Pros
Free cafeteria food Two shops in the head office for snacks and other amenities Flextime system Some departments/teams have very low workloads, so it can be comfortable to kill time while you find a better job I was never pressured to work overtime
Cons
5 days RTO, all meetings still on Zoom; no valid reason for most people to be back in an office Overcrowded building with sharp blind corners encouraging people to bump into each other (they really need to install mirrors) Egotistical CEO who is obsessed with AI and the illusion of productivity boosts/cost cutting, of course he is exempt from RTO Won't let staff choose to work in different office locations closer to their homes (I live 10 minutes from one office location, they force me to commute over an hour to another one) The head office has many, many people on each floor and the layout is open plan, it's distracting and annoying to be there Review/evaluation system is pointless, often they just raise and lower your salary slightly each year, don't expect your salary to increase over time at Rakuten, mine went up by about 2% (monthly salary) I received on average 10-15% less compensation per year than what they offered me in my offer letter They lower your evaluation scores if they need to save money by lowering salary/bonuses based on the budget (an ex-manager told me this and I experienced it numerous times) No employee benefits except a pocket wifi for Rakuten Mobile (but RM is not a good service) Crowded elevators and wait times 8am Mandatory weekly CEO speech and fluff presentation (Asakai) They make claims about diversity but recently only seem to be hiring Japanese and Indian workers People often bring takeout from the (overcrowded) cafeteria to their desks and stink up your area In one of the CEO's speeches in 2024/2025 he told us how he hates work life balance and expects us to always think about work because it "enriches your life" and to "find another company" if we disagree (I took his advice and resigned)