We’re currently in the midst of SEA Games 2019, where esports is an actual event that Southeast Asian gamers can win medals for via the digital battlegrounds of Dota 2 or Starcraft II. 

Watching closely is Tan Min-Liang, the Singaporean CEO of Razer, makers of chic gaming peripherals and also the official esports partner for the SEA Games. CEO of a multi-million-dollar company he may be, but Tan is a gamer through and through — he still spends his nights binge-gaming and recently pledged to drop $10 million into Singapore’s gaming industry. 

It’s known that he can be very affable yet pretty unconventional on social media, where Tan has created a cult of personality around himself with fans from all over the world. But underneath the sleek matte black surface and pulsing RGB lights lies something reportedly less savoury: a Kotaku article claims Razer is run by a volatile, "verbally abusive", and dictatorial boss who helped to create a toxic work environment.

In her final piece for the gaming website, Cecilia D'Anastasio, the investigative reporter who blew the lid on Riot Games’ sexist corporate culture last year, revealed how former employees felt about their treatment by Tan, and it’s mostly not great. In fact, the article painted quite an unpleasant picture of the 42-year-old tech billionaire.

The article should be read in full, but here’s a sample of Tan’s behaviour according to the former Razer employees interviewed:

• Trigger-happy with firing people, even for minor transgressions.
• Was so mad that Razer didn’t make it to Fast Company’s 2014 list of “Most Innovative Companies” that he sent off a ferocious email to his marketing employees. He shortly fired his then-marketing director. 
• Verbally abusive with staff, unafraid of publicly shaming them.
• Threatened workers with violence, at one point throwing an object past an employee in anger.
• Often angry at Razer staff not working overtime. This resulted in some people staying overnight in the office.
• Expected employees to sacrifice relationships with their families in order to commit to the company’s success.
• Expectations trickled down to Razer’s US offices, where employees were demanded to work while on vacation.
• Even if they worked long hours, many did not receive overtime pay.
• Promised that all the hard work would pay off when Razer went public.

In response, Tan himself addressed the allegations with Kotaku. Some things he said: 

• Acknowledges that he is “very intense” when it comes to the “quality of work” involved in his products’ design and engineering. 
• Admits that he does raise his voice to express dissatisfaction and there have been occasions when he threw prototypes when it didn’t reach his standards for design, engineering or quality.
• Denies throwing objects at employees or threatening them with violence. “I have made statements to the effect of ‘don’t make me punch you in the face’ or ‘I’ll send my killer robots after you’ but those statements have all been figurative or in jest.”
• Has no recollection of specific incidents where he allegedly berated employees in front of other people. 
• Believes that employees were pleased with their stock grants and payouts.

Reactions

Since the article was published and shared on local social media, some netizens have offered their accounts of working at Razer, though it's hard to verify if what they're saying is true.

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"Allegations in the [Kotaku] article mirror claims in a current lawsuit brought by one disgruntled ex-employee whose employment was terminated for misconduct, including dishonesty," Razer's team in Singapore responded to our queries. "Razer cannot comment on matters of ongoing litigation."

The company had no comments about the other allegations lodged about Tan. 

ilyas@asiaone.com

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