Industry closures and downsizing thread.

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

Forced overtime and crunch are two peas in the same pod for me and abhorrent practices that have been unfortunately normalised. There's got to be an overhaul to ensure much better resource management and companies delaying games if necessary or not announcing release dates until they've confirmed they've done 80% of development and can set a release date with 2 months for polishing and so on.

I think if they're forcing people contractually or so on, then it should include appropriate compensation but even then i would expect workers to better unionise for rights. US, East Asian developers and some others aren't as well protected but if you look at France for example, they properly protect employees. Employers and Employees need a proper balance imo and better vetting to get the right people instead of the hire and fire crap that's got us to this point.

I don't think things will change but i'm sure AI is not going to improve things at all for employees. Executives will use it to try overwork downsized teams and pad profits by reducing costs. That's my overall view of where things will head and although SAG-AFRA are trying to push back, these companies will turn to people not able to use that union/organisation and end up getting paid a pittance. These companies also drown people legally for years.

Low staff is often a problem, good point. I've been at a number of jobs where they have people who call off work often, and the teams were so small that I ended up having to do the work for two people every time that happened, yet got nothing extra for it, which made me eventually quit and find a job where more help was available overall.

You're likely right that there is a "work hard" ethic that will keep it going for decades more.

I'd like a 4 day work week with 3 days off. That to me, seems fair. There was talk about that in the news on TV briefly but it's never taken seriously. I did hear Europe does have a more relaxed ideal of work, where 4 days is actually a normal thing if that's true. That sounds nice. That one extra day makes a big difference.

For those working for these crunchtime Publishers/Developers, I would say it's like working for a major movie studio, where they only have maybe 2 years or less to complete a movie, and in the final months, forced overtime is required. I think it's part of the whole design of that industry, requiring to meet deadlines.

I think that's why it's not a bad thing to not set a release date to allow more time and a relaxed, fun environment at work, but quotas, budgets and stockholders have to be satisfied is what seems to rule things above employee satisfaction with the job.

The alternative is to work for oneself, fill out quarterly tax reports, and then hope one doesn't go out of business from lack of income.

Originally Posted by heyadol

My problem with crunch is it’s NOT overtime for most of the employees involved, at least in the states. Most of the dev team are salaried employees, overtime only applies to hourly employees so unless there is a contractual stipulation, working 8 hours or 80 hours would get you the same paycheck.

Speaking from experience here (not game related but the same set of labor laws), management is quick to ensure hourly employees are out the door before overtime pay (time and a half or more) kicks in. Always lean on the salaried team since time limits are vaguely defined for salaried employees in the tech industry.

I didn't know that was the situation. Thanks.

So they get paid the salary per year but might actually work twice as long. That sounds like a rough deal. Overtime pay is decent at time and a half pay, but the government in the US currently apparently takes 40% of the OT pay, which is nearly half of your Overtime pay, which is ridiculous. Working more than 8 hours OT is encouraged by the Employer often, but life is short and 40% loss on that money doesn't sound like a great deal to me. I rather spend that time doing other things outside of work.

[heyadol]

Originally Posted by Zivouhr

[Show spoiler]Low staff is often a problem, good point. I've been at a number of jobs where they have people who call off work often, and the teams were so small that I ended up having to do the work for two people every time that happened, yet got nothing extra for it, which made me eventually quit and find a job where more help was available overall.

You're likely right that there is a "work hard" ethic that will keep it going for decades more.

I'd like a 4 day work week with 3 days off. That to me, seems fair. There was talk about that in the news on TV briefly but it's never taken seriously. I did hear Europe does have a more relaxed ideal of work, where 4 days is actually a normal thing if that's true. That sounds nice. That one extra day makes a big difference.

For those working for these crunchtime Publishers/Developers, I would say it's like working for a major movie studio, where they only have maybe 2 years or less to complete a movie, and in the final months, forced overtime is required. I think it's part of the whole design of that industry, requiring to meet deadlines.

I think that's why it's not a bad thing to not set a release date to allow more time and a relaxed, fun environment at work, but quotas, budgets and stockholders have to be satisfied is what seems to rule things above employee satisfaction with the job.

The alternative is to work for oneself, fill out quarterly tax reports, and then hope one doesn't go out of business from lack of income.



I didn't know that was the situation. Thanks.

So they get paid the salary per year but might actually work twice as long. That sounds like a rough deal.

Overtime pay is decent at time and a half pay, but the government in the US currently apparently takes 40% of the OT pay, which is nearly half of your Overtime pay, which is ridiculous. Working more than 8 hours OT is encouraged by the Employer often, but life is short and 40% loss on that money doesn't sound like a great deal to me. I rather spend that time doing other things outside of work.

That must be state-specific. When I was an hourly employee, OT did not get taxed at a different rate than my standard wage, and it never pushed me to a higher tax bracket or increased my tax liability in any way.

The IRS (federal government) taxes everyone based on adjusted gross income, they don't care if you worked 1 hour or 10,000 hours.