Complaints About Square-Enix

Hello all,

I was curious so I plugged "complaints about square enix" into Google. I was amazed and astonished by what I saw. Not only were there bad reviews by customers, former employees, wrote some real zingers. I don't know if everybody here wants to subscribe to Glassdor.com to see them. If you don't log in to Glassdoor or don't have a subscription, only the first page of reviews were readable. Everything else is blurred out with a message encouraging you to subscribe over the blurred text. I picked a few from the 26 reviews then cut & pasted them here. The 26 reviews range from Oct 24, 2009 up to August 23, 2015. These reviews should speak for themselves. Customer service nightmares are on various web sites that are "out in the opened" so I didn't see any need to repost those here.

Nov 29, 2015
“Senior Position”
Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in El Segundo, CA

Doesn't Recommend
Negative Outlook
Approves of CEO

Pros
An nice view of LAX and the freeway/ ocean. I can vouch that some people are good at what they do. The best of the best is here.

Cons
Most people don't know what they're doing here. I'm sure they got hired because of the referral process. Many employees are friends and/or family members. If you're not friends with the upper management say goodbye to your hours. From Full-time to Part-time in less than two weeks. My coworker has been at an entry level for 4 years. The pay is also very low for a SR xxxxxxx position but it's time to look else where.

Advice to Management
Treat referrals just as well as you would anyone else you are about to hire. Square Enix makes AMAZING money from what we dispatch. A decent pay would be nice.

Aug 18, 2015
“Worst place to work”
Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
Doesn't Recommend
Negative Outlook
Disapproves of CEO

Pros
There are no pros that I can think of sadly... Terrible experience

Cons
Terrible work environment. Some people know what they where doing and the rest where left to wonder. Management had no direction and effectively resulted in massive layoffs. Would never work for this company unless the management changed from top to bottom, which will never happen.

Advice to Management
Pay attention to the scope of your projects before you go on a massive hiring spree. People relocated from around the country and quit their job.

Mar 21, 2012
“I wish someone had posted this before...”
Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in El Segundo, CA

Pros
If you NEED a job in the game industry and have been refused from all others than Square Enix may be the place for you.

Cons
Politics to the 10th degree. You will be underpaid. You will be asked to work very long hours (sometimes meetings will be held in the middle of the night due to Japan staff. You will not see your significant other or children very much (except to put them to sleep). Your feedback is not welcome as Japan and EU do what they want. NA is a distribution arm and that's it. Simply put this is not a fun place to work at all. Staff has been seen crying at their desks, treated very poorly (yelled at), etc. Avoid....

Advice to Management
Take a hard look at yourselves and think about why the turn over rate is exceptionally high at Square Enix. Fair compensation would go a long way. Make Square Enix a fun place to work and simply fire the executives that are consumed with power and ext. political. They know who they are.

Aug 15, 2015
“A Toxic Environment with a View”
Former Employee - Software Engineer in Montreal, QC (Canada)
Doesn't Recommend
Negative Outlook

Pros
Nice office with a great view from the 16th floor. It's much quieter than most offices I've worked at over my 10 year career in the videogame industry. Free drinks and beer Fridays.

;b]Cons[/b]
IPs suffer from toxic politics, mostly caused by the talentless, yes-men-manegment at Square-Enix Europe, or local, useless hot-shots who think they're making a positive difference when, in fact, they're only destroying moral and motivation.

Advice to Management
As with most gaming studios, for the most part, management is completely useless. In fact, simple emails with clear instruction should easily replace most of them.

Mar 19, 2011
“Good products & dedicated employees but management needs more work... ”
Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
Doesn't Recommend
No opinion of CEO

Pros
Squre Enix has many dedicated employees all working together to create good products. Salaries and benefits are competitive. The office is modern and nice.

Cons
Culture of Square Enix is still "old-Japanese". In my opinion, women are still not getting the same opportunities and recognition as men. Also the Japanese employees are treated differently than American employees.

You could replace 'Square Enix' with any company and find results similar to this.

I don't see any point to reposting any of this here.