For my WBD friends out there. It's been about 9 months now since Warner Brothers merged with Discovery. I'm curious about the following: 1. What is the work culture like now at Warner Bros. Discovery? Good WLB? 2. What is the culture like in HBO Max in the Seattle area? 3. What is the tech stack like over there? Especially in things like HBO Max. 4. What is the take on the future prospects of HBO Max? They do seem like they put out good original content. 5. Are things getting better or worse over there since the merger? If so how is it better or worse? 6. How do you think your new CEO is doing? #entertainment #media #wlb #warnerbros #culture
WLB is okay, not terrible but it depends on the team. Joining now means you're joining during massive merging of streaming services, so might be a but busier. I wonder how many offices stay open before consolidation, as we shut down Fridays to reduce costs further. Max has good content, and it'll remain one of the majors. 2023 is the year we will see if things start moving in the right direction because 2022 was a shit show. I'm not a fan of zaslav, but there are things he's doing I agree with. Dude is old school entertainment, and is definitely out of touch and paid too much, but he also stepped in to a company that was smoke and mirrors with finances that they are now scrambling to patch and get right again.
1. Shitty. We’ve had a number of all hands where they’ve told us about building our culture when they actually want the 25k WarnerMedia employees to adapt the D+ culture. D+ culture is: top-heavy, combative, old school and heavily nepotistic. This “adaptation” is not going well. 2. The Seattle WM office is pretty much the same; people, when they are in the office, are spread out and friendly to each other. The issue is when the D+ bosses come in and don’t see “asses in seats.” 3. HBO Max tech stack mostly replaced with the D+ stack, which never was taxed beyond 750k concurrents, while HBO Max got up to 10m. 4. As long as Zas stops laying off creatives and chasing away top talent by screwing them over, we still have a good future, content-wise. 5. 6 months ago, the tech group had its first meeting with D+ leadership. It’s all been downhill from there. The D+ people think they know everything about how to run a streaming service and will not listen to WM people with 10 years of experience, but we’re all “one team.” These guys have no idea what they’re doing but are happy to treat us like we’re idiots. 6. Oh I’m sure he’s fine, swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck, wondering why people don’t want to go back to offices that half the time don’t have coffee or toilet paper.
WM is bloated. 25k wm vs 3k discovery.
1. Shit and no WLB. 2. Don’t work in Seattle but I bet they close it down in a few months to save money. 3. In rebuild phase, it’s combining both platforms. 4. It’s fucked, too many pieces of content leaving the platform for making money else where instead of a one stop shop for all things WBD. 5. Worse if your legacy WM. Seems like even though this was a merger it favors Discovery folks even if our platform being replaced was better 6. Total shit show. Overly paid and won’t lower than or give back in favor of layoffs or selling things away for pieces. I wish he would resign or get fired and bring back someone who has vision and actually cares for the employees.
What is your role over at Warner are you in? Where are you located? Burbank? Is there anything positive about WBD? Do they give you guys RSUs or equity? Good health insurance?
I’m in Seattle. This is all accurate. We get $WBD RSUs refreshed every year, over 4 years. It’s gone down 60% since it launched so….