Rooster Teeth Productions Reviews

Pros

-Good Wages, Great People -Fun Job -Great HR

Cons

-Some difficulties with HR, were resolved by the time I had left

Advice to Management

None

Pros

My co-workers where the only thing to keep me sane.

Cons

(About the animation department only) May not have personally had a lot of industry experience, but even a high schooler could tell things aren’t right. - Management didn’t hold all departments to their deadlines forcing the post and edit teams to work till the last minute with little more than an “I’m sorry about this guys.” - Top head doesn’t make up mind, or changes mind, to the point of causing things to change... in 14th hour. - Heads of the shows would add in more elements than storyboards detailed, refuse to reduce it back, then get upset when the added material caused delays, overtime, and over budget. - Key roles like script supervisors or someone big enough to tell high ups “no” do not exist. - Communication between director and departments was a joke at times. - 10 to 12 minimum work hours common during release schedule as delays from other departments caused post team to push out episodes in 5-7 DAYS. - Would likely be ‘requested’ to work the weekend 2 hrs before end of day on Friday. - People would may be promoted to higher level without signing new contract, given rais with new responsibilities, or made into full-full time employee. Would be told that would happen..... ‘when they have time, since, you know, crunch is so crazy.’ - Holidays like Veteran’s Day, MLK, and Presidents Day do not exist if you are in crunch. - No OT pay, instead you get semi-equivalent ‘paid time off’ which can be hard to schedule and do expire. Also, full-full time employees already get unlimited PTO, so they effectively get nothing at all.

Advice to Management

If heads of Rooster Teeth know what is going on in the animation department, I’m surprised. Animation acts like it’s in its own world at RT and RT live-action people seem fine with that. Top heads need to actually be present to animation people and talk with those doing the grunt work, then hold people responsible for their actions - not just slap them on the wrist. Those in charge in animation need to learn how to... do their job.

Pros

The people are the only thing that make it worth it.

Cons

The management is terrible. Artists are lead on with the promises of "full time employment and benefits" dangled in front of them without ever being addressed and ultimately are never given, there is no paid overtime, artists had to fight for their right to time off between productions, and good luck getting any form of benefits despite them being plastered on the wall.

Advice to Management

You're not a group of guys playing halo in your apartment anymore. Please run your business and look at what's happened to it.

Pros

-Biggest studio in town. -Benefits are nice. -Generous PTO -Flexible work schedule

Cons

Terrible management top to bottom. People in middle and upper management positions don’t have the skills they need to lead. Conflict management is a foreign concept. Accountability is non existent. This company is crippled by nepotism. Fast growth led to a lot of bad decisions. Directors and some producers lack experience outside of RT. Employees with solid industry experience are being led by people who... don’t know what they are doing. The filmmaking industry has proven workflows, and when corners are cut, every project suffers. Quality of content takes a back seat. All of this leads to talented people that just stop caring. Morale is very low. Sometimes feels like film school, only no one is learning anything. The wrong people get credit for successes. Pay is lower than industry standards. More is expected with less. Despite recent band aid solutions, facilities and work conditions are awful. Dirty and noisy shared office spaces with aging hardware. Communication has improved, but is still an issue between departments. There are a lot negative attitudes between departments and it affects collaboration. The cliques are worse than high school.

Advice to Management

Let’s rise to our potential. Stick to proven industry practices. Budget appropriately. Maintain a level of accountability. Audit management and replace those underperforming. Hire key positions with prior experience, or promote the right people. Expect to pay more for the right talent. Work on conflict management. Make proper facilities a higher priority. Value quality over quantity. Take action. We are... all on the same team. Happy employees that are treated with respect will work hard and never lose passion.

Pros

- (mostly) Good people - Monday catering - Company in an EXTREMELY unique situation to be a top dog of independent animation, if they could harness it correctly. - Benefits are honestly not bad. They could be better, but for what it is, not bad.

Cons

- Extremely poor management (Some of it is negligence, some of it is just accidental from the sheer amount of work. Upper management is also extreme bro/friends club.) - Insanely high expectations (animate a 10-14 min episode in 2 weeks) - Very low compensation (I've worked here for years and make entry pay. Some people have gone MULTIPLE years with no raise) - No overtime pay (Every season of RWBY and GL... gets about 1/3 or less made for 'free' because no one gets paid over time and it's not uncommon to work hundreds of hours of overtime) - Toxic work environment (there are a lot of cliques, complaining and even making fun of other people and depts here. It never gets punished so it always happens. Not professional) - You know something is going right when after many complaints HR reminds everyone you have "unlimited" mental health doctor appointments... I could honestly go on and on like an emo on Myspace in 2007 but I'll reign it in. I'll leave it at this since I've seen many fans read these and be skeptical. It's not great. You can deny it but there is a lot of evidence if you just accept it. And the reason you work here is cus you get stuck and are promised "It'll get better". The work is low quality (hard to get jobs elsewhere), pay is low (can't save money) and life/work balance is a joke. We have a bit of balance now but it's only for a couple months out of the year when production isn't in full swing. Then it's back in the meat grinder.

Advice to Management

You NEED to listen to the workers and make hard decisions and actually fight for better conditions. It's been far far too long of "it'll get better" or "we know what to do next year". This isn't sustainable and I think we all know it. But someone has to be the guy to say "no" when things aren't good enough. If you dont say no, hundreds of people suffer. Please.

Pros

Fun place to work, cool people

Cons

A lot of crunch time

Pros

Free food on Mondays. (Some) fun co-workers.

Cons

Crunch has gotten to an unacceptable level. Productions have been completed with over half of total hours unpaid overtime, especially impacting the comp and editing department. Management cares more about their ego than the quality of the work they put out— letting the crunch caused by their irresponsible decisions fall solely on the shoulders of the artists while they enjoy a forty hour work week. Pay is laughable... compared with the amount of mandated, unpaid hours of labor. No career advancement, and contract workers are given empty promises of full time employment before being shown the door once production is done.

Advice to Management

Stop saying the crunch issue is “getting better” or that you’re “working on it”, and start actually owning up to your mistakes.

Pros

-Free food on Mondays -Dogs -Passionate people -Culture Crew taking care of employees morale

Cons

-A lot of employees brought on, if not all, before the last development cycle were promised permanent positions after a 90 day trial period. As those dates approached those artists saw no change, asking their leads what was going on. The guidance from higher ups was vague at best, and some felt like they had been forced to lie to employees during the interview process. - A lot of processes went over-scope due to... poor planning. -Lack of actual production experience in the management side of things is no longer something that can be glossed over as the company tries to take on more industry vetted employees. -Crunch is extreme and overtime is not compensated for, nor is that time given back in any fair amount.

Advice to Management

-Clear and concise communication -Re-structure your upper level management