cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/36423623
Ziff Davis and IGN routinely decide that work done by our laid off colleagues is not important. But inevitably, that crucial work falls onto those who remain.
Not this time. Not anymore.
Source: IGN Union on Bluesky.
I’m happy to see that all around the games industry and the surrounding areas like game journalism the value of unions is rediscovered. Work to rule is very effective against these insidious tactics of one layoff round after another while announcing record profits, because if noone cares that work piles up because of not enough hands, it hurts the owners in the only way they understand - in their finances.
This greedy thinking of only next quarter’s numbers must end.
I suspect that tech management & executive culture has learned & become accustomed to exploit the mental health of their employees. Software and tech are stereotypically jobs well suited to neurodiversity and ADHD, and those people are prone to hyperfocus & long hours and may benefit from tight timelines. If management just gets used to recruiting for autism/adhd, then develops management strategies that work well with that population, it’s going to be difficult as the field matures and attracts more neurotypical people.
I used to tell my mentees that no one was going to explicitly tell them that 10, 12, 14 hour days were mandatory. That long hours were not a metric for success. It was that they would be competing for jobs with people who really did want their life to be their job and would happily spend that much time working, because that’s all they want to do. It’s only when the pool of available jobs grows beyond the number of those obsessive workaholics that they have to start hiring people who have any interest in work-life balance or collective bargaining.
Tough times for that. Every interview or recruiter I’ve spoken with lately, I say the words “PTO” and/or “work life balance” and they act like I said a dirty word.