-i felt like i was being placated with all of the pros listed above to distract me from incredible intellectual boredom.
-uninspired game making. jobs are so compartmentalized that the work is dry and boring.
-office culture very competitive and at times people are willing to throw you under the bus to get ahead. sure, competitiveness is pretty standard at most companies, but when you are surrounded by competitve people all day who are gunning for your job, it gets tiring. i felt that coworkers were more concerned about themselves, their features, their titles and title progression and awards rather than the teamwork and products we were making.
-a number of incidents of backroom deals for promotions that led to HR advertising to the entire company the jobs available.
-i witnessed an art director ask every single male on the team for character design ideas except for the three women on the team who were just as equally skilled as the males.
-little care expressed for your career development, which seems pretty counterproductive for the company and keeping talent around.
-feels corporate (meetings, meetings to discuss meetings, etc), numerous e mails about setting up calendars and oh what a fantastic job so and so did setting up the calendar... gah!
-some people I worked with seemed utterly useless. i sat next to someone who texted and surfed the internet all day and yet still managed to hold down a job. another guy had a bottle of whiskey next to his desk, which he drank all day and left at 2:00 unannounced. He also managed to keep his job. totally don't get how some of these people can stay under the radar.
-stock = a complete waste. empty promises. MP and a handful of people made a ton of money while the rest of us were given empty promises.
-never once saw a style guide for any game, lead artists non communicative, art teams were very dysfunctional
-work-life balance completely out of whack. I felt like if I didn't put in a 10-12 hour day I wasn't contributing.
-HR department can be downright rude. not everyone, but some definite stand outs.
-Parking is a serious issue. Company refused to address it. I would have gladly traded in my free food and swag for a parking spot or a van carpool from across town.
-I became sick with the flu right before a free trip for our efforts and couldn't go. Next pay check $1000 was taken out as "punishment". When I complained and even got a dr. note, the money was put back into the next check. I thought the trip was a reward for all of my hard work?
-Some employees actually got fleas from coworkers dogs! That's terrible but also amusing - maybe dogs should have a note from the vet or something.
-when i told the nutritionist that i was a vegetarian, she expressed deep concern because i might not be getting enough protein which would make me tired at my desk. LOL