Pros
The people. Animax's people are its best asset. To work here, you must have a love for the unknown, and a remarkable work ethic. The company culture depends on and exploits that trait, until people are burned out, used up, and never compensated or promoted. The eager line of people to come "save" the work are always there, so nothing ever changes. It's a revolving door of people trying to save the day to work on fun IP. "The next project will be better" is the joke line that all employees say to each other when we're in meetings lamenting what we've been signed up for. There are a few monoliths who are able to provide enough training to keep the ship afloat with new blood, but the ever increasing attrition rate may undo that. During my time here, I have witnessed a stroke, and 2 cardiac events in the building during business hours. The artistic excellence is amazing, but the backdrop of people destroying their personal lives, their health, and wearing out their passion begins to dim the bright light that is focused on the work, while the path to get there is disregarded. The managers are great, and largely underappreciated. If it weren't for a great group of managers, I'm not sure what would happen. Many of them were promoted from lower positions, and have never received pay bumps to reflect their increased role and responsibility. Animax should be treated like a temporary gig, and a learning opportunity. If you have a family - run. If you are a single person and want to drink from a fire hose, set your expectations accordingly, and don't feel ashamed when you tap out. Less than 20% of the workforce has been here more than 5 years.
Cons
***Before the pandemic: Animax took a turn for the worse during the pandemic when it was acquired. The timelines and project management have always been iffy, but I think that comes with the territory of the entertainment industry. Those issues used to be handled with things like unlimited time off, and whole teams rising to the cause to finish projects. When the company was acquired from Chuck by Neon, we really went from the frying pan, and into the fire. Chuck was eccentric, but 20/20 hind sight is there was definitely method to his madness. That magic and method is all but gone, and there is now a sea of green contractors, a revolving door of employees if we can trick them into full time work, with very few stretched thin subject matter experts. Multiple people from defense and manufacturing have commented that the day to day here is worse than working in their past industries for manufacturing product launches and with tight military contracts. ***The era of Neon and the Pandemic: Animax may not exist today without having been acquired by Neon, as COVID was rough (we all took pay cuts) and new work was sparse. The time since has been challenging. Neon has squeezed Animax to the point that it is no longer worth it to work here culturally or financially. Vendors are not paid, raises are apologized away, or don't even meet cost of living, and the tight deadline you burn your life down to meet is jeopardized or blown, because the parent company refuses to pay the bills. Vendors have refused to ship product or speak on the phone due to non-payment, while deadlines tick away and the parent company acts like a toddler pounding their fists. The CFO and entire finance team resigned together it go so bad in 2021 with non-payment of vendors. Upper management continually refuses to level with the employees, and employees are left peering through smoke in mirrors to read between the lines as to what is actually happening OR they truly have no idea because NEON won't level with them. The managers at Animax are fantastic, but upper management definitely *seems* to be witholding information, or does not posses it regarding trajectory. I find the senior project manager review that is recent amusing, because project management refuses to hold the line with clients, and repeatedly screws over engineering and production. Project management refuses to have hard conversations with clients, or tell them no, and blindsides stakeholders with uniformed decisions, while being totally disconnected from the work and being incapable of understanding things outside of values in a spreadsheet. It's very frustrating to hear how unprofitable we are, how there isn't money for raises, etc. when I watch the resources squandered away on a day by day basis. The lack of raises and bonuses is death by a thousand cuts. It's no single decision, it's thousands of small bad decisions that get us in the boat Animax is in. ***The Future of Animax I don't know what the future for Animax holds, but it isn't stable, and it isn't a course correction from the above. I know many were waiting for raises to see if the company would course correct on pay, and see if more employees would be brought on to handle the work load. Pay scales were not leveled across employees doing the same job, Neon dictated (poorly) raise schedules from Singapore with no input from the Nashville staff (performance of individuals was ignored), and 8 people have resigned since this writing between 12/1 and 12/15. I expect much of the people (who are the only real asset) to be poached by competitors. This past week, an employee was poached by a vendor. Animax employees typically see a 30-60% raise (anecdotally) when I've spoken to them as they leave, and I haven't spoken with any past employees who regret leaving. Much of this has been written from a mechanical design and engineering perspective (the people who work on the carpet, we're known as carpet walkers). The next bit is for the production folks, who have chronically been underpaid, underappreciated and two lawsuits have been filed and won over Animax's refusal to pay overtime for non-exempt employees by FLSA standards. Neon has overseas production facilities in the works (go read news articles), and with the lack of care for retention of production employees, it sure feels like state side operations will be reduced to design and subject matter experts with production being offshored. I wager anyone producing anything tangible should expect to be treated like sweatshop labor and eventually done away with. You will be pigeon holed at the salary you come in at. There is zero financial growth available, only more work and more stress.