New Programmer Glassdoor Review (Negative)

[PotCommaKettle]

New Glassdoor review from Hardsuit, but it's Glassdoor, so take it with a grain of salt (for both super positive and super negative reviews):

https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Hardsuit-Labs-Reviews-E1030422.htm

The review doesn't seem to have much hope for a major project after Bloodlines 2.

[Gabba Gabba Aye]

Would you be able to post the actual review and break down the important pieces?

[SunfireKnight86]

I just can't be bothered to care about gaming industry drama. Every young programmer knows exactly what the industry is but they go into it anyway. They need to unionize properly, but they don't. And beyond that, I'm a consumer. It's not my job to care about everyone's job, and even if it was, fast food workers, EMTs, and teachers all rate higher on my "people who need the support of the world" list.

[PotCommaKettle]

Originally posted by Gabba Gabba Aye:

Would you be able to post the actual review and break down the important pieces?

Copy and pasted (although there's tricks to reading each one, just play around with it). I asterisked ones that stood out to me.

There's other reviews on there, and ones on the Paradox site, too.

Review:

====================================

Title: “Generally good people, awful ideas, disruptive elements” (Stars: 1 out of 5)
Data: Former Programmer in Seattle, WA, Doesn't Recommend (the company), Negative Outlook (Company Future), No opinion of CEO

Worked at Hardsuit Labs full-time for less than a year

POSITIVES:

Most of the people are likeable.

A decent place to start your work in, helpful but overworked co-workers.

The premises are nice and open.

Paradox ensures the company won't go under until the big-name title is completed.

NEGATIVES:

*** The company likely won't survive long after they push out their larger products. They know this and try to compensate by having multiple projects on the side. Pay is low.

Most likeable co-workers leave the job after being burnt out by what lies below.

*** Absurd amounts of turnover. It's more rare to have a weekly report without at least 1 person leaving than it is to have one with no one leaving. I must stress that i've never seen something like this.

*** The management are clueless, and cannot organize a team.

Some managers are slack-jawed and only seem interested in their social media feed.

Constant bad advice and "no, do it this bad way" over-the-shoulder pestering.

*** Constant forced crunch time. Doing 9-11 hour days without counting in commute on a static monthly pay with no additional benefits is not fun, especially in this environment.

Zero chance to focus on your work with busybodies trying to micromanage every line of code

Zero chance to focus on your work with other busybodies trying to always go on about their perceived differences.

The self-identified "LGBT" people are often nagging at innocent jokes and interrupting co-worker work-related conversations because they feel like they need to inject themselves and their opinion to it. This leads to a divided workplace which the management is unwilling to handle.

Constant murmur by management on how they're so "open", "accepting" and "diverse".

Constant undertones in all speech by management about progressive ideas and ideals even when it comes to completely neutral subjects like programming and gameplay design.

All additions and suggestions are primarily weighted against the former factors instead of whether or not it would fit the series or be conducive to good gameplay.

Obviously false glowing 5-star reviews on Glassdoor.

ADVICE TO MANAGEMENT:

Manage your workforce as a group instead of sitting behind a programmer's shoulder and trying to interject dumb ideas. The design and art people mention that this is common there too.

During work hours, control the people who are disruptive or tell them to act even remotely professionally. It's fine to have an open enviroment and expressive freedoms, but when certain people are disruptive to work and constant annoyance to co-workers, they should be dealt with.

Have not dealt with the CEOs so cannot say much about them.

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by PotCommaKettle:

Originally posted by Gabba Gabba Aye:

Would you be able to post the actual review and break down the important pieces?

Copy and pasted (although there's tricks to reading each one, just play around with it). I asterisked ones that stood out to me.

There's other reviews on there, and ones on the Paradox site, too.

Review:

====================================

Title: “Generally good people, awful ideas, disruptive elements” (Stars: 1 out of 5)
Data: Former Programmer in Seattle, WA, Doesn't Recommend (the company), Negative Outlook (Company Future), No opinion of CEO

Worked at Hardsuit Labs full-time for less than a year

POSITIVES:

Most of the people are likeable.

A decent place to start your work in, helpful but overworked co-workers.

The premises are nice and open.

Paradox ensures the company won't go under until the big-name title is completed.

NEGATIVES:

*** The company likely won't survive long after they push out their larger products. They know this and try to compensate by having multiple projects on the side. Pay is low.

Most likeable co-workers leave the job after being burnt out by what lies below.

*** Absurd amounts of turnover. It's more rare to have a weekly report without at least 1 person leaving than it is to have one with no one leaving. I must stress that i've never seen something like this.

*** The management are clueless, and cannot organize a team.

Some managers are slack-jawed and only seem interested in their social media feed.

Constant bad advice and "no, do it this bad way" over-the-shoulder pestering.

*** Constant forced crunch time. Doing 9-11 hour days without counting in commute on a static monthly pay with no additional benefits is not fun, especially in this environment.

Zero chance to focus on your work with busybodies trying to micromanage every line of code

Zero chance to focus on your work with other busybodies trying to always go on about their perceived differences.

The self-identified "LGBT" people are often nagging at innocent jokes and interrupting co-worker work-related conversations because they feel like they need to inject themselves and their opinion to it. This leads to a divided workplace which the management is unwilling to handle.

Constant murmur by management on how they're so "open", "accepting" and "diverse".

Constant undertones in all speech by management about progressive ideas and ideals even when it comes to completely neutral subjects like programming and gameplay design.

All additions and suggestions are primarily weighted against the former factors instead of whether or not it would fit the series or be conducive to good gameplay.

Obviously false glowing 5-star reviews on Glassdoor.

ADVICE TO MANAGEMENT:

Manage your workforce as a group instead of sitting behind a programmer's shoulder and trying to interject dumb ideas. The design and art people mention that this is common there too.

During work hours, control the people who are disruptive or tell them to act even remotely professionally. It's fine to have an open enviroment and expressive freedoms, but when certain people are disruptive to work and constant annoyance to co-workers, they should be dealt with.

Have not dealt with the CEOs so cannot say much about them.

Fake. They're working from home. There is no commute. The "gay people are super mean! and it's too diverse!" was also a dead giveaway. Also Hardsuit has one CEO, and since I knew that, I doubt a programmer who worked there wouldn't. This reads like someone on these forums wrote it.

[Indvstrial Black]

Don't work in North American game studios. Overworked, underpaid, discarded like strawmen. Also don't fund them, or you perpetuate the terrible working environments. Give your money instead to Indie North American devs, or game development studios that are based in countries that have laws around basic workers rights.

To avoid the political sewer of Trump vs. Biden or Conservatism vs. Progressivism (Mr. Overton Window people) I also recommend Chinese, or Japanese games as the bulk of them rarely touch on western crapola but, the worker conditions there are ambiguous at best.

Euro game studios have workers rights, and no North American politics (or very little) so support them. I have high hopes for Sharkmob.

[Muscarine]

Originally posted by Meatballs:

Fake. They're working from home. There is no commute. The "gay people are super mean! and it's too diverse!" was also a dead giveaway. Also Hardsuit has one CEO, and since I knew that, I doubt a programmer who worked there wouldn't. This reads like someone on these forums wrote it.

You read like someone who has no idea what it's like working in this industry

For someone who does, while some points sound subjective, it's entirely believable

For reference because going over all the points would take half an hour, working from home is not a given
If you're developing on a Sony platform, they require your developer toolkit to be connected from an approved IP
Which means some developers are required to work on location

Originally posted by Kaos:

Euro game studios have workers rights, and no North American politics (or very little) so support them. I have high hopes for Sharkmob.

It's important to understand that legislation doesn't mean it just works (insert Todd)
I've worked both in the EU and NA, it's the same everywhere, with some difference depending on management
For instance all the people parroting CDPR's 48h week with paid overtime is blown out of proportion have no idea what they're on about, considering they're talking about employees who did at least 60h+ a week for the last two years already
Nobody seems to realise how many hours go out the window for free in this sector (and many others)

Unionizing is nice, but what's better is to stop voting into power people who keep deregulating everything, including your rights

[Indvstrial Black]

Yep, they deregulate, or they regulate and install a revolving door into the body. There is no solution with the two parties.

Same with health care. The pharma and med industry is so overpriced it doesn't matter if it's private or public funded. Yet, neither party talks about what a con the medical system prices are. So they are stuck in an endless loop about how to fund the corrupt industries. No other country has such high bills from doctors.

The USA is an example of everything not to do.

Where I live if I break a leg, I get a $200 bill to fix it. In the USA it's like thousands of dollars. Nobody can afford that, public or private.

I'll give another example: the FDA used to fund ways to heal sickness with herbs. It was last run by Dr. James Duke. Reagan stripped it out and sold the FDA out to pharma, and now we treat all herbs as "alternative medicine" when in fact, it used to be Government sponsored herbal medicines.

https://www.amazon.com/Green-Pharmacy-Ultimate-Compendium-Authority/dp/0312966482

Neither dems or reps have fixed the FDA since.

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by Muscarine:

Originally posted by Meatballs:

Fake. They're working from home. There is no commute. The "gay people are super mean! and it's too diverse!" was also a dead giveaway. Also Hardsuit has one CEO, and since I knew that, I doubt a programmer who worked there wouldn't. This reads like someone on these forums wrote it.

You read like someone who has no idea what it's like working in this industry

For someone who does, while some points sound subjective, it's entirely believable

For reference because going over all the points would take half an hour, working from home is not a given
If you're developing on a Sony platform, they require your developer toolkit to be connected from an approved IP
Which means some developers are required to work on location

Originally posted by Kaos:

Euro game studios have workers rights, and no North American politics (or very little) so support them. I have high hopes for Sharkmob.

It's important to understand that legislation doesn't mean it just works (insert Todd)
I've worked both in the EU and NA, it's the same everywhere, with some difference depending on management
For instance all the people parroting CDPR's 48h week with paid overtime is blown out of proportion have no idea what they're on about, considering they're talking about employees who did at least 60h+ a week for the last two years already
Nobody seems to realise how many hours go out the window for free in this sector (and many others)

Unionizing is nice, but what's better is to stop voting into power people who keep deregulating everything, including your rights

They said earlier in the year they were working from home. Since they haven't said otherwise, and it's a purely digital job, there's no reason to think things have changed. Again, this review stinks of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. GAY PEOPLE ARE MEAN TO ME! is really cracking me up every time I see it. lol Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

Also, unionizing always makes workers lives better, full stop. Workers who are against workers having better lives are probably not smart workers. But, whatever, that's well outside of the scope of this conversation.

Originally posted by Kaos:

Yep, they deregulate, or they regulate and install a revolving door into the body. There is no solution with the two parties.

Same with health care. The pharma and med industry is so overpriced it doesn't matter if it's private or public funded. Yet, neither party talks about what a con the medical system prices are. So they are stuck in an endless loop about how to fund the corrupt industries. No other country has such high bills from doctors.

The USA is an example of everything not to do.

Where I live if I break a leg, I get a $200 bill to fix it. In the USA it's like thousands of dollars. Nobody can afford that, public or private.

I've never paid thousands of dollars for healthcare and I've had cancer in been in two motorcycle accidents. (I don't ride anymore. haha) Again, don't believe everything you read on the internet. Responsible adults with health insurance don't have these issues.

Again, outside the scope of these forums.

[Muscarine]

Originally posted by Meatballs:

They said earlier in the year they were working from home. Since they haven't said otherwise, and it's a purely digital job, there's no reason to think things have changed. Again, this review stinks of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. GAY PEOPLE ARE MEAN TO ME! is really cracking me up every time I see it. lol Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

I specifically said some points sound subjective

You can use my commentary as a chance to educate yourself on the reality of the situation from first hand experience, or you can chose to believe whatever you feel like

It's up to you, makes no difference to me

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by Muscarine:

Originally posted by Meatballs:

They said earlier in the year they were working from home. Since they haven't said otherwise, and it's a purely digital job, there's no reason to think things have changed. Again, this review stinks of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. GAY PEOPLE ARE MEAN TO ME! is really cracking me up every time I see it. lol Don't believe everything you read on the internet.

I specifically said some points sound subjective

You can use my commentary as a chance to educate yourself on the reality of the situation from first hand experience, or you can chose to believe whatever you feel like

It's up to you, makes no difference to me

I know actual programmers who work for game companies. I know a programmer who owns a gaming company. I have worked on games as a writer. I think I'll trust my own experiences over some rando on a Steam forum who I don't know or believe. Good day.

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by alation13:

Originally posted by Meatballs:

I know actual programmers who work for game companies. I know a programmer who owns a gaming company. I have worked on games as a writer. I think I'll trust my own experiences over some rando on a Steam forum who I don't know or believe. Good day.

Always suspected you worked for HSLs doing damage control, thanks for admitting it.

So you admit I know more about the situation than you do? :)

[D-503]

Originally posted by Meatballs:

Originally posted by Kaos:

No other country has such high bills from doctors.

The USA is an example of everything not to do.

Where I live if I break a leg, I get a $200 bill to fix it. In the USA it's like thousands of dollars. Nobody can afford that, public or private.

I've never paid thousands of dollars for healthcare and I've had cancer in been in two motorcycle accidents. (I don't ride anymore. haha) Again, don't believe everything you read on the internet. Responsible adults with health insurance don't have these issues.

Oh, so you never paid a lot for a medical procedure, and that means American healthcare is perfectly fine?

What a despicably myopic attitude.

Anyone with any sense knows the deductibles vary depending on the specific insurance plan. And most plans have huge deductibles. Plenty of 'responsible adults' with insurance have been left with catastrophic medical debt, because they can't afford a better plan that has more comprehensive coverage.

But screw them, right? They must be stupid and poor and not as responsible as you.

That's a funny attitude to have for someone who supposedly espouses liberal values. Real funny.

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by D-503:

Originally posted by Meatballs:

I've never paid thousands of dollars for healthcare and I've had cancer in been in two motorcycle accidents. (I don't ride anymore. haha) Again, don't believe everything you read on the internet. Responsible adults with health insurance don't have these issues.

Oh, so you never paid a lot for a medical procedure, and that means American healthcare is perfectly fine?

What a despicably myopic attitude.

Anyone with any sense knows the deductibles vary depending on the specific insurance plan. And most plans have huge deductibles. Plenty of 'responsible adults' with insurance have been left with catastrophic medical debt, because they can't afford a better plan that has more comprehensive coverage.

But screw them, right? They must be stupid and poor and not as responsible as you.

That's a funny attitude to have for someone who supposedly espouses liberal values. Real funny.

I love it when Europeans try and explain American healthcare to me. Do go on.

EDIT: Also notice I said responsible adults? That obviously means people telling you they have these problems are either not as responsible or not as adult as they pretend to be.

[PotCommaKettle]

Originally posted by Meatballs:

Also Hardsuit has one CEO, and since I knew that, I doubt a programmer who worked there wouldn't. This reads like someone on these forums wrote it.

On Glassdoor, 2 CEOs are listed: Nelson and Kipling.

Is there only one CEO or are they wrong?

[SunfireKnight86]

Originally posted by PotCommaKettle:

Originally posted by Meatballs:

Also Hardsuit has one CEO, and since I knew that, I doubt a programmer who worked there wouldn't. This reads like someone on these forums wrote it.

On Glassdoor, 2 CEOs are listed: Nelson and Kipling.

Is there only one CEO or are they wrong?

Maybe GlassDoor's website knows more about Hardsuit than Hardsuit's website. Or maybe GlassDoor is constantly wrong and you should stop believeing everything you read on the internet. Maybe the person writing those things is an internet forum troll whom doesn't know the difference between a COO and a CEO and has never had a job in their life. Who knows!