Louise Sugden has gone Rogue

[Waaagh?]

48 minutes ago, Joe said:

Entry level wages for positions at Lenton generally varied between £23,000 to £27,000 in 2019/20 shortly before they stopped advertising the wages they offered; comparable wages at companies like Warlord (Geedub's closest competitor in the country) were historically much poorer (avg. £19,000 to £21,000). I'd be curious to see how much it's changed since then.

 

Realistically, I can't imagine many senior staff outside of the board earn anywhere above £40,000 to £45,000 at the company; which, in the Nottingham area at least, is a pretty comfortable amount to live on.

 

Store managers are on wages based on bands dependant on their stores profits but at the lowest they earn around £26k plus bonuses. 

[sarabando]

this is why they have transitioned to not showing the painters in their more recent videos just their hands. It stops them building a following to jump ship to. 

[Waaagh?]

1 hour ago, Flaherty said:

Midwinter said in an AMA that he made a comparable salary to a bank branch manager 12-18 months ago. Given that he's hired a hand, I'm assuming that's risen. I'm also guessing that's a bit more than the community team staffer earns, plus you get creative and schedule freedom. Combine that with the fact that it seems like GW is managed in a bit of a stodgy manner, it's pretty easy to understand why these folks are jumping ship.

 

You have to hope they're amply rewarding Darren Latham, Max Faleij, and some of the other senior creatives with decent-sized Instagram followings. If a few of those guys jumped ship it could materially impact GW's output. Darren could likely earn as much as GW's CEO (~£1,3M) if he went indie and really hustled. 

 

Hired hand/woman he cheated on his girlfriend (and mother of his twin babies) with who then had to fight to get 1/3 of their savings back from him......That dude sucks. 

Edited April 8, 2023 by Waaagh?

[OttoVonAwesome]

It's all good they still got that one painter that never paints the necks of marines and calls the model done.

[Evil Eye]

43 minutes ago, Waaagh? said:

 

Hired hand/woman he cheated on his girlfriend (and mother of his twin babies) with who then had to fight to get 1/3 of their savings back from him......That dude sucks. 

Oh god, I heard rumours about that. That's pretty rough if true. Yuck.

 

Anyway, good for Louise, I'd seen some of her work and really liked it, but never subbed to WH+. Glad that she's striking out on her own and can't wait to see what she does!

[potatocrusader]

9 hours ago, sarabando said:

this is why they have transitioned to not showing the painters in their more recent videos just their hands. It stops them building a following to jump ship to. 

Haven't watched GW vids in a long time, that's very scummy if they did that for this reason alone,. I really can't understand who is pulling the strings on community interaction at GW, first the strangle on independent content creators (animations, cartoons etc.) and then this.

Community interest and interaction boosts sales astronomically for little to no investment, a good example of community carrying a company hard is D&D and seems that Battletech is getting more popular thanks to youtubers.

[Joe]

It's a combination of that and the fact they've started dubbing some videos for other regions. Not having to deal with lip synching is incredibly helpful imo.

[Morikan]

 

[Warden-Paints]

I left my job about five years ago to go freelance. I earn more money (naturally) and walk my own path. It doesn't mean my previous employer was toxic and evil, or that I was particularly badly paid. I'm tired of the hyperbole around here. 

 

Louise Sugden is a superstar, she's maxed out the charisma stat and has a totally unpretentious and vibrant style of painting. I think she could be potentially one of the biggest names in the hobby a couple of years from now, looking at how popular that greasy plum Middleclassminis somehow manages to be. 

[Noserenda]

11 minutes ago, Warden-Paints said:

I left my job about five years ago to go freelance. I earn more money (naturally) and walk my own path. It doesn't mean my previous employer was toxic and evil, or that I was particularly badly paid. I'm tired of the hyperbole around here. 

 

I mean, that's great for you dude but it's not hyperbole when a fair few people have spoken about the issues that drove them out. 

 

It really does vary by industry, some engineering fields nearly everyone is freelance for extra money, generally in creative fields it's pretty different.

[Warden-Paints]

19 minutes ago, Noserenda said:

I mean, that's great for you dude but it's not hyperbole when a fair few people have spoken about the issues that drove them out. 

 

It really does vary by industry, some engineering fields nearly everyone is freelance for extra money, generally in creative fields it's pretty different.

 

It seems to me that she's left because she can make a lot more money by building her brand (which she has announced), and she has momentum behind her due to her work for GW (my assessment). As just one example, she believes she can charge £1500 for a painted miniature.

 

To somehow take the above information and extrapolate that she's fleeing a toxic workplace is absurd unless she comes out and states that to be the reason. 

 

That to me is hyperbole, but by all means let's agree to disagree. 

[soviet1337]

It seems to me that GW still haven't recognised the value that good frontpeople like Duncan, Peachy, and Louise bring to the table. Presumably if you're a talented sculptor or 'Eavy Metal painter you get some artistic satisfaction from your work, and have (some) input into the decisions around it. I would bet that the presenters who have left were motivated by lack of freedom and artistic satisfaction at least as much as financial concerns. If you're GW and you have a Louise or a Duncan or a Peachy I think you mostly want to just let them loose to do their thing. 

[Lexington]

She’s been fairly unsubtle about knocking GW‘s new “hands only” policy in painting videos, so can’t say I’m surprised. Sugden’s a mad talent, and I have no doubt she’ll be able to keep up her profile and have a successful independent career.

 

As for Warhammer+…man. It was probably always a bad idea, but it’s quite something to watch GW’s bloody-minded dedication to make it a worse one.

[alfred_the_great]

There’s always a natural rhythm of people moving on - it’s nowt to do with toxicity (unless someone comes out and says it is). 
 

 

[Orange Knight]

I must say I was surprised to see so many people immediately accuse GW of failing her somehow just because she had moved on.

 

People do move in and out of jobs for all sorts of reasons all the time.

[LittlePlasticHomies]

I think a really interesting comparison is Peloton. With Peloton, the entire brand revolves around the coaches and they’re handsomely paid for it. GW is probably very conscious of attempting to keep the product as the draw rather than the talent.

[Lexington]

4 hours ago, Orange Knight said:

I must say I was surprised to see so many people immediately accuse GW of failing her somehow just because she had moved on.

 

People do move in and out of jobs for all sorts of reasons all the time.

I wouldn’t presume anything under normal circumstances, but the persistent jokes on Twitter that were clearly meant to indicate a real unhappiness with the policy do lead one to think the two things were very possibly related.

[spessmarine]

saw this post being shared on another forum

 

 

yeah... going through some recent tweets there is a clear unhappiness that bleeds through!

 

 

[Urauloth]

I for one am glad to see my old fave savage_ork_guy doing well.

[Orange Knight]

Sad if true, but Louise still has a sense of humour at least.

[Guest]

Its a little disappointing...

 

I really enjoyed her tutorials and one of the reasons I kept subbed to W+ for Year 2.

[Magos Takatus]

It's sad to see her go. I watched Duncan's videos for a while but the novelty of him being independent wore off eventually and I just started to skip most of the non-GW content on his site. Peachy has been an interesting watch due to his insights into GW without sensationalism. I've pretty much stopped watching painting tutorials recently, those I do watch seem to be people like Angel Giraldez but they are more for curiosity rather than any hope of being able to emulate his work (Whatever he does with his airbrush to glaze models subtly seems like witchcraft when I'm trying not to completely blot out the layers underneath or create lovely but unwanted spidering patterns.).

 

I'm sure she will do well and I'll probably catch a few of her videos but I'm not as familiar with her as Peachy and Duncan.

[Redcomet]

Peachy has been talking a lot about GW cultere since he left, and it has the same problems most other large companies I have worker at, heard about. And I have to imagine that trying to squeeze creative people into a corporate mould isn’t something that will be successful. 

[Remain_Indoors]

Good luck to them.

[WrathOfTheLion]

4 hours ago, Redcomet said:

Peachy has been talking a lot about GW cultere since he left, and it has the same problems most other large companies I have worker at, heard about. And I have to imagine that trying to squeeze creative people into a corporate mould isn’t something that will be successful. 

Sometimes it isn't always even top down as far as the worst parts of it. Even a single mid level manager in a position they shouldn't be in can devastate a team, especially if nobody at the top level is paying attention.