Newscape Studios reviews

Management attempted to lead an animation studio with zero animation (or art experience) at all. Fired 23 artists in a single day seeing management complaints from staff Terrible communication from management. Constant complaining about lack of budget yet continuing to spend money on superfluous purchases. Constant short staffing. Fired staff members with no intention of replacing them. At least once a month. Refused to listen to staff complaints and suggestions yet kept blaming pipeline issues on staff for “not coming forward with ideas” Overworked staff with deadlines that could only be met through weekly crunch. Expected work after hour and on weekends on short notice without prior warning. Complained about staff when they were not available to work extra hours on short notice. Actively discourage staff from talking about labor actions and pay - some staff members were paid different, lower amounts for doing the same job as others. CEO is inexperienced, has never worked in animation or in a studio environment, and has a history of harming the company’s reputation through his online activity and comments. Management makes rash decisions without warning, does not know how to manage a healthy animation production pipeline, does not know to to provide proper feedback and critique, and have no professional art skill or language to articulate opinions from. Refuses to learn from staff members trying to help. Minority and female staff felt targeted and sidelined by senior management in multiple occasions. Management constantly failed to address individual staff personably, causing plenty of uncomfortable situations.

Forced employees to move to high cost of living cities Denver or Austin for the tax break, but not compensating employees for doing so. Denver in-office location never used not out of concern for covid, but for not being up to code. Workloads started heavy and only increased over time due to scope creep. Employees that leave are not replaced, leading to more stress on already overwhelmed teams. Raise earning is based on subjective perception of top management and not on evidence of work done or feedback from team leads. Top management put on a face of being receptive of employee concerns but disposes of suggestions for improvement out of hand citing money trouble despite continued success of YouTube channels. An employee founded petition for working condition improvements discussed outside of work hours was "discovered" by invading the private computer and private Discord of an in-office Austin employee, leading to the termination of 23 staff members-skipping any warnings or write up protocol. Holiday time off has to be earned by "getting ahead" on already crunched timelines for video output. Management kept employees in the dark about company happenings generally. That combined with work from home left many employees to rely on talking to each other using a private discord server; which the use of was decided qualified as a terminatable offense. Overreaction at the discovery of trash talk on said discord server led to management illegally detaining all Austin employees with police force. Management continuing to thwart former employees from speaking about their negative experiences online, receiving unemployment payments, posting former positions at reduced pay rates, and writing their own 5 star Glassdoor reviews to offset the negative feedback.