Is valve really toxic?
Read about it on Glassdoor and was curious to know whar current employees think of these statements
If it's still toxic someone send a recruiter my way, I miss toxicity
Try playing some League if you miss toxicity.
I do every day
Depends on the group but yeah largely it is.
What makes it toxic though?
The typical stuff that normally is a minor annoyance is amplified without a visibly defined hierarchy. Sprinkle in the fact that most of the people here have been together and close knit for 20 years and are self made millionaire's doesn't make anyone shy about being an asshole.
No. Having come from a Big 4 company, I’ll say that Valve is less toxic (and for sure less political) than it was. That said, I think people who aren’t used to it might misconstrue valid criticism for toxicity. At my previous company, if someone built something shitty, everyone was too worried about optics and their own career path to call them out or question them about the choices made. At Valve, however, you might have people from across the company come to you asking why you did something a specific way or telling you they don’t think you did things the right way. This isn’t because they are toxic but because they genuinely want what you’re doing to be good and are trying to provide valid criticisms.
I didn’t think there was enough of that given the half done stuff that has shipped out of there. Actually when I was there they were trying to establish more avenues for this and everyone seemed to really appreciate it. So I don’t think that would be the source of any toxicity, at high performance teams at the big 4 this is a regular occurrence.
You can get fired with no notice at the whim of the more established people. That's true anywhere. The difference is how often they remind you that they can fire you, and in how much pleasure they get in reminding you. Just assume that you're a contractor: enjoy it while it lasts and be ready to move on when the winds blow.
Yes...Well, depends on what you consider toxic. Many people are fine. I think it's nothing more or less toxic compared to your average gaming company personally.