Take Basecamp for example, a third of their employees quit because they couldn’t spend all day trolling each other about politics. Hardly toxic.

Well at least for me it isn’t. I know for that 1/3rd it’s unbearable oppression that they are expected to work when paid ridiculous salaries.

Devs have practically the best jobs ever invented. There’s insanely great pay, reasonable hours, stock options, work tools are paid for by the company, zero risk of death at the workplace, zero chance of injury besides maybe carparal tunnel syndrome. Etc.

One of the things I’m most appreciative about is starting off my career in a warehouse. I’ve never really understood the litany of issues and everyday is kind of like, what I’m getting paid how much? To sit at a keyboard and type… Even doctors and lawyers get paid less and work far longer hours.

The article says that, but from what they show of the survey questions they seem to have just presented respondents with a checkbox labeled "toxic culture" as an option for why they quit. Maybe they did clarify the definition better in the survey itself, but there's no way to know. If they didn't, then "toxic" is up for interpretation and OP is right.

They don't show any details about the survey, as far as I can tell. So we can't tell either way. This is sloppy, since it invites interpretation based on preconceived notions rather than facts.

Yep, and that sloppiness in reporting has me suspicious that the survey itself was sloppy.

>discrimination, sexual harassment, verbal abuse, and poor work-life boundaries

Let's play SAT. Which one of these doesn't belong with the others?

Ding! Expecting someone to work after hours isn't anywhere in the ballpark of discrimination, sexual harassment or verbal abuse. This is a common manipulation tactic. It's like saying most drug arrests today are for heroin, crack, meth and pot. (Pot being about 80%). It's trying to make something look worse than it is. The more you know.

The first Google result for "toxic workplace" [0] specifically lists "A Toxic Workplace Often Has No Work-Life Balance". But one random listicle aside, I would say a lack of work-life balance can be a hugely toxic. As an example, people had mental breakdowns and went AWOL at Bioware so often because of the insane unpaid overtime that they coined the term "stress casualty" [1]. And since game studios so often contract out work (with being hired full-time held out as a carrot), if you don't go along with this soul-crunching practice, you're probably not going to do much more work for them.

I should note that Bioware is not unique in destroying its employees with crunchtime, they're just the ones that stand out most in my mind specifically because they coined that term. It's quite common in the industry, sadly. I also know that Rockstar [2] and CDPR [3] are also very much guilty of this practice.

Edit: It's so common in the video game industry (and also somewhat unique to it) that there's a wikipedia article dedicated to the practice [4]. Insane.

[0]: https://www.careercontessa.com/advice/toxic-work-environment...

[1]: https://kotaku.com/how-biowares-anthem-went-wrong-1833731964

[2]: https://kotaku.com/inside-rockstar-games-culture-of-crunch-1...

[3]: https://www.polygon.com/2020/12/4/21575914/cyberpunk-2077-re...

[4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crunch_(video_games)

I agree with you but it's not the same level as discrimination, sexual harassment and verbal abuse IMO. You presented the probably most extreme toxic example, now think of the most extreme examples of discrimination, sexual harassment and verbal abuse.

I don't think when people say their workplace has poor work-life balance, it's not typically to the extreme you mentioned, it's more mild, like boss calling on weekend, after hours work, etc. I don't think you can have mild discrimination, sexual harassment or verbal abuse. Perhaps verbal abuse.

Sometimes though, you get real winners like Blizzard with all of the above recently. I know enough to never work in the video game industry.

I would consider work-life balance to be more of a problem than just being pestered to do unpaid overtime. For instance, companies which frown on taking time off or banking your leave to take one long vacation are fairly toxic IMO since they expect you to put the company first, even during your leisure. And that's ignoring places where it's expected that you be available on vacation, even if it's just to answer emails.

Some companies also require your work-life balance be broken down in order to advance. This is usually an unwritten requirement, and failure to participate makes you "not a team player," "a poor fit for the company," etc. I remember my father left a job because him going to see his father in the hospital after work instead of grabbing a beer (or a golf club) and shmoozing with the higher ups all but guaranteed he would never make partner at the firm. "Yeah, you might have kids to raise and your dad might be dying and all, but maybe join us instead so we can get to know you better and discuss your career ambitions" is one of the most disgusting attitudes I've ever heard, and yet many law firms still act like old boys' clubs, and a failure to suck up early on will impose a hard cap on your career. I would consider this to be a toxic workplace, both because of the "we're all family here (which means your family comes second)" attitude, and the implicit "if you bring in tons of business but don't fit in with our culture, you might as well start polishing your resume unless you're happy staying an associate."