company on the decline - Product Owner IMG ARENA Employee Review

Great for a sports fan, decent per game pay to start, flexible schedule (you requested events that matched your schedule).

Performance grades were mostly instructive in 2022-2023, but in 2024 lower scores meant your base pay was reduced from 120/game to 90/game until you raised your score again. I refused to work for lower pay and we parted ways, which was disappointing but not my biggest complaint. However, they did attempt to schedule mentoring sessions with IMG employees in Poland, and expected me to accommodate the time difference by hopping on Zoom at late PM or early AM hours. I asked what the rate of compensation for this time would be and was told that I would not be paid. When I informed them that this was a violation of California labor laws, I eventually received a response from a supervisor that the mentor sessions were in fact not mandatory. The problem is that nothing in their prior communications even implied that these meetings were voluntary. I had started a group-chat with other data collectors in the US to discuss the job outside management-monitored channels and several of the members HAD completed these sessions. I would hope anyone who reads this review before or while working as a data collector would choose to assert their rights as a private contractor and not attend such sessions without adequate compensation.

The online training material were ok and detailed. Not the best though.

I applied for a role with IMG Arena and completed their training process, which took around 8–9 hours (roughly equal to two matches in time). The company never communicated how training would be compensated. I had to ask for clarification myself. Only then was I told that the pay would be half a match rate for all of that time. I replied back to question this, but never received a response to my last email. The whole incident gave me the impression that the company treats its data collectors unfairly, both in terms of compensation and communication.