low pay, toxic environment, CEO is out of touch with reality, HR ignores legal issues, no work-life balance
if you want to survive here, you need to keep your head down, work beyond your limits for low pay, and then never ask for anything. CEO rewards "loyalty" which in this case means deference and never asking for quality of life improvements. you will be punished for standing up for your rights, and if you speak up to defend yourself or anyone else from being targeted by CEO's bullying, they will try to make an example out of you to intimidate the rest of the team. The negging starts early and hard. Don't expect to get to log off at the end of the day, because the CEO will call you at any hour he pleases to yell at you, even if what he is angry about doesn't relate to your job or isn't something you have done incorrectly. Get everything promised to you in writing. CEO often makes verbal promises that are not honored, or will create "policies" that aren't documented anywhere to serve his own purposes. He will call the company "a family" as a manipulation tactic to make you think he is on your side, but ask around to people in your role and you will quickly realize that nearly every person has been low-balled into accepting weak offers or into taking on extra tasks with no rise in pay or title. Even if you are performing your job fantastically, you can get financially punished for fake "issues" they claim to have found with your work (or attitude).
If you can get past all of that, the work itself can be interesting. If you must work here and do value your sanity, choose a fully remote role such as licensing, remote writer, remote editor, or any number of correspondence only jobs. You will be almost completely ignored and you can work in a healthy way very easily. Remote workers have no idea the abuse that goes on in the main studio (lucky them).
