People are leaving for good reason...
Pros
- Nice IPs - I truly enjoyed the game I was working on. - Kind and helpful colleagues. - Most employees are very hard-working and skilled at their fields. They really care about doing good quality work.
Cons
- Work is constantly piled on without proper planning. - Deadlines are set without any regard for employees' estimates, leading to constant stress, burnout, and makes the employees feel like their expertise is not respected, only exploited. - The managers do not listen to employees who raise their concerns. This dismissiveness includes HR not listening or acting too slowly in cases where employees feel threatened by their managers. - There is a baffling motto of "everything will work out in the end", said repeatedly in team meetings and the evidence used is that we have had success in the past. However, that success was built off of the hours of real hard effort, teamwork, planning and expertise from the employees below management level. They work like this because they are afraid of their whole team getting laid off if they don't meet the unrealistic standards (which has happened several times in the past). - Stress is everywhere and many have developed physical and mental difficulties from constantly working under a feeling of anxiety. - Managers for some reason are the least available to help and support their team. They are caught up in meetings and do not show any real evidence of doing work that helps with the execution of the project. The planning and execution is all done by the teams below and the managers spend their time telling people in other departments how to do their jobs, and making inappropriate or dismissive jokes. They are seen as either intimidating or completely out of touch with what is going on in the project. Instead, they should be providing support and do the real work that is desperately needed in terms of planning and cultivating a positive work environment. - There is not much room for career growth in your field of expertise as the organization does not have many levels within the studio. You can grow a lot within your position, take on more responsibility, train new team members. Even when you become very experienced and make a real difference to the game's performance, you are not acknowledged for this with title changes.
