When I came across this website, I was initially hesitant to post a review of my experience working here, as I know if it is seen by those who have the power to change things, it will be dismissed. The owners of 29studios are some of the most arrogant, self-aggrandising, yet incompetent people I have ever met. They will read this review, swear blind and truly believe it is just someone “who couldn’t appreciate their vision”, completely unable to process it’s actually a valid opinion that was formed over a long period of time. However, I remember how excited I was to get a job there when there was no information available online, so if I can potentially advise someone who currently finds themselves in the position of deciding whether or not to accept a role there, then I feel it is my duty to warn them what they’re getting themselves in for. The fact that there are several other reviews here that closely mirror my own speaks volumes as to the kind of experience anyone can expect if they work here. I am also 100% sure I won’t even remember to mention most of the mountain of silly, forgotten bygones such as installing CCTV above our desks in order to monitor us while management went on holiday.
A common theme you will find is that employees’ time is not their own, and every last bit of enthusiasm you have for your role will be squeezed out of you with no regard for your own quality of life or mental health. Due to extremely poor project management and unreasonable expectations as to when deadlines can be achieved, employees are frequently expected to work additional hours outside of core hours for no additional compensation, whether that be monetary or otherwise (such as time in lieu after a late shoot). There were times I was under the impression things are like this simply because the owners enjoy the feeling of power that comes with knowing they have you on the hook. A fantastic example of this was when I was interviewing for the role I later accepted. I will put my hands up and say it is my own fault for accepting this, but right from before I had even officially started employment, there were so many red flags I could have organised an Olympic ski slalom.
After a couple of interviews, I was getting antsy as I had made it clear I was about to go on a family holiday. As a result, I was given a hard drive full of footage and told to edit together a speculative episode of their YouTube series while I was away with family. At the time I was naive and saw it as a test of my abilities and willingness to work hard. However, after time seeing how they operate, I now see it as what it really was; free work and manipulation. This is something I truly regret doing, as it meant I spent what turned out to be my last holiday together with family with my mind elsewhere and frequently breaking off to go back to the hotel to edit. Funny, given that 29studios pride themselves on being a ‘family first’ business.
I cannot speak to that of the Strategy Team, however within the Content Team, which I was a part of, the atmosphere was one of dispiritedness. Everything is so poorly planned by the aforementioned “Strategy” team, and we’d have to bear the brunt of that with absurdly tight deadlines, lots of stress, and a total lack of creative freedom as we were always told to use VideoHive templates for almost every project in order to get the work out the door with very little thought. Employees were frequently berated by management, and humiliated over minor, minor mistakes. As an employee, you are always in the wrong. Management are not open to ideas, and the threat of losing your job constantly looms overhead. Even as someone who was hired to be a creative, I was rarely allowed to contribute my own ideas, and if you disagreed with them, even over total non-issues, you were in big trouble and often fired. I’ve never worked in a place with as low morale, and that includes when I worked in a call centre that allocated how much time you were allowed to spend in the toilet. This is reflected in the abnormally high turnover of staff.
The equipment we were made to use was outrageously, comically out of date with the way the content production industry is currently. I would go out on shoots, and would frequently use a Canon 550D. This is a camera that came out TEN YEARS ago. On one shoot, a member of staff for the client was an amateur photographer and called out the fact we were on a professional shoot with such equipment. This was honestly mortifying, and I was half expecting the client to reach out to 29studios and demand an explanation. For those not familiar with equipment, it’s akin to showing up to a Formula 1 race with Del Boy’s Reliant Robin. Yes, you can still complete the race, but everyone else will be lapping you, and you look stupid.
At best, my career completely stalled for the duration I was at 29studios. More realistically though, it has actually set me back. This is due to being actively discouraged from networking, making meaningful connections with others in the industry, or embarking upon personal projects that would allow me to strengthen or add to my skillset. Additionally, being told at least once a week you’re no good has a curious way of knocking your confidence. In order to adjust to their way of pushing projects out the door as fast as possible, I had to learn to change the way I work. Not in a ‘work more efficiently’ way, but in a way that involved cutting corners, using bland templates and skipping what would otherwise be essential steps (such as colour correction and colour grading).
Should this Glassdoor page come to the attention of 29studios’ owners, I fully expect they will negate each review with disparaging comments and even brazen lies, and also instruct their members of staff to flood the page with 5 star reviews. Glassdoor will not let me submit this non-anonymously, but I would if I could. My hope was that by doing so it would lend credence to the similarity of things that I, and other reviewers have said. I really hope, if some young person new to the industry is blinded by the shiny lights and exciting facade of 29studios’ social media presence, they see these reviews and can make a more informed decision as to whether or not this working environment is worth the paycheque.
I would honestly be less embarrassed if this portion of my C.V. was spent making ends meet being a porn star. Which is ironic, given that I spent the whole time being screwed by a middle aged man with a God complex anyway.
