EA Employee mistreatment, the next blog

Let this be a lesson: if you don't have a spine, you'll be working a shit job for 12 hours a day 7 days a week.

Well it's nice that people are finally coming out of the dark about EA and voicing their anger. This can only be a good thing, and if the outcry is great enough, maybe it will put pressure on EA to reform their employee policies.

Is this ONLY Electronic Arts? I've heard horror stories of people having to bring in their sleeping bags and sleeping under their desks. I don't think it was an american company though.

Maybe Konami? I seem to rememeber Metal Gear Solid a lot in the same article.

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Original post by Vampyre_Dark Is this ONLY Electronic Arts? I've heard horror stories of people having to bring in their sleeping bags and sleeping under their desks. I don't think it was an american company though. Maybe Konami? I seem to rememeber Metal Gear Solid a lot in the same article.

From what I can make out the problem with EA is that while crunch time is expected throughout the industry EA seems to haave constant cruch time.

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[Edited by - Lohrno on December 3, 2004 10:33:39 AM]

Why long hours shouldn't be a given.

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Original post by Lohrno Long hours are a given in this industry.

Just because they are a given doesn't mean that they won't be abusive. Dismissing something as okay just because it's a given can be dangerous.

Not that the industry as a whole is as bad as EA is sounding, but still. If just about every company in the industry worked like this, it would indeed be a "given", but it wouldn't be right. Employees simply wouldn't have any choice, other than choosing another industry, and many wouldn't do that, and would endure the insane conditions.

Long hours can be an incredibly bad idea for software developers. Once you've worked more than 9-10 hours a day for a couple of days in a row, your brain starts to get really tired and you begin to make alot more mistakes than you would normally. So basically, forcing people to work 100 hour weeks is going to hurt the project more often than it will help it.

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[Edited by - Lohrno on December 3, 2004 10:48:56 AM]

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[Edited by - Lohrno on December 3, 2004 10:50:19 AM]

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Original post by Lohrno True, this type of slave driving is definitely harmfull. There definitely is a line as to when are hours too long. We're not going to survive working the standard 40 hour weeks though. If game studios are forced to do that, what do you think they'll do? At this point, something has to give. Most likely it would cause outsourcing. -=Lohrno

There's certainly a need to put in long hours at times in any software development job. Whether it's because of bad management, unexpected difficulties, or just undefinable causes, sometimes you have to push to get something done on time. I don't have a problem with this, and I'm more than willing to put in a couple of 12-14 hour days to get something done. This only becomes a problem if my employer were to expect this kind of output all the time. Personally, I know I just couldn't do it.

For game development studios, I would expect management to understand the hardship physically and emotionally that they're putting their employees through. Would it hurt to cycle people through days off or to stagger the longer work weeks? I don't know.

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Original post by Lohrno Long hours are a given in this industry.

Not if you're decide to not put up with it. I've been in the industry for five years now and I can count on my fingers the times I've been in to work on the weekend or longer than 8 hours (+1 for lunch). Currently I am a contractor, and my contract explicitly states that I am not to work longer than 8 hours a day. I once quit a job when they asked me to work the weekend after my first week. People need to learn that it is possible to have this industry be sane and any other way should be unacceptable.

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Original post by Lohrno Another thing to note is that not all the time can you add people and make things go faster. There are definitely points of diminishing returns as far as programming goes.

Read Fred Brook's "The Mythical Man-Month" - Adding manpower to a project that is late only makes it even more late.

Crunch time is inevitable, regardless of what industry you're in. Unless you're a god at planning (and I know a few people who are), there will come a time when you've got to pull a seven day work week, fifteen hours a day. That's just how it is. Don't plan well, don't put in that little extra effort earlyier, you get to pay for it later. I've bit the bitter bullet more than once myself.

From reading ea_spouse's blog, and this one, it appears that EA expects their employee's to work six or seven days a week, and 10 to 16 hours a day, through the entirety of the project, start to finish. One comment in ea_spouse's blog was from a man who said that they had crunch time through the entire project, but it did nothing to the schedule. They didn't fall behind, or get ahead.

In short, EA is basically planning on their employee's pulling these insane hours constantly. They schedule the project around that assumption.

And I hate that EA logo and whisper thingy too.

Funny. Most of the best selling games these days have been games that were scheduled to come out "when it's done". These games get the benefit of years of hype, and sells loads when they finally come out. And 9 times out of 10, they end up having more polish and stability than the average product.

Just something to think about.

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Original post by Lohrno Well, you have to see it from both sides. On many projects, the game only pays for itself and a small ammount of profit, or none at all. There are tons of projects that don't even break even. Now given the time and money constraints, it's obvious that if developers put in a standard work week, projects would get finished way later. Usually publishers are not so forgiving, and this would result in a cancelled project.

That's bull. The video game industry makes mad profit. It's this sort of attitude that gives the industry a pass to abuse their workers. If people go into to a job expecting abuse to be the norm, then nothing will change.

Will labor unions fix the problem? Maybe. The problem is that there are too many young, enthusiastic developers willing to put up with anything just to be able to work at a game company. They will work without a union. "Oh yeah, you'll strike? We'll have twenty people here tomorrow begging us for your job the moment you walk out that door. See if we care." Employers know this and will continue to exploit these kids until the breaking point.

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Original post by Vampyre_Dark Funny. Most of the best selling games these days have been games that were scheduled to come out "when it's done". These games get the benefit of years of hype, and sells loads when they finally come out. And 9 times out of 10, they end up having more polish and stability than the average product.

These games are all also sequels, mostly from the same genre (FPS), and generally the sole/flagship product for the developer.

When it's done doesn't cut it for a lot of products. You can't release the new Madden NFL game in April.

Unionize those mother fuckers. See how EA likes that.

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Original post by nick316 Unionize those mother fuckers. See how EA likes that.

They won't. But, if EA isn't afraid to mandate that their workers work 12 hours, 7 days a week, then why wouldn't they be afraid to bust a union? Or, they'll just go someplace where there aren't any unions.