Employees are people, not drones - Anonymous employee Rakuten Employee Review

1.0
30 Jul 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free lunch, For the most part good people from all walks of life.

Cons

The external image the company tries to portray is a lie, literally everything. Employees who work hard and try to change things are significantly undervalued and ignored. This results in a very high turn over rate and leaves executives scratching their heads wondering why. Aiming to be number one "innovation company" but other than throwing around trending buzz words it does nothing. Just makes confusing services that are all over the place, spread across a huge amount of apps. Following what others do is not innovation. 8 am morning meeting every week where you literally talk about nothing. CEO is confused, not sure what direction to go in so he just goes in all directions. Instead of focusing on a handful of key areas, uses a shotgun approach to try and be the best in everything. Resulting in being average (at best) in everything. Bet all money on soccer team sponsorship with out any real vision or idea of what to do with it Englishinization is failing. Company is still largely split amongst those who can use English and those who cannot. Those who speak English well in departments which are primarily Japanese are stuck getting translation duties added on top of their normal work load. This keeps the face to the executives that mid level managers are promoting English when really they have no idea whats happening. Productivity is measured in hours worked, not output. If you're in your chair for more than 10 hours a day you will advance farther than someone who can finish all their work and more within the standard core hours. Extreme employee time tracking. Refusal to adapt to new common workplace concepts such as flex time, remote working, etc. Unsure of how it will work out so they don't even try. Again the common trend here is employees do not matter. HR implements ridiculous processes and procedures blindly. When employees point out their flaws and how to improve it. Again no one questions what comes from the top down. Hides results of employee engagement survey because it is extremely negative. Reading it is a joke... it's been 2 years and nothing has been done.

Explore other reviews about Rakuten

5.0
25 Mar 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Rakuten Rewards has great life balance. Too bad the economy was getting rocked.

Cons

Don't really have any cons. I understand that the market's been hard so had to downsize the force, so that was kinda challenging. Hopefully AI will increase everyone's output.

4.0
22 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexible Hours, Benefits, Pay, lunch provided 3 days per week,

Cons

There were no cons while I was there

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