“Unification” - Software Engineer Crunchyroll Employee Review

At least when it was owned by Warner, it was still pretty hands-off. But after the Funimation merge, every business decision, including why we’re abandoning previous long-term priorities for short-term gains, why people are being laid-off, etc. - it all has a go-to explanation now: “unification”. This excuse has been the reason for two reorgs so far, plus a third expected in the coming month. Layoffs out of the blue came yesterday, and people were let go who should absolutely not have been - some long-time employees who were with the company for years in critical positions with tons of legacy knowledge, some just newly hired. Leadership is even explicitly not blaming the timing on the market. Given the goals set for 2025, it’s absurd to go about things this way. The company was very successful during the pandemic - where did they invest those gains? Certainly not in hiring, certainly not in infrastructure, certainly not in feature dev. Moreso than anything, it feels like they’re laying off people who spoke out against decisions - though how they did that, who knows? There’s no openness in monthly all-staff meetings, and Q&A is locked down. Very different from pre-covid Crunchyroll. And one last frustration: for a cultural performance, in the SF office, they brought uniformed cops on-site to perform, no notice given to the org. Just consistently tone-deaf, not just this, but also especially every time they praise their hybrid model.