Rakuten reviews

- Management - Culture - Compensation - Work-life balance - Very passive and risk-averse culture that stifles good ideas and people's passion - Revolving door of personnel - HR Department Management is extremely top down and completely uncommunicative. Nothing ever gets done because there is a culture of covering up problems. Data is not used to draw conclusions; it gets used to fit the narrative and agendas that managers want to present. This is true through all layers of management. On top of that, the CEO is probably the most narcissistic person I've ever met in my life. He does not listen to his management team (most of whom are too afraid to go against him anyway), and acts like a spoiled child when things do not turn out how he wants them to. On top of the awful management, you have an HR team that simply isn't doing it's job. They don't deal with anything. Problems like sexual harassment are routinely swept under the rug. When things to get out of hand, the typical way to solve the issue is to blame the victim and transfer that employee to some office out of the way where they can be ignored and forgotten. To compensate employees for having to work under such a dysfunctional company, you are provided a less than average salary and bonus. There are few opportunities for advancement. Pay grade is by and large determined by how long you have managed to tolerate working at the company. The only way up is to stay for years. It's no wonder that turnover in my department was close to 50% during the time I worked at Rakuten.

The AM role is astonishingly dull. There's not one employee that's excited to be here, this includes the Senior Managers, Directors and the MD too. Not only is there a lack of buzz in the office, but the entire management team seem to lack true management experience. One example of this is the blame culture each employee seems to dish out and surprisingly I’m seeing most of it come from my Director! Not everyone is skilled enough to manage processes or lead people. Just because someone is good at what they do does not mean they will be a great manager, and that’s perfectly OK! The people who have some sort of say of what goes on here are not fit to lead in any way, shape or form. This every so clear given the high turnover and low employee morale – all which is VERY VERY present here! Being a new employee here and seeing the amount of skilled employees leave makes me see the true colour of this company – in all honesty, something I wish I had never become a part of. There isn’t an employee that’s staying that I truly admire or think “I can learn something from you”. I don’t look up to the MD, if fact I think he knows nothing of what goes on in the office or within the industry. The guys from DC Storm seem very bright but how could they not see through the crumbling façade of which is Rakuten? They didn’t make an educated decision in joining Rakuten. Poor chaps. Above all else, I hope they can have some influence on turning this place around because it’s clear the MD or Directors have no idea how to do that. When good workers see people who do not contribute as much as they do or they see schmoozers who do little but socialize OR SLEEP with a particular person land positions they don’t deserve, it’s much like a slap in the face. Especially when those workers are staying until 21:30, not taking holiday, rallying the team and exceeding expectations the last thing they want to see is someone just waltz in and take a senior position, and then you have the audacity to put them in a leadership position over experienced workers. Come on! And please don’t even get me started on the pay here. You want to the best, well then pay your staff accordingly!