Team SoloMid (TSM) CEO Andy “Reginald” Dinh has been charged with fostering a Culture Of Fear at TSM and the Blitz in a report noted by Mikhail Klimentov for the Washington Post. The article mentions several confessions from former TSM and Blitz employees who said they were afraid to get in touch with Reginald because they couldn't relate to the real “Andy”.
One of the frightening examples of Reginald who is credited with fostering a culture of fear is when he was told to expel TSM's Head of Human Resources for asking questions that Andy didn't love. The report said the alleged miscategorization of staff as contractors and not employees. This spurred a response from CEO Reginald himself on Reddit.
Reginald's response as CEO of TSM to the Washington Post article
It was reviewed in the SoloMid Subreddit Team post on May 4. He explains he wants to make sure everything is clear so people don't bet. Reginald said that he literally got out of hand in daily operations and had met the head of TSM's HR once for an interview before he was released. He added that he was not his direct manager and detailed his interactions with the head of HR.
“His first contact on this assignment was for him to e-mail our executive team asking for references about accepting competitor organizations. Usually, the first job done is to collect 30, 60, and 90. I tell person X that it's not a good use of time and that they should concentrate on making faith in the organization,” Reginald notes.
Furthermore, Reginald added that the HR faction disagreed and thought it was a good time to take on another company
“hence establishing strong links with other companies, it definitely helps if we need contributions from other recruiters elsewhere.” complete the CEO.
The CEO of TSM explained that he did not see the head of HR approach as efficient and showed a lack of focus. Therefore, he thought it would be better to separate sooner than later.
Besides that, Reginald promised to do a complete AMA (Ask Me Anything) after the investigation was over because he wasn't hiding anything.
What Really Happened at the Washington Post?
The article adds that “several members of the team, starting from sales, programmers, to content creators, explained that they saw other employees invited by Dinh on the telephone or intra-office space and embarrassed in public.”
Additionally, several employees at Los Angeles-based TSM and Blitz were told they were wrongly classified as contractors and not employees who said this violated California employment laws.
Employees at TSM and Blitz claimed that the situation was like a startup and that they had to perform multiple roles smoothly. The article outlines several employee testimonies in which they feared being expelled.
In particular, Reginald is being investigated by Riot Game and TSM after several employees and former employees charged him with bullying and verbal insults at work. The Wired report said that both investigations had been ongoing since late 2021.
Responding to the Wired report, Reginald said, “I have very high desires for myself, and I share those high desires with everyone I work with. I have no tolerance for poor performance. I am intensive, passionate, driven, and tireless in my pursuit of victory, that's my character." However, he admits that his vocabulary is rough and he needs to improve his delivery.
In particular, after witnessing Reginald's reply on Reddit, former TSM player, and high-end carry player Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng says if Reginald is counted on to threaten to sue him for belittling TSM when he speaks against TSM's work culture.