Razer CEO Berated And Threatened His Staff, Former Employees Say

[Shaggy25]

Min-Liang Tan, Razer CEO, is described as a tyrant and a dictator by former employees. He's being accused of firing people because he was in a bad mood or displeased with the results of unreasonable expectations.

 

Some quotes from the article:

Quote

Min-Liang Tan was “officially pissed off,” he wrote in an email to members of Razer’s marketing team in February of 2014. The gaming hardware company hadn’t made the business website Fast Company’s 2014 list of “Most Innovative Companies,” and in his email, part of an exchange obtained by Kotaku, Tan asked of his marketing employees, “Are you guys fucking off?”

Quote

Tan has developed a reputation for being a tempestuous, volatile boss, according to interviews with 14 former employees, most of whom spoke anonymously out of fear of repercussions.

Quote

Five former employees said Tan and other executives would talk up how much money they’d all make after the company went public. In hindsight, the reasons are clear to most of those employees: The dangling carrot of a big payday helped convince them all to work grueling hours and put up with Tan’s tyrannical rule. “His management style became ruling by fear,” said one former employee.

 

Source: https://kotaku.com/razer-ceo-berated-and-threatened-his-staff-former-empl-1840240823

 

Thoughts: Honestly, disappointed but not really surprised, most of the stories are years old so I can only hope he has changed over time.

For me is clear the guy has an ego and very concerned with the image and "culture" around the company.

They talk a lot about the promises of wealth form going public, they already did so hopefully some employees got their payday.

[Bcat00]

Which boss doesn't have a ego? You can't run a company as big as that without some

[Metallus97]

Well... at some point you hear stuff like that form almost every company...

But me personally doesn’t like razer... to much of a „wE aRe ThE bEsT fOr GaMiNg BeCaUsE wE hAvE rGb“ shit going on ther. However thier products are great for the most part i dont like the image they are trying to give to themselves 

[Shaggy25]

Just now, Bcat00 said:

Which boss doesn't have a ego? You can't run a company as big as that without some

Sure, but read the article, even if half of the stories are true, you can run a company without treating your employees like that

[Bcat00]

Just now, Shaggy25 said:

Sure, but read the article, even if half of the stories are true, you can run a company without treating your employees like that

Razer is still running is it not? Clearly treating your employees like that is working out for the man. Just saying. Life isn't always pretty.

[Brooksie359]

I read the whole article and can see how this might be different if told from a different perspective. The having to work overtime and weekends to hit deadlines doesn't seem all that weird to me especially given that I know CPAs that are required to work at least 60 hours a week during tax season. If you dont like the work then just quit tbh. 

[rawrdaysgoby]

Razer is boring now. 

[Falkentyne]

Wait, what happened to "Razerguy" (Robert)?

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

Every CEO of a large company wants to know your location

[Dedayog]

2 hours ago, Shaggy25 said:

Min-Liang Tan, Razer CEO, is described as a tyrant and a dictator by former employees. He's being accused of firing people because he was in a bad mood or displeased with the results of unreasonable expectations.

 

Some quotes from the article:

 

Source: https://kotaku.com/razer-ceo-berated-and-threatened-his-staff-former-empl-1840240823

 

Thoughts: Honestly, disappointed but not really surprised, most of the stories are years old so I can only hope he has changed over time.

For me is clear the guy has an ego and very concerned with the image and "culture" around the company.

They talk a lot about the promises of wealth form going public, they already did so hopefully some employees got their payday.

ROFL, this is 50% of CEO's I've worked for.

 

Get better news.

[spartaman64]

1 hour ago, Caroline said:

Probably fake, let's not forget about gamergate, site is a circlejerk.

idk they wrote a pretty good article on anthem it probably depends on the writer

[Thaldor]

This really isn't a surprise for anyone who has followed his social media and knows a thing or two about business management.

In short, if CEO is able and willing to snap his fingers and bring a short notice, gimmicky product into existence or other whims of his mind, he most probably is a tyrant to work under. It may seem like something nice and funny kind of boss would do but as always remember that's in public, take those impulses and whims and take the worst day of your life and mix them well, as funny as it seems that he managed to make a sellable toaster with RGB in a month, someone needed to make the CAD- and electronic-drawings and the whole product development in under a month (normal times being in months, usually in years).

[Guest]

I’d be pissed off if all my staff could come up with is a Razer Blade. 

[Derangel]

4 hours ago, Caroline said:

Probably fake, let's not forget about gamergate, site is a circlejerk.

Unlikely. Kotaku’s reports like this tend to be true. Whatever your opinion on Kotaku is they have great contacts within the gaming space and have a reputation for keeping sources annoymous.

[maartendc]

9 hours ago, Bcat00 said:

Razer is still running is it not? Clearly treating your employees like that is working out for the man. Just saying. Life isn't always pretty.

What a load of bullshit. There is plenty of evidence of successful companies being run by entirely reasonable, nice people. I have worked for nice people, and horrible people, either can be successful.

 

What makes a company successful is being smart, hard working, making sound strategic decisions, etc. Not being a dick.

 

If he is successful, it is DESPITE his attitude and misbehavior, not because of it.

[Doobeedoo]

He just want his employees to have a razer sharp focus on their work. 

[MageTank]

14 hours ago, Bcat00 said:

Which boss doesn't have a ego? You can't run a company as big as that without some

On the very rare occasion, you get one that is extremely down to earth. My current CEO doesn't drive a fancy car or over accentuate his wealth despite the huge success of his company. He even holds the door open for people as they walk in and out. I can't say the same for some of my former employers, but it's definitely the way I would want to run a company. The sheer respect you command when you treat people like normal human beings is far more powerful than cracking a whip and expecting results.

 

Sadly, I don't see this being the case in other parts of the world, where the job market is overly competitive and saturated with enough people to fill any roles. 

[spartaman64]

8 hours ago, floofer said:

I’d be pissed off if all my staff could come up with is a Razer Blade. 

hes probably the one who told his employees to make the razer blade as much like apple's macbook as possible without getting sued LUL

[suicidalfranco]

Not only they copied theMacbook, they also copied Jobs

[SADS]

Personally i've never been a fan of Razer products anyway.

I bought a mouse and it had problems from day 1, it was expensive and tempermental.

 

Generally they just sell overpriced gimicks as far as I am aware.

They're just a marketting company.

[Yoinkerman]

This is literally every company ever

[Reytime]

5 minutes ago, Yoinkerman said:

This is literally every company ever

This. Not sure why we feel the need to constantly report these things. What are we trying to achieve? Bring light to what we already know or bring a specific man down for doing what millions of other are doing as well?

 

All these articles smell of clickbait journalism and sour ex employees trying to get back at their bosses.

[DrMacintosh]

Most successful CEOs have this issue. Normal people do not make it to the top of multi million dollar companies without significant psychological changes.  

[Derangel]

"Other people do it so that makes it totally okay and we should never call it out or report on it. Don't think about anything, just consume like a mindless sheep". That's what I get out the "defenses" of this.

[Arika]

6 hours ago, Derangel said:

Don't think about anything, just consume like a mindless sheep

I don't know about you, but i don't buy products based on the actions of the CEO.

 

 

Should it be called out?

Sure

 

Should we be surprised?

No

 

Does it change anything?

Not really.