What do you call these kind of neckbeards without the 'stache? Amish?
Not surprised they have regressive backwards views on “females”
Hunh. I’ve never even heard of this company. They make high-end tabletop gaming furniture? I’ve probably seen their stuff at cons but never paid attention.
It’s the old poker table for us!
They are one of the 3-4 big companies for tables (Rathskellers, Wyrmwood, BoardGameTables, and Geeknson)
I think they were a sponsor of Critical Role’s first campaign (and maybe later for all I know).
[edit]lol, the Elon Musk of woodburned dice trays.
I can smell this picture.
Reading the article, it seems like just the CEO is batshit insane. I didn’t finish it though.
I am beginning to think that is a job requirement for most CEOs.
Some excellent quotes:
“The [lack of women] had been brought to [Downey’s] attention multiple times,” said Ted Bumpus, a former employee at Wyrmwood. According to sources, Downey’s excuses for not including more women include statements like “women aren’t as funny as men,” and “the women at Wyrmwood are too awkward and aggressive to be on camera.”
“He doesn’t treat women like people if they aren’t attractive to him,” said one former employee. Another employee, a non-binary woodworker named Jamezie, who asked that their last name be withheld from this article, recalled being cut out from videos, and having their words repeated again, to camera, by chief operations officer Ian Costello.
But Costello’s views on gender roles and family life might be another reason women aren’t getting promoted. According to Ted Bumpus, Costello has described himself as a “natalist” —a term referring to an ideology that says the point of human existence is reproduction, and in recent years, a movement that promotes the idea of improving the world through spreading superior genetic material. What’s more, Bumpus says, Costello allows these beliefs to influence management decisions.
That is uhh… just eugenics.
Another former employee attests that Costello has said that “women should aspire to having children,” and implied that if you don’t have children, you’re a bad person.
I am sure they have an excellent maternity leave policy for the women there right?
Wyrm Lyfe posted a video where Costello states “safety slows you down,” and disparages OSHA.
Seems like a great place to work.
This announcement was filmed and published via Wyrm Lyfe, in a video titled ‘Wyrmwood Goes Corporate.’ In this heavily-edited 17-minute clip, Costello bemoans the workers’ demands for “safety” and “HR,” saying that such things are “corporate” and will “take away from fun.” He’s unmasked in the middle of the pandemic, yelling at a bunch of masked workers who have asked for safer working conditions, with his usual gang of executives, including Ian Costello and Bobby Downey standing behind him. He ends by stepping down as CEO. Two workshop employees resigned later that week in protest. Doug Costello returned to the CEO position less than a year later.
How are people still buying stuff from this company? The CEO just puts out videos berating employees?
In a dusty, wood-filled factory, fire extinguishers were often missing, out of date, or uncharged. This can even be seen in a Wyrm Lyfe video, when a safety inspector informs Costello of an out-of-charge extinguisher. Costello seems shocked that you would need to keep these up to date, and laughs when he tests them and nothing happens. This video is from two years ago, but multiple sources reported that fire safety is still not taken seriously. For years, the de facto response when the fire alarm went off was to see if “any of the managers” were leaving the area.
I think that the government needs to step in now, before a serious accident occurs, this is a dangerous workplace, and should not be allowed to be open under current management.
It is like they are speed-running “The Jungle”
My takeaway is it is all stemming from one crazy person who happens to be the top dog, but then I guess he has loyal henchmen and the like.
Yeah, I haven’t watched any of the videos yet, but this is the striking thing to me. Wyrmwood apparently considers the videos as part of their marketing and sales department, which makes sense, but if they show the CEO being an utter shit, how does it work? Is it like an Elon Musk thing where customers think asshole CEO = genius?
Like, I understand buying something from a company, and then finding out they were terrible behind the scenes.
They seem to be actively terrible, make videos joking about worker safety, and publish those to the public.
How can people still want to buy anything from them?
These guys are at Pax every year. They make good looking stuff, which I never buy, because it costs like $20,000.
I’ve known of Wyrmwood for years at this point. But I’m not watching their videos because who cares about Wyrmwood?
Thus, how someone could want to buy something from them. They were a big Critical Role sponsor forever. They sponsor lots of TTRPG stuff. Very few people are hunting down videos from Wyrmwood.
I suspect that most people simply don’t have the inclination or time to do due diligence on every company they do business with. Once I know of something like this, yeah, I’ll remember it, but if someone had not pointed out those videos, I’d never have known anything about the company at all.
And if you do investigate all the companies you buy from, you probably won’t be buying anything at all! Which, hmm, might not be a bad savings program…
I watched a few minutes of their channel 2-3 years ago, thanks to the YouTube algorithm. That video didn’t get into the issues reported here, but it absolutely showcased the juvenile douchebro running the company. His idiocy was a pretty shocking contrast to their reputation as a polished, high-end shop. I was gobsmacked at how dumb he came across.
I watched a few minutes of those videos and I’m not really seeing any superior genetic material.
I am unlikely to purchase a $20,000 gaming table at any point, but should that change, I will avoid Wyrmwood.
In fairness - which may not change your calculation - most of what they sell are sub $5k and various gaming accessories like DM screens, dices towers, etc.
Much like being president of the galaxy, believing yourself to have superior genetic material that would benefit the world if it were spread wider automatically disqualifies you from suitability to improve the world by the spread of your genetic material.
I guess it’s good I could never afford any of their horrifically overpriced bullshit then.