Report: Lockwood Publishing Devs Accuse Management Of "Unlawful" Layoffs, Poor Leadership, And Nepotism
Lockwood Publishing, a British developer best known for the metaverse game Avakin Life, has come under fire once again. Company reviews, which have been backed up by a former employee, claim that there is a "complete and utter disconnect" between management and workers. Many also say that there's a "new director or product manager hired every week", some of which are apparently personal friends of the CEO, and "yes men with no experience."
On top of this, many continue to bring up a recent wave of layoffs, which have been labelled "unlawful". This saw 33 workers lose their job just before Christmas, with incredibly little warning. This was despite $25 million in investment from Tencent, and the personal wealth of CEO Halli Bjornsson, who reportedly makes £360,000 a year, and has claimed £600,000 in expenses.
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"[Halli Bjornsson] is the most clueless CEO I've ever known", reads one Glassdoor review. "It's maddening to see the business make good people redundant to 'reduce costs' then open new studios and hire several six-figure salary directors who all seem to be ex-colleagues of each other."
"The leadership team is atrocious. There's no empathy with the workforce", reads another account. Many others follow this trend, with a long-term current employee saying that there's "a real white men boys club thing going on" higher up in the company.
"There's lots of hiring on this upper level", the review continues. "And often these hires are friends of leadership, and come with extremely high salaries."
Another review, which also comes from a current employee, criticizes the higher-ups for following "hype trains" such as Roblox and NFTs, which proves
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