Duolingo’s CEO says his company is ‘allergic’ to toxic behavior—and not to ‘work yourself to death’

In his LinkedIn post, the 47-year-old Guatemalan-American billionaire outlined five career tips for new hires, with his first piece of advice being blunt: “Don’t be a jerk,” he wrote. “Duolingo has an allergic reaction to toxic behavior, and our culture quickly identifies and rejects it.”

The language-learning platform’s CEO emphasized that new employees should avoid coming in with “massive egos” or being duplicitous with colleagues. His comments come as workplace toxicity has emerged as a leading driver of employee turnover, with recent research from Revelio Labs shared by MIT Sloan Management Review showing that toxic corporate culture is 10.4 times more predictive of attrition than compensation.

Von Ahn’s second tip focused on proactivity, encouraging employees to solve problems rather than just complain about them. He cited the example of Duolingo’s company blog. “Early on, we didn’t have a company blog. Two engineers handled this differently,” he said. “Engineer A: Spent months complaining to me. ‘We don’t have a blog! What are you going to do about it?’ Engineer B: Came to me once and said, “I noticed we don’t have a blog, so I started one.’”

“If something bothers you, you generally have the freedom here to fix it,” von Ahn added.

The CEO’s third piece of advice centered on prioritization and work-life balance. He told new hires to think in order: “What’s best for the company’s mission? What’s best for your team? What’s best for you?” But he was clear about boundaries: “This doesn’t mean work yourself to death. But people who focus on what’s good for Duolingo’s mission tend to do better than people who are purely selfish.”

Soft skills matter

This approach reflects broader workplace trends, as 65.1% of employees report experiencing high stress levels, with nearly 72% attributing this to unmanageable workloads, according to iHire’s 2025 Toxic Workplace Trends Report.

Von Ahn’s remaining tips included using the Duolingo app regularly to understand the product and recognizing that career success requires both luck and persistence. “You don’t have to be the most brilliant person. You just have to show up and keep going until luck finds you,” he wrote.

The advice comes as Duolingo has weathered controversy over its AI-first strategy announced earlier this year. Von Ahn had to clarify his position after backlash, stating that AI would enhance rather than replace employee work.

Von Ahn’s emphasis on culture and character over credentials aligns with growing industry focus on emotional intelligence and soft skills. A 2024 LinkedIn report found a 31% increase in C-suite leaders highlighting soft skills on their profiles since 2018. Relatedly, von Ahn previously said he would “rather be understaffed than hire the wrong person,” recounting an incident where a CFO candidate was rejected for being rude to a driver.

For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.