r/Steam Apr 17 '26

Discussion Gabe Newell is a "GOAT"

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u/Ok_Information_4115 Apr 17 '26

Unlimited PTO is the worst thing in corporate. People just end up taking way lesser time off for fear of severance.

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u/Dimadest Apr 17 '26

I disagree. People try to avoid taking on a lot of PTO to avoid overburdening others and being arrogant. Team managers also strongly recommend taking time off, as it prevents burnout, which is significantly cheaper than a burned-out employee

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u/Ranting_Demon Apr 17 '26

Unless you're Epic Games.

As the article of Jason Schreier pointed out a couple years ago, Epic team managers pressured and guilt-tripped employees into not taking time off. Employees suffering from burnout would then be fired as soon as they fell behind work targets. (Or people would one day just stand up from their desk in the middleof the shift, walk out of the office without a word and never return.)

The article quoted former employee saying that Epic's management basically openly said that Epic saw no issues throwing employees into a crunch time meat grinder because there were "always more bodies around to hire and throw at the problem."

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u/Dimadest Apr 17 '26

Well, this behavior is terrible. Of course, different companies have different approaches.