Jagex; as reviewed by employees.

[Cloud1924 6]

I found this very interesting.

 

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Jagex-Reviews-E322592.htm

 

I'm not entirely sure on the criteria you have to meet or the channels you have to go through to write a review. The site seems to be well respected and specifies all reviews are by current or former employees.

 

A few things that are obvious from these reviews. Most people think the people they work(ed) with are/were good people. But they felt upper management and senior positions were filled by people outside of the company with little to no experience in the gaming industry.

 

I'm quite surprised the majority of the reviews are so negative.

[MotherBrainII 43]

The people although they seem to be doing their best to get rid of pretty much anybody who's been there for a couple of years or more.

 

Interesting...

[Kaur 331]

Opinions of people who are rejected by Jagex and now unemployed. Obviously they won't write anything positive. I know I wouldn't.

 

Similar site with a bit different opinions:

http://www.ratemyplacement.co.uk/company-profile/248/jagex-ltd

[RSBDavid 99]

Considering most of those reviews are from player support employees, no wonder why the ratings are low. I have been in their shoes with an even bigger company. All you hear is mostly negative comments all day. As my supervisor once said, "No one calls customer support because they want to thank <company>, they usually call because they have an issue". This is applicable and confirmed by a couple of the reviews. Some of the reviews are sort of sketchy as well. It sounds as if a couple of people were lazy and never got promoted and decided to rant about it. I would love to see content developers, website developers, and some other groups post.

[decebal 99]

I find the disparity between the likeability of senior management and normal employees a bit worrisome. Also, the complaints the employees have can definitely be seen in the game itself.

[Cloud1924 6]

Hmm, Ratemyplacement seems to be directed just towards interns/students? Maybe it being their first work of their lives makes them more inclined to review it positively? Either way interesting the two sites differ in opinions so much.

 

 

I find the disparity between the likeability of senior management and normal employees a bit worrisome. Also, the complaints the employees have can definitely be seen in the game itself.

 

I agree whole-heartedly, it's why I felt this thread was worth making.

[aerendil 318]

By the looks of it, the upper echelon of management is incompetent, but the base crew knows what they are doing... This aside, I really think jagex is headed for trouble, as we(the players) only have so much patience for the sof/sgs, which is constant and un-relenting... while this may be ivp pulling the strings, that doesnt really cut any slack to me... we've had this going on for over a year(?), and it's really damaging the playerbase....

 

All in all, i think jagex needs to have more transparency about how they work.. While we might only be the players, we, the people, should have a say in this game. We pay for this game, and it is OUR money which employes them all.

[Kimberly 1129]

EDIT: I saw this on reddit too, OP :o!

 

Opinions of people who are rejected by Jagex and now unemployed. Obviously they won't write anything positive. I know I wouldn't.

 

6 out of 17 were listed as current employees at the time of review, and many of those reviews echo what we see in the former employee entries in the space of a year. I agree with you and Xen that the problems by some of the more dramatic reviewers are a bit overblown, but there still seems to be a trend here (see below response.)

 

It sounds as if a couple of people were lazy and never got promoted and decided to rant about it. I would love to see content developers, website developers, and some other groups post.

 

There were a handful of those that mostly said the same thing as the more harsh critiques, but far more composed and professional...Unfortunately it ends up boiling down to the same key components:

• Communication problems within the staff
  
• archaic organizational methods
  
• concerns with business direction and expansion
  
• concerns with upper management (though more specialized roles tend to have a more positive outlook on this than the customer support roles)
  

---

 

Overall I don't know how I feel about this site getting publicized like this. I don't think the things listed in these reviews are any huge revelation, but they do paint a very depressing picture. We can all get together and rabble-rouse with the best of the RSOF dregs at our worst days here on our little isolated fansite communities. It becomes more about of blowing off steam and then getting back to the daily routine than truly giving good feedback. I think deep down, we know this, and in part dismiss the doom-and-gloom naysaying. But after we saw the extremely high turnover this past year, the nearly defiant "Come get me" responses from some of the Jmods concerning the direction the company has taken, and our own nasty little tin-hat conspiracies and...well, it almost becomes too easy an answer to grasp and cling to as we brutishly slap at our chests and bellow "We told you so!" as loud as anyone could hear.

 

I'm torn between wanting to believe this as the proof so long searched for, and wanting to dismiss it out of hand as a bunch of disgruntled ex-employee venting. And what I struggle with, is I can rationally make a case for either. (Or at least, they seem rational to me.)

 

Overall...meh. Even dismissing it, knowing it would get such a large, negative impact on the community is depressing in its own right. Blaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

[Tim 374]

Honestly, none of this surprises me. The main topics covered, like communication with supervisors. It's been an obvious thing, like Mark MMG going "lets do microtransactions!", J Mods expressing their feelsing in hints on RSOF, and the constant [bleep] ups that have been happening with Runescape in general for YEARS.

 

Hell, I've been following Jagex employment wise for years for advice, hints and directions in what kind of jobs game companies hire for (mostly modeling, sound and artwork) but A LOT of things I've seen on Jagex's Career site are Supervisor/Manager based jobs, because they hire externally.

 

And it's a fact people who know people in the workforce are more likely to get it over obviously qualified people, just a simple thing with employment these days.

[muggiwhplar 2221]

I won't be surprised if RS goes out of business in the near future, as a result of not enough SoF/Solomon purchases. They can't rely on membership alone to stay afloat these days.

[Cheefoo 190]

I don't think the upper echelon of management is incompetent as much as they are seedy, shifty, shady, sleazy, scummy, screwy, sneaky, scandalous, and all in all shitty.

[Alg 2522]

I don't think the upper echelon of management is incompetent as much as they are seedy, shifty, shady, sleazy, scummy, screwy, sneaky, scandalous, and all in all shitty.

So, they're highly competent, just not at the things that benefit us?

 

I'm impressed by your mastery of alliteration, by the way.

[Ruinous Edge 101]

Divisions and rifts between normal staff and upper management are hardly surprising or unexpected.

The upper management at my workplace are so out of touch, ignorant to the truth, up there own asses and have such unrealistic targets simply because they only care about the bigger picture i.e. maximizing there yearly profit margins & 'earning' there bonuses that they put stupidly impossible targets and guidelines for the normal staff to complete.

Therefore I am not surprised that Jagex employees feel the same in there reviews. Until upper management almost everywhere kick themselves into touch and actually make an effort to show they care about the 'little' people that keep there companies running smoothly, they will be always be regarded with such little respect & sometimes even contempt.

[Sy_Accursed 1554]

Whilst these all have enough in common to raise an issue I do kinda think it's overplayed to an extent and easy to draw false conclusions.

 

First and foremost there are only a handful of reviews for a company that employs hundreds of people; it's like the RSOF update whiners a small, but vocal, minority. And as such must always be seen in the context of a minority until proven otherwise.

 

Secondly you do wonder if it is some kind of group of friends who are going on a bit of a tirade based purely on the fact out of 17 reviews 16 of them were posted between july 2012 and now. Kind of suggests the possibility that 1 disgruntled ex-employee posted it and mentioned it to friends etc and word spread slightly and they all followed the leader. A concept that can be compounded by them all posting much of the same things, it could be seen as they have had this conversation in the pub or w/e having a good old moan like us Brits like to do and thus coming to all the same things to moan about.

 

Don;t get me wrong I'm not entirely writing it off as nothing, I just think the 2 factors above make it easy to over-inflate things based on a small amount of data.

[Bxpprod 2048]

I won't be surprised if RS goes out of business in the near future, as a result of not enough SoF/Solomon purchases. They can't rely on membership alone to stay afloat these days.

 

And advertisement*

[Ginger_Warrior 689]

If you look on the Disney page, the CEO has 100% approval. Either that's BS or he somehow manages to make all sorts of unpopular decisions, as all CEOs have to, and manages to do it in a way that the pleases everyone all the time. Also, apart from the reviews for Disney and Electronic Arts, Jagex's scores are fairly average, certainly not what you could describe as 'poor'. It does seem like a website for lowly paid e-ragers who are sick to the teeth of their job and envious of those above them in the organisation, if the truth be told.

 

Honestly, I'd be much more bothered about this if they were from people who were integral to the company's future. However, people in customer service posts, where they're constantly being exposed to (usually angry) public-facing situations, tend to report higher rates of dissatisfaction anyway, as do most relatively low paid jobs. If you think some of the criticism in here's bad, well, frankly... my personal experience is that I've heard and even said much worse about senior management than anything in here.

 

Do these reviews a point? Yes. Is it a major issue, in context to other companies in similar circumstances? Probably not.

[Barney.S 22]

Do these reviews a point? Yes. Is it a major issue, in context to other companies in similar circumstances? Probably not.

 

Agreed. Usually in a highly structurated company, the higher level executives and managers are always viewed as incomptent in terms to the task of the individual worker. While it mostly is the case, it not because they are bad employees, or bad leaders, it is because of the difference in tasks.

 

 

 

"When top level guys look down they see only shit. When bottom level guys look up they see only [wagon]."

 

http://www.flickr.co...ckr/4580812339/

[Fallstar 614]

A lot of the complaints seen in those reviews do make sense when you look at what's been going on in the game. It's not all bad either; the impression most of them seem to give is that it used to be a fun, quirky place to work with the regular staff jollies and the like, but poor management and people getting laid off so easily are starting to take their toll.

 

The thread about this was hidden several times on the RSOF, with no reason given as to why. If those reviews were fake, surely the JMod hiding the thread would have said so.

[aerendil 318]

comes out to the same thing in the end :D a bad employer for the workers

[Grand Lord Dan 42]

A lot of the complaints seen in those reviews do make sense when you look at what's been going on in the game. It's not all bad either; the impression most of them seem to give is that it used to be a fun, quirky place to work with the regular staff jollies and the like, but poor management and people getting laid off so easily are starting to take their toll.

 

The thread about this was hidden several times on the RSOF, with no reason given as to why. If those reviews were fake, surely the JMod hiding the thread would have said so.

 

A friend of mine was the one posting it on the HLF several times over, eventually he got forumbanned with no reason why. Of course, it's kind of obvious why. They must really not like this site or something.

[Zaaps1 234]

 

Incompetent senior management. Maybe I should highlight and underline that? In fact I can't think of one senior manager who could actually manage people with any skill.

 

Communication. Awful.

 

Attitude to customers. Unbelievably bad. I give you FunOrb, War of Legends, RuneScape etc etc

 

Broken promises. Consistent and regular

 

Regularly choosing the exact and polar opposites of what normal, sane, intelligent people would do.

 

Making knee jerk decisions. Constantly.

 

Bringing in industry experienced professionals who would last approximately 6 months before they understood what a mad house Jagex is, and leaving the good guys to clear up the mess.

 

Setting ridiculous targets. I mean ridiculous.

 

Wanting everything done tomorrow. No planning. Putting unbelievable pressure to deliver on pointless projects.

 

The current drive to rid the company of people who've been there since the start but who might not have a tick in a particular box. For redundancies read compromise agreements.

Advice to Senior Management – It's too late for that. How the current team is still in charge is a miracle

 

Well, stuff like this explains a LOT.

[tripsis 157]

A lot of the complaints seen in those reviews do make sense when you look at what's been going on in the game. It's not all bad either; the impression most of them seem to give is that it used to be a fun, quirky place to work with the regular staff jollies and the like, but poor management and people getting laid off so easily are starting to take their toll.

 

The thread about this was hidden several times on the RSOF, with no reason given as to why. If those reviews were fake, surely the JMod hiding the thread would have said so.

 

A friend of mine was the one posting it on the HLF several times over, eventually he got forumbanned with no reason why. Of course, it's kind of obvious why. They must really not like this site or something.

 

"Posting it [..] several times over" -- sounds like spamming. Not really surprising that he was banned for it.

[Ginger_Warrior 689]

Yes, I can't imagine why Jagex would want to stop you from using their facilities to post a load of stuff that criticises their senior management and calls the whole company incompetent and hopeless. Clearly it would be better for staff morale if they kept it on the RSOF. Maybe send a memo round, tell everyone go take a look at all the positive feedback.

 

I'd have thought the reason your friend got banned would be amazingly obvious, and if he was genuinely surprised when he did get banned or confused about why, then that shows some real naivety on his part.

[999134 157]

Wasn't Jagex once voted one of the best places to work in the country? How times have changed...

[Saradomin_Mage 3562]

Guess no more fruit baskets everyday, then :(