Twitch Employee Reviews about "senior management"

Pros

- Excellent benefits and perks - Able to manage my workload independently - Immediate management has trust in my abilities - Opportunities in my team to grow or be promoted - Lots of work going on to improve diversity in a sector dominated by white men - Excellent response to COVID pandemic, immediate WFH instruction and freedom to choose when/where to work, provided with suitable equipment to continue WFH - [Pre-COVID] Ability to travel to offices globally was excellent - [Pre-COVID] Office environment is excellent

Cons

- Too much emphasis on San Francisco/California leads to less development and a lack of attention elsewhere (although this is improving in the past 1 year) - Lack of cross-team functional work leading to feeling of separation from colleagues - Lack of headcount allocation in my organisation - Lack of critical decision making within senior management

Pros

The best stuff doesn't apply since COVID-19. It's a great office space with excellent food, free beer and lots of games. It still has unlimited PTO and good insurance.

Cons

COO is the leader of a toxic culture that promotes by back-stabbing, gossip and butt-kissing. Lots of empty talk about diversity from an all-white HR and senior management teams. Twitch loves to talk about their Values, but you don't see management following them. Frequent reorgs mean that priorities are always changing. Managers are free to write whatever they want in reviews but aren't reviewed by their teams. No real possibilities for promotions. CEO is dismissive of bad press that exposes flaws in the company.

Pros

Twitch is a known player in the industry- working here is like a little badge you get to flaunt. There are great perks, that's for sure. Unlimited PTO (depending on your manager), catered meals, snacks, gaming rooms, monthly massage slots, gym gets reimbursed, flexible work hours, holiday break, etc. The company seems to endorse work life balance at first glance. There are a lot of passionate, smart, and hardworking people at the IC level, reminds you what you're capable of doing every once in awhile- wish those people would get recognition more.

Cons

Leadership is a mess. Many are not in alignment with each other, and their lack of shared vision (which is a company value) trickles down and affects the people actually carrying out daily work. Leaders and those in managerial or positions of power are quick to blame their teams or other teams. Or they don't own up to their lack of management and leadership skills. Goals don't seem to match up between teams, or even within teams, which makes it confusing to get work done. People with lots of experience but no people or team building skills get promoted into management. Poor communication almost everywhere, makes for a really difficult and frustrating work environment. Almost makes me not have fun with gaming anymore because the work environment turns me off. Also, heard employees get away with unprofessional behavior/misconduct. HR and senior management should pay attention to those issues as well- not just productivity and minutes watched or whatever the next KPI is. I don't think the value and image of working at Twitch is worth dealing with the workplace.

Pros

Free food every day, game rooms, happy hour on Friday and free in-office massages

Cons

Senior Management lie through their teeth to gain compliance from staff, only to turn around and do exactly what they promised they werent going to do. The partnerships team is an absolute joke, they let random employees do the hard work by proactively reaching out to creators with good numbers on other platforms. When you walk to the partnerships side of Twitch HQ, you might find half the team playing catch in the walkways or standing in the corner talking about last night's overwatch league match. When working with any team in Twitch, expect deadlines to be pushed 2,3, even 4 times. The company has been a train wreck that plays favorites for way too long.

Pros

The people who are passionate about Partners and the community are what make the company still a better place than its competitors. Decent meals and other office perks. Strong online brand to boost your own value as a professional.

Cons

Inconsistent commitment to core values, policies, and a lack of follow-through on promises to improve both towards employee development and company development. Corrupt and nepotistic behavior from senior management including giving promotions and praise instead of severance packages to absentee managers. Nominating several employees for Forbes awards who have long-standing records of doing nothing, skipping meetings, bending policy for friends, and other unprofessional acts. Ignoring pitches to improve accountability.

Pros

Really fun culture where it's easy to find like-minded friends and colleagues if you have geeky or nerdy interests Great office spaces and location; good (but slowly declining) food and beverage perks; solid insurance

Cons

Executive team consistently makes bad calls on product, and does not let IC employees do their jobs. Product Managers design almost exclusively around the pet ideas of our CEO, rather than our users, and this is highly encouraged by our executive team. ("Emmett said we had to build X.") Executives who have continually made big bets that have failed miserably are rewarded with larger teams and more power and influence. We very badly need to hire more experienced executives that aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. This includes an honest evaluation of the skills and effectiveness of our current senior management. I understand those currently in power were in the trenches together building the company, and that they have a history, but turning a blind eye to the inefficiencies, skill gaps, and performance management problems that are rampant throughout the company is hurting everyone. In some instances, the roles have grown beyond the skills of those who hold them. Acknowledging this and gracefully addressing these issues would be a much better outcome than hoping that senior leadership can slowly gain the needed skills through trial and error or osmosis. The next two quarters may be riddled with departures if more aggressive measures aren't taken to address our lack of autonomy and product direction. Promotions are almost non-existent and "pay increases" consist of hoping and praying that AMZN stock increases in value.

Pros

Twitch, at least in the beginning, attracted several talented folks in both product and engineering who are passionate about gaming and streaming. It feels amazing to be surrounded by people who understand the same gaming subculture as you do. Non-gamers who join are often quickly converted into enthusiastic gaming supporters and find their own preference (whether it be MMOs, shooters, fighters, platformer, mobile games, or even boardgames). If you're an IC, the work/life balance can be good and having unlimited vacation is nice. There are also the catered free food and snacks, gym perks, commute perks etc. Finally, you also get to impress other gamers when you tell them you work at Twitch.

Cons

As previous reviews have pointed out, Twitch is not in a good place at the moment. Senior management has not shown strong leadership or consistent decision making. This, together with the immense growth and urgency Twitch has experienced in the past year, has led to a lot of frantic scrambling in the company. There are too many proposals, too many directions, too many sprawling goals and far, far too many voices in the room. Having upper management re-enforce discipline and central strategy to get everyone in line would be nice, but the execs are too inexperienced and/or overburdened (our exec suite is short staffed) to handle this. If you're a manager (whether it be tech lead or director), you will find it hard and stressful to plan, and to maintain a workable roadmap for your team. In Twitch's struggle to find ANYTHING to boost KPIs, teams are trying out ideas left and right, often dumping sudden workloads on other teams in the process, and leaving the projects half-finished. Company morale has been tanking, and people are left stressed and anxious. I highly not recommend anybody join until the leadership and coordination problems are fixed.