely a company.
Like, I'll level with you.
I don't actually know half
of the people who work here anymore.
- We're in multiple buildings,
multiple different departments, managers.
I mean, even just the, that standard hierarchy
that you have of, like, a department and a manager reporting
to the CEO is, like, fairly new.
- [Sarah] We've also added channels, we've added labs.
- I mean, we've hired so many people
I can't hold the door open for anyone
'cause I have no idea if they actually work here.
(Colton sighs)
- And then as you grow that rapidly,
you have to start dealing with, like, real company stuff.
Like, hey we need a system for this
because it's almost, like, unmanageable by a single person.
Or double the amount of people using the shop,
so that means there's triple the amount of mess.
- We went from just a few of us in the garage trying
to survive with the hope that one day we will have
enough revenue that we can all make a comfortable living.
I was hand assembling our first set with sheets of drywall
and the two by two frame that I didn't even know how
to do properly.
Like, I did everything myself.
Whereas now, I get in trouble for doing things myself.
I wanted to walk between the offices,
and James, like, pulled me aside and was like,
"You can't do that."
That costs us whatever an opportunity cost.
I mean, there's someone standing right out there making sure
that I go to wherever I'm supposed to go to next right now.
In some ways I'm the boss,
in other ways I am just ordered around all day.
- Has Linus changed?
Well, of course, as the audience knows,
he's gone through the whole,
"How am I gonna retire?" portion.
The environment around him has changed.
Like, it used to be the case where he could just easily say,
I would go and hang out with everyone who works here.
Anyone who works here is cool,
and, like, they're all great people.
It's like now, he just doesn't even know that.
- It might seem like Linus has changed,
but the thing is that everything else around him has changed
and he hasn't.
And that's where some of the idea that, you know,
Linus is out of touch because spending a thousand dollars
on a GPU doesn't sound like a bad idea anymore,
but that's mostly because the shock has worn off.
Like, it's been like that for years now.
- I was very naive coming into this.
I had no idea where this was headed.
I think I've had to grow up,
or at least act like I've grown up a lot.
I have to be more professional now than I used to be.
Luke tells me I've changed.
He says it's mostly okay though.
- He still likes to use Windows when it's not acceptable,
like in a server. (laughs)
He still is very stubborn.
I do miss when things were simpler.
- And I think that you would miss that
because it's fun, you know?
It's like, there's not really a hierarchy,
you're just kind of trying to get it out the door.
And to a certain extent we still do that,
but doing the hard stuff is fun for a while
and then you kinda get sick of it
and now you want help.
- I miss how it used to be every day.
But I also see the opportunity that is over the horizon
'cause if I wasn't looking for what's new, what's next,
what are the career advancement possibilities here?
Ed would still be our only video editor.
Luke would still be, what?
Making notes for scripts, come on, right?
Nobody's gonna stick around for that.
I think our retention here has been really good
and I think that's a big part of it.
- I think maybe there's an assumption that, like,
working for a YouTube company is going to be
this otherworldly experience.
Like, we're running around
as if we're doing Channel Super Fun stuff all the time,
but in reality, it's surprisingly normal.
- We get to make cool content that lots of people enjoy,
but at the end of the day,
I'm just sitting at a desk like you, you know?
It's not really any different.
- It's not as easy as we made a video.
There's people behind it and that's the whole story.
- Our hosts, our staff, they don't really put on a persona
when they're behind the camera.
That is them.
And that's something I think a lot of people don't realize,
especially when people comment.
- You know, whenever people have criticism,
obviously we take it in,
but, you know, sometimes people
aren't so constructive about it.
- I mean, go on the subreddit and read the comments.
95% of them are completely incorrect,
and 4% of them are mostly incorrect.
Leaving 1% that has any modicum of correctness to it.
The subreddit infuriates me.
- There's always a few people that you're like,
(beep) that person, I hate that person.
- (beep) you, Colton. (laughs)
- So the things that I would change are probably things
that would just hurt us overall.
I'd be like, "Let's not have deadlines,"
"Let's publish less videos."
- If I could change one thing about LMG,
I'd make a car channel.
- [Andy] Yes.
- Yeah. (laughs) - [Andy] Yeah.
- I wish we could back off the amount and focus
on quality for a bit and kind of raise the bar
of what we're outputting a little bit more.
- I would like to focus
on more content that is less expensive.
It's hard to make that content,
but at the same time,
I think there's a huge audience for people who want that.
So that's what I would like to see.
More time for projects would be good.
- Yeah, I would probably try and hire,
like, five more writers and just allow us more time
to work on a video.
- We never have time for retrospection.
It's always just, that's out, what's the next thing?
Moving forward, moving forward, moving forward.
I acknowledge that it's a treadmill,
but the reality of it is that that's not a pace that I set.
That's a pace that's set by the platform.
A pace that's set by the audience.
A pace that's set by the tech industry in general.
- I think it's kind of in our DNA.
I think if we ever freed up more hours,
we would just, well, let's have a whale LAN.
We just are always put,
I think that's part of the culture that comes
from Linus and goes all the way down,
is like, we're just always gonna squeeze
every last drop out.
Would be nice if the pace was lessened a little bit
so we could just, like, relax.
Maybe just, like, have some meetings on Fridays,
have time to, like, debrief or look
in the rear of view mirror of how things went.
But honestly, what the main thing I would change
is the location.
- I would move the office.
I would go to the cheapest cost of living place.
- Can we relocate to Calgary?
Like, is that an option?
- More dinosaurs. (laughs)
- Have a better snack bar,
like the one MKBHD has, and he's a studio.
- I think just adding more people and personalities
and getting to show more vloggy stuff.
And I think having an opportunity to show off
some of the great people here that the audience
doesn't get to meet that are really awesome people.
But I think we should continue to raise
up the new or next generation of hosts and personalities.
- [Interviewer] What's the weirdest thing that's happened
to you since you've started?
(Tim laughs)
- Oh, definitely taking pictures
of my boss in underwear for lttstore.com.
- Modeling underwear was really weird.
Posting mostly naked pictures of myself on the internet.
- The door was closed and the lights were off
and I opened the set and Linus is standing there
pulling up swim trunks.
He's basically buck ass naked and I'm standing there,
never met him before, never seen him in person,
slack jawed, just like, "Uh."
He's like, "Can I help you?"
As he's pulling up the swim trunks,
I'm like, "Hi, I'm Tim.
I'm from the labs.
I need to get behind you."
And he's like, "Oh, you're one of Gary's group.
That makes sense."
- I've slapped Linus in the face.
I've thrown dildos at Dennis.
Like, there's a B-roll shot
from the only fans video where I'm like,
wearing some like quasi fetish outfit.
Anything for a video.
- One of the weird things that happened
to me was I was asked to buy a cantaloupe
'cause we needed an analog for someone's ass.
- The weirdest thing that I've had to do here
was wear James Strieb's wife's pregnant belly cast
under a dress for a photo shoot for a a video.
I have multiple company tattoos on me for no reason.
I didn't get paid for those.
I have an LTT store tattoo.
I've got an Illuminati tattoo, I've got a Dbrand tattoo.
- [Interviewer] Is there anything that you wanted
to say that I haven't covered? Or?
- If there's one more thing that I could tell the audience
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- Thank you so much for watching.
If you enjoyed this video,
why don't you check out the original one
of this that we did, like, four years ago.
Maybe some opinions have changed.