Activision Blizzard Employee Reviews about "work life balance"

Pros

Friendly colleges Interesting job tasks

Cons

Shifts no work life balance

Pros

- benefits and knowledge gain

Cons

- no work life balance

Pros

Amazing Pay Hardworking Team Members/Leaders Clear Communication throughout teams Fun to work on Gaming Content Amazing work life balance

Cons

Work can get a little repetitive

Pros

- Great culture on the team I was on - Offered good amount of agency and ownership on projects, even for an intern - Encouragement for growth, including lots of collaboration with other parts of the team/company - Great work life balance - Well-organized internship experience, with social events for interns, housing, etc.

Cons

- Pretty hands-off mentorship - Pay is not super competitive

Pros

I've met many awesome people during my 13 years of employment. Great medical benefits for non-contracted full time employees.

Cons

- No work/life balance - Lack of support from management - Lack of recognition for a job well done - Overtime comes without warning and can last for weeks/months at a time - Pay is well below market, yearly merit increases are a joke - QA are treated differently from the rest of the company - Very little room for advancement - No real control over your project

Pros

- work life balance - fun place to work - laid back work environment Lots of new products rolling out and the sales team is about 5 years behind on checks and balances so there is no red tape when it comes to creativity.

Cons

- management - compensation compared to industry standardst Management is strictly out for their own good vs. the well-being of the team

Pros

Coolish swag Dogs on campus!!! (Pre-COVID) Environment: Nothing better than being on Blizzard campus and being in front of the Orc statue!

Cons

Personally if I could have given Blizzard half a star I would have. Working for Blizzard is one of the most horrible experiences I ever had to go through. That feeling of,'OMG I want to work for Blizzard.' Quickly changes when you start and becomes,'OMG what have I done?!' Management: Good ol boys club. 98% of management have been there for 10+ years and were a part of the company during its 'golden years'. Management is stale and tends to shun/discriminate against you if you do not agree to their every word. Their word is the bible and shall not be questioned! They hand out write-ups like its candy and tend to keep to the groups of tenured people. If you complain to HR, they say they listen but normally just ignore you and then say you never told them. Overall, management is just bad here. Fellow Employees: Some are cool I'll admit but most of them feel like they are high and mighty because they've been there for so long. If you're able to find a good click of people then thats great! I'm lucky I have but I have seen new employees come on board and are shunned and felt to be unwelcome. I was one of those people until I found a group I clicked with. 'Diversity': Blizzard preaches that they are very diverse but when it comes to hiring, 8/10 will be men. There are barely any women in leadership roles and those that are tend to be ignored or overruled by those higher than them. The clubs that are on campus are run by fellow employees but even that is a mess. With the amount of work everyone has on their plate, their last thought is on groups. Many events will be 'planned' and then cancelled which isn't necessarily anyone's fault but it proves that diversity and accepting those who are different really isn't a top priority. Advancement: Not gonna happen. Like I said, everyone in a management position has been there for 10+ years and they're not moving anywhere so your only option is to look for a better position outside the company. From what I have seen there is currently a very high turnover rate at Blizzard. Pay: Low of the low. If you work at Blizzard and want to live in Irvine, you'll either need a lot of roommates to cover the bills or someone who is throwing out money to you. Pay raises are very rare! Also, don't ask for a raise. If you ever do you're looked at with disgust and told to get back to work. Work/Life balance: LOL! Oh and never ask to work from home (Pre-COVID) Current higher management is very anti-work from home.

Pros

Massive amounts of experience for QA Amazing co-workers Projects were fun and challenging on occasion Pretty solid benefits A lot of free games and swag

Cons

There was no work/life balance - During extremely busy periods the only time spent out of work was commuting and sleeping Compensation was dismal at best Competent, well trained employees were rare and after they were laid off they didn't come back - If they did come back for consecutive seasons, after their third they were required to be out for a year before they could return Lay-offs were far too frequent for full time employees Hard work was rewarded with a larger workload and higher expectations Metrics for bonusable goals were geared to eventually become impossible to attain Little to no possibly for advancement I could really go on and on here. If you're a young person that can handle being fed through a meat grinder as a QA Tester for a couple of seasons, the pay is decent (though you won't get benefits unless you elect to receive them and pay a hefty premium nor will you receive a bonus) and you'll get plenty of overtime making the paychecks pretty nice. If you're not someone that can live with that this is not the place for you.

Pros

- Great work life balance - Caring and committed colleagues - Managers really care for you and listen when something is wrong

Cons

I don’t have any cons

Pros

Helpful employees Fun teams that love gaming Valuable skills to be learned

Cons

Bobby Kotick Work/Life balance is non-existent Little to no communication with the Developers from QA team, which is vital for solid improvement and optimization