Duvainor
(?)Community Member
Offline
- Posted: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 21:02:00 +0000
I kept seeing people mentioning glassdoor reviews as they talked about your latest screwup decision with Club verge, and I decided to check it out, and I gotta say, the reviews from your former employees are just so damn depressing, but they really gave me insight on how your company is run and how management does things. It's not pretty, dude, and doesn't make me trust you guys are leading the Gaia, the site that I've invested years of my life in; the site that I love, is going to be ok and head in the right direction. If your employees don't trust the higher up execs, then I sure as hell don't, so what makes you think- no, what right do you have to basically demand my money at every opportunity, and invest monetarily in you?
Source
Quote:
“Talented Team, Poor management”
Anonymous Employee (Former Employee)
Pros- I'll probably never work with a team like I did at Gaia again. They were a fun and very talented group of people. This place felt like a family and I consider myself lucky to have been a part of it.
Work-life balance was a crucial part of the culture. Used to be flexible about work hours and benefits were great (100% premium covered)
Cons- It's really a shame, this place used to be such a fun place to work. Unfortunately, it wasn't always productive.
- Some management hired based on their MBA, not skills or competence. Others are hired because they are good engineers/artists/etc, but it doesn't necessarily mean they make effective managers.
- Lack of direction and process, making projects run very inefficiently.
- Sometimes the focus is on the build limitations instead of asking "Is this fun to play" Not enough transparency/feedback between teams to know about updates/changes.
- No opportunity for career growth. You do what you were hired to do and that's it. The only time you do more is when someone leaves and you take over their work, with no job title or raise.
Left because I no longer felt fulfilled or valued.
Advice to Senior Management- If someone is asking for support, don't promise anything if you don't intend to follow through.
- Take responsibility AND accountability for your team and your actions (or lack there of)
- LISTEN to feedback from others. You may think your idea is awesome, but ignoring others leads to a year of producing an unpopular product (and on a platform that is past the trend)
“Used to be great, but new Execs are destroying culture and morale”
Anonymous Employee (Current Employee)
Pros- The remaining employees here are talented and hard working. (So were many of those who have been let go or left the company on their own in recent months.)
Cons- New executives seem disingenuous, patronizing, and disconnected.
- Employee benefits and privileges are slowly being stripped away.
- Morale is currently at an all-time low.
- We are losing valued coworkers weekly.
Advice to Senior Management The employees have all worked tirelessly to maintain excellent standards of workmanship despite historically lacking strong management or direction. It feels like the creative culture at our company has been mistaken for unprofessionalism and a lack of productivity.
Stop trying to get your personnel to "shape up." You already have top quality employees. Instead, concentrate on stemming the company's steady hemorrhaging of talent. So far, new policies have only resulted in speeding the exodus along.
“Definitely glad to have left”
Anonymous Employee (Former Employee)
Pros- Free food.
- Undemanding work environment (perhaps too much).
Cons- Free food is all greasy, sugary snack foods. I wouldn't be surprised if this contributed to low morale.
- Little to no accountability for getting work done on time.
- Supervisors take little to no interest in helping employees advance their careers in any way.
- Management does most game design instead of the actual game designers.
Advice to Senior Management Empower your employees to show you what they can do.
- Take the time to show them you care by helping them prepare for their career's future.
- Dump the greasy lunches and replace them with a healthier alternative.
“Don't expect to be important”
Anonymous Employee (Former Employee)
Pros- Very talented employees, fun group activities, and a love for the community.
Cons- Poor direction, no chance of advancement, blatant cronyism by some management.
Advice to Senior Management Sometimes the problem isn't your employees, it's the people managing them. Give credit where it is due.
“Great to work at, good to stay, then move on when it's time”
Senior Software Engineer (Former Employee)
Pros- Good company with a lot of potential to grow. Expect to have a lot of opportunities to try new things.
Cons- There's not much career advancement here. The organizational structure is very flat, and the company so far has a trend of hiring management from outside sources. Because of this, it's a good place to build up your skills and then move on.
Advice to Senior Management – You've got to keep the creative energy flowing through the company. It's so vital to the company's success, but also the most neglected thing. This applies to Art, UI, Engineering, even Customer Service. If people aren't getting excited, the lack of creativity will find its way into the site wide events.
“A great way to boost your skillset”
Software Engineer (Current Employee)
Pros- Lots of creative freedom is here, in regards to project details. The community feedback is great, and not something you see at a typical company. The company is still small in size as of this writing, although it doesn't feel or act very small. You get all the benefits and support of a larger company, but your team remains very small and focused. The knowledge sharing here is amazing as well, and everyone who enters leaves with a better skill set than when they came, making it great for advancing an individual career.
Cons- There's not much career advancement here. Management manages, and everyone else does specific task work. Part of this is due to the company size, but there's simply no opportunities here. If you're looking to move up your career towards a management / leader track, you'd want to look elsewhere. Another major downside is that Gaia has a hard time swallowing the Agile pill. They seem very scared of letting projects run whatever course the nature of the project dictates. As a result, there's still a ton of waterfall process here, without necessarily any indication this will be evolving / changing with time.
Advice to Senior Management They need to put more trust and accountability into the low level positions. They were hired to be great developers, artists, and UI people, but are rarely given the tools to succeed in those roles.
Anonymous Employee (Former Employee)
Pros- I'll probably never work with a team like I did at Gaia again. They were a fun and very talented group of people. This place felt like a family and I consider myself lucky to have been a part of it.
Work-life balance was a crucial part of the culture. Used to be flexible about work hours and benefits were great (100% premium covered)
Cons- It's really a shame, this place used to be such a fun place to work. Unfortunately, it wasn't always productive.
- Some management hired based on their MBA, not skills or competence. Others are hired because they are good engineers/artists/etc, but it doesn't necessarily mean they make effective managers.
- Lack of direction and process, making projects run very inefficiently.
- Sometimes the focus is on the build limitations instead of asking "Is this fun to play" Not enough transparency/feedback between teams to know about updates/changes.
- No opportunity for career growth. You do what you were hired to do and that's it. The only time you do more is when someone leaves and you take over their work, with no job title or raise.
Left because I no longer felt fulfilled or valued.
Advice to Senior Management- If someone is asking for support, don't promise anything if you don't intend to follow through.
- Take responsibility AND accountability for your team and your actions (or lack there of)
- LISTEN to feedback from others. You may think your idea is awesome, but ignoring others leads to a year of producing an unpopular product (and on a platform that is past the trend)
“Used to be great, but new Execs are destroying culture and morale”
Anonymous Employee (Current Employee)
Pros- The remaining employees here are talented and hard working. (So were many of those who have been let go or left the company on their own in recent months.)
Cons- New executives seem disingenuous, patronizing, and disconnected.
- Employee benefits and privileges are slowly being stripped away.
- Morale is currently at an all-time low.
- We are losing valued coworkers weekly.
Advice to Senior Management The employees have all worked tirelessly to maintain excellent standards of workmanship despite historically lacking strong management or direction. It feels like the creative culture at our company has been mistaken for unprofessionalism and a lack of productivity.
Stop trying to get your personnel to "shape up." You already have top quality employees. Instead, concentrate on stemming the company's steady hemorrhaging of talent. So far, new policies have only resulted in speeding the exodus along.
“Definitely glad to have left”
Anonymous Employee (Former Employee)
Pros- Free food.
- Undemanding work environment (perhaps too much).
Cons- Free food is all greasy, sugary snack foods. I wouldn't be surprised if this contributed to low morale.
- Little to no accountability for getting work done on time.
- Supervisors take little to no interest in helping employees advance their careers in any way.
- Management does most game design instead of the actual game designers.
Advice to Senior Management Empower your employees to show you what they can do.
- Take the time to show them you care by helping them prepare for their career's future.
- Dump the greasy lunches and replace them with a healthier alternative.
“Don't expect to be important”
Anonymous Employee (Former Employee)
Pros- Very talented employees, fun group activities, and a love for the community.
Cons- Poor direction, no chance of advancement, blatant cronyism by some management.
Advice to Senior Management Sometimes the problem isn't your employees, it's the people managing them. Give credit where it is due.
“Great to work at, good to stay, then move on when it's time”
Senior Software Engineer (Former Employee)
Pros- Good company with a lot of potential to grow. Expect to have a lot of opportunities to try new things.
Cons- There's not much career advancement here. The organizational structure is very flat, and the company so far has a trend of hiring management from outside sources. Because of this, it's a good place to build up your skills and then move on.
Advice to Senior Management – You've got to keep the creative energy flowing through the company. It's so vital to the company's success, but also the most neglected thing. This applies to Art, UI, Engineering, even Customer Service. If people aren't getting excited, the lack of creativity will find its way into the site wide events.
“A great way to boost your skillset”
Software Engineer (Current Employee)
Pros- Lots of creative freedom is here, in regards to project details. The community feedback is great, and not something you see at a typical company. The company is still small in size as of this writing, although it doesn't feel or act very small. You get all the benefits and support of a larger company, but your team remains very small and focused. The knowledge sharing here is amazing as well, and everyone who enters leaves with a better skill set than when they came, making it great for advancing an individual career.
Cons- There's not much career advancement here. Management manages, and everyone else does specific task work. Part of this is due to the company size, but there's simply no opportunities here. If you're looking to move up your career towards a management / leader track, you'd want to look elsewhere. Another major downside is that Gaia has a hard time swallowing the Agile pill. They seem very scared of letting projects run whatever course the nature of the project dictates. As a result, there's still a ton of waterfall process here, without necessarily any indication this will be evolving / changing with time.
Advice to Senior Management They need to put more trust and accountability into the low level positions. They were hired to be great developers, artists, and UI people, but are rarely given the tools to succeed in those roles.
Source
