Riot is a great place for a first job, if you're fresh out of college or an internship. The maturity level of the organization is pretty low, and the campus feels more like a fraternity than a workplace, complete with hazing rituals, a really creepy pressure to have your peers be your main social circle despite having a life outside of work, and sexual harassment galore. For seasoned professionals it's a guaranteed way to take three steps back in your career. I'm all for a chill work space, but there's a difference between understanding that jeans and cuss words don't affect quality of work, and allowing people to get away with playing 35 hours of video games a week at their desks and somehow still claiming to "add value."
The company mantra "default to trust" does not mean people will respect your expertise, it means you're not allowed to be offended when your insight is constantly dismissed and you are relegated to an entry-level workload despite a decade, or more, of experience.
Expect many company mantras to be weaponized in this way, especially if you are a woman. Again with "default to trust" -- it means if you are treated unfairly or poorly, it's YOUR responsibility to accept that the offender "probably didn't mean it" instead of, I dunno, trusting that the person reporting bad behavior probably has the mental capacity to figure out whether someone "meant it" or not?
"Open feedback culture" means you can only give constructive criticism that "feels good." You've got to make the other person feel like a hero for accepting and overcoming whatever shortcoming you're addressing. Unless, of course, that feedback is directed at something that is foundational to Riot as a company. There's an imaginary line you cross when you give feedback on the culture itself. Suddenly you are no longer a culture fit -- because Riot can't possibly be fostering toxic behavior. It is never Riot's fault. Ever. If you don't like something Riot is doing, you don't "get it" and you are the problem. It's honestly the perfect breeding ground for predators.
They won't fire you for this, oh no that would not fit the hip narrative pushed by the Brand team. They'll just tuck you in a corner and make your life so miserable you'll decide to leave yourself. Maybe they'll "strongly suggest" that you consider whether you are "aligned" and that you may be successful elsewhere.
You can get away with anything if you're charming enough to talk your way out of it. Meritocracy? More like Mediocrity. There are SO MANY managers with NO experience managing people. Managers whose teams are floundering because they're so inexperienced, they offer nothing in terms of guidance. Managers who openly admit they shouldn't be managing people. And why do these people stay managers? Because they're friends with the right people. Because they talk in circles. Because, honestly, at this point, firing all the useless managers would look really, really bad. I don't think Riot is ignorant that they've let the most incompetent/manipulative people rise up to lead their company -- I think they realize openly admitting it would be a PR nightmare.
And what would that do to the organization as a whole? HA, that was a joke. There is no organization. Your team will be reorganized every couple months. Your manager will change frequently. Sometimes your manager won't even know they're your manager. Sometimes you'll get a random dude as a manager "because he was bored." Multiple teams will be made to work on the same project and they won't even realize the other exists. Titles may not have anything to do with anything you're working on. Good luck getting that Director-level marketing job at your dream company when, despite multiple decades of work experience and successful campaigns, your resume is questioned because your Riot years have you listed as a mere "media specialist" or some other nonsense.
Riot has some of the most brilliant, passionate minds trapped within its walls. Most of the people are amazing, they're just stuck in a mediocre system that barely keeps itself running. And they're burnt out from carrying the slack of the duds who don't actually do anything special but SWEAR they are visionaries.
