Riot Games reviews

Riot is a great place for a first job, if you're fresh out of college or an internship. The maturity level of the organization is pretty low, and the campus feels more like a fraternity than a workplace, complete with hazing rituals, a really creepy pressure to have your peers be your main social circle despite having a life outside of work, and sexual harassment galore. For seasoned professionals it's a guaranteed way to take three steps back in your career. I'm all for a chill work space, but there's a difference between understanding that jeans and cuss words don't affect quality of work, and allowing people to get away with playing 35 hours of video games a week at their desks and somehow still claiming to "add value." The company mantra "default to trust" does not mean people will respect your expertise, it means you're not allowed to be offended when your insight is constantly dismissed and you are relegated to an entry-level workload despite a decade, or more, of experience. Expect many company mantras to be weaponized in this way, especially if you are a woman. Again with "default to trust" -- it means if you are treated unfairly or poorly, it's YOUR responsibility to accept that the offender "probably didn't mean it" instead of, I dunno, trusting that the person reporting bad behavior probably has the mental capacity to figure out whether someone "meant it" or not? "Open feedback culture" means you can only give constructive criticism that "feels good." You've got to make the other person feel like a hero for accepting and overcoming whatever shortcoming you're addressing. Unless, of course, that feedback is directed at something that is foundational to Riot as a company. There's an imaginary line you cross when you give feedback on the culture itself. Suddenly you are no longer a culture fit -- because Riot can't possibly be fostering toxic behavior. It is never Riot's fault. Ever. If you don't like something Riot is doing, you don't "get it" and you are the problem. It's honestly the perfect breeding ground for predators. They won't fire you for this, oh no that would not fit the hip narrative pushed by the Brand team. They'll just tuck you in a corner and make your life so miserable you'll decide to leave yourself. Maybe they'll "strongly suggest" that you consider whether you are "aligned" and that you may be successful elsewhere. You can get away with anything if you're charming enough to talk your way out of it. Meritocracy? More like Mediocrity. There are SO MANY managers with NO experience managing people. Managers whose teams are floundering because they're so inexperienced, they offer nothing in terms of guidance. Managers who openly admit they shouldn't be managing people. And why do these people stay managers? Because they're friends with the right people. Because they talk in circles. Because, honestly, at this point, firing all the useless managers would look really, really bad. I don't think Riot is ignorant that they've let the most incompetent/manipulative people rise up to lead their company -- I think they realize openly admitting it would be a PR nightmare. And what would that do to the organization as a whole? HA, that was a joke. There is no organization. Your team will be reorganized every couple months. Your manager will change frequently. Sometimes your manager won't even know they're your manager. Sometimes you'll get a random dude as a manager "because he was bored." Multiple teams will be made to work on the same project and they won't even realize the other exists. Titles may not have anything to do with anything you're working on. Good luck getting that Director-level marketing job at your dream company when, despite multiple decades of work experience and successful campaigns, your resume is questioned because your Riot years have you listed as a mere "media specialist" or some other nonsense. Riot has some of the most brilliant, passionate minds trapped within its walls. Most of the people are amazing, they're just stuck in a mediocre system that barely keeps itself running. And they're burnt out from carrying the slack of the duds who don't actually do anything special but SWEAR they are visionaries.

Rampant bullying and harassment: - Bullies hired and kept on teams, and allowed to harass good talented workers constantly, causing turnover and lost careers - Harassment denied and blamed on the victim because the manager is also a bully - Very low morale and trust levels that destroys learning, communication and teamwork because of toxic work environment caused by harassment, immaturity and disrespect - Bad team players (bullies) being unfairly favored and good talented respectful team players being disrespected, unappreciated and left out - A system that breeds "Bully" mentality. To survive is to become a bully or leave. Extremely unfair favoritism & egos: - Only a select few spoiled people with huge egos get clout or respect for their achievements - Most very talented experienced high achieving workers constantly get overlooked and ignored for their hard work and achievements, even when they do better than the "favorite people" - Unfair favoritism causing ignored people to overwork themselves for a false assumption that they can be appreciated for their achievements like the "favorite people". It never happens, even when they have done better than the "favorite people" - Favored spoiled egotistical workers forcing their way on the rest of the team, stifling the other talented workers, and harming final products and team morale because of their ego Very bad management: - Inexperienced, immature, lazy managers that blame their team when they, the manager, won't even manage or train the team - Managers that expect the team to manage itself even when the manager has not trained them to have the skills to do so - Managers that have poor communication and are very disorganized - Managers that are not flexible, do not listen to the workers, and have big egos - Managers that are condescending and micromanaging of their workers, and do not listen to or utilize the experience, talent and knowledge of the workers. - Managers that ruin the morale of the team, because they are bad with people and do not know how to encourage and empower their workers. They instead make workers feel worthless and like they are never good enough. - Managers that promote unfair favoritism and unrealistic expectations on the team - Managers that are not team players Overdone, immature, clique-like, cult-like culture that kills good talented workers: - The overbearing culture causes the workers to not be free to be themselves or even human, forcing unrealistic conformity, stifles personal identity, and brainwashes the workers (you are just a number who is undeserving) - If you don't perfectly conform to the immature, clique-like, cult-like group, then you will quickly be left out and unappreciated for your hard work, talent and achievements, and even worse, struggle to keep your job - Individuality is discouraged, and human needs like appreciation, encouragement, and being listened to, is close to non-existent No real opportunities: - Constant overworking and extreme effort to over achieve, only to earn little to nothing in the form of promotions or clout over a long period of time, while other "favorite people" constantly get more and more promotions and clout - Managers giving unclear guidelines for career development and changing guidelines randomly Unequal treatment of women: - Women are very outnumbered on all teams, and their unique and needed opinions are constantly overlooked because there are too many males and male opinions - Over a long period of time, the female worker is prone to feel like she has to be like a male to fit in and achieve - Women remain misunderstood and unappreciated because there are not enough of them - Riot swag and gifts are often tailored for males, making them useless for women - There is no real equal opportunity help for minority groups like women at riot, other than Riot Dames (but it doesn't help very much) Extremely disorganized: - a completely disorganized and overdone product feedback system that waists time and energy, exhausts, discourages and over stresses the workers and ruins the products - no cubicles or walls between desks. The open floor plan causes even more stress, disorganization, and lack of productivity - extreme disorganization causing never ending problems that cause more problems, and nothing is ever solved - no real style guides or goals for products, causing random changing opinions to ruin products and frustrate teams - excessive competition caused by lack of organization that causes constant instability and stress Extremely unhealthy levels of Stress: - Overbearing culture, feedback system, bullying, unrealistic expectations and disorganization cause excruciating levels of stress, that overflows to the weekends and after work - Excessive overworking of new workers, causing extensive overtime for months, causing physical fatigue, sickness and extreme lack of sleep over long periods of time - Constant lack of appreciation of talented hard workers causing them to over-stress over unrealistic expectations and unattainable goals - Job causing extreme anxiety, stress and depression at almost all times