EA: The Human Story

An 85 hour work week is long? Trying developing TWO different products with ONE person SIMULTANEOUSLY on two DIFFERENT operating systems WITHOUT health insurance, and with kidney problems in which both kidneys are working at only 25% efficiency - at age 36. I'm pulling 90 on average and that's when I'm coasting. And I've been keeping up this pace since I was 23 - 13 years. Oh I did take off 2 months and finally take a vacation overseas in 2002. I felt like a complete slacker. Have you been to Japan? Where do you think the Sony PlayStation came from and how did it get invented? By employees watching The Apprentice? In Japan 80 hours is a normal week. Americans are the fatest, laziest people on earth. We want $80K a year, but we want it EASY.

Ever brought a cot in and slept under the cube so that you could get right to work the next morning with no commute and no shower? No? Then you're not a real software developer.

What a bunch of crybabies. Most projects are run by morons - get over it. All software is this way. It's a huge, mega-profitable, greedy business. Do you think those execs and shareholders are nice people? They're greedy pigs! Learn to love them for it, or else you're in the wrong industry.

It's up to the developers to work around the fatal plans of those who don't know what they are doing.

You either love creating this stuff so much that you can't get enough of it or else you're in the wrong line of work. If you want it easy, go get a 9-5 job at Costco selling pizza or something. People do this because they LOVE to do it. They love to do it so much that they would work 24/7 with no sleep if they could get away with it.

You should be thankful your SO has a job at all in this economy.

Stop whinning, turn off your TV, and go back into work and get something done.

I think the point is that the hours are killing the love.

I have to laugh at your definition of a real software developer. Dude, I don't want you anywhere near my code. A great software developer is one who can plan it and do it in a 40 hour week. Continually.

And exactly what sort of moron works to the point of kidney failure on jobs without health insurance, anyway? Evolution in action, I guess.

The fact is Communists have taken over our big corporations. Don't believe me? Check out #37 here:

http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm

Why do you think they have to pay the HR director $240K? It's because no patriotic American in his right mind would treat people this way - or lay people off and replace them with cheap imported 3rd world labor - unless that is they are sucked in by an offer they can't refuse - like $240K a year.

The fact is the Communists are trying to destroy the American workforce and dismantle our industries. Communism isn't dead - it's just inside our house lighting fires instead of attacking us militarily.

Communism? I think you are mistaken. And that link may be well intended, but it is grasping at some very scary and ill conceived straws, my friend. It is nothing more than a ghost from a very troubled past which most of us prefer to leave behind us.

This problem has more to do with unbridled greed and a lack of humanity and understanding. It is a symptom of a failing education system which breeds insecurity and persecution and rewards false values and sociopathic principals. It has resulted in a frightened, confused corporate culture which can no longer see it's own feet.

Capitalism and free enterprise have become shelved for a controlled, counterproductive culture which represses progress, innovation and profit in order to maintain an increasingly dubious ideal. All around us, people who faked it into power are hanging on by a string- because they are faking it through life. Not everyone, but a significant number of people. And friends, it only takes one in a group to ruin it for everybody else.

Please do us all a favor and desist in this unfounded and illogical fear-mongering. I guarantee it will cause more harm than good.

You don't need to eliminate all of ea's revenue for a boycott to have impact. You don't even need to hit half. Just 10% would have a huge impact. Even 5% of EA's revenues would be a major deal because EA is looked upon as a growth corp.

Well What u Say and Cry about happen to h1b's all the time in US.

Welcome to the real world. It's nothing new except in your case you can leave the job not like many unfortunate others.

LOVE
h1b

This is what 7 years of H-1B and imported guest workers have done to the Silicon Valley economy:

http://www.1394watch.com/photo_gallery

Far from helping the U.S. economy, all imported workers are doing is carrying off America's wealth and producing nothing of value.

This is what 7 years of H-1B and imported guest workers have done to the Silicon Valley economy:

http://www.1394watch.com/photo_gallery

Far from helping the U.S. economy, all imported workers are doing is carrying off America's wealth and producing nothing of value.

Sure. And Koreans are to blame for Japan's economic crisis...

Foreign workers didn't do this to Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley did this to Silicon Valley.

The dot-com's overpriced, overzealous, hyper-inflated bubble burst and all that remains are empty shells of buildings where start-ups, that relied on venture capital, died.

And I know, personally, several start-up CEO's, all Americans, who walked off with America's wealth and produced NOTHING of value : for their employees OR their share-holders.

God Bless America because noone else will.

Probst is out of the loop of normal species emotion so forget about appealing to his humanity.

When you hit his kind of paydirt and with the promise of much, much more you tend not to give a rat's furry behind about the pions who lifted you there. Funny human condition known as RICH AS F##K.

However the real funny about this guy is his failure to grasp the "always cheaper to keep the ranks mildly happy" flip of change ala chump. And please red circle the "mildly", because that's all they ask, those binary inputing hamsters, they're asking for a better grade of bitter seed. To be eaten at home once in a while.

And this hurts: If I'm wrong and you are not actually all hamsters, then for whatver reason you allow your very own soul's nutsack to be french fried and onion dipped.

I've plugged into your collective efforts and they are worthy. Lots of hum ding animation from the cats who bailed Disney, and what happened? Disney got better too. Thanks, Bailcats.

So Probst could care less. Who gives a fuck?

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20041205&mode=classic

This exact same scenario also exist at Activision -- not just within production but all across departments of the company. Guess this is the "Acceptable" practice in the gaming industry.

Former Activision employee here.
some departments didn't experience the long overtime hours. finance had the long hours for only a few quarters. However we accomplished our goals of cleaning up the balance sheet and documentation all the processes. We achieved consistent accelerated monthly closes while providing accurate and timing reporting throughout the company without having to work extra hours.

Our problem was management. They relied TOO much on the staff doing on the work and did not financially reward us. Some managers were pretty much incompetitent so the people who turned around that company left.

Laura Sydell, who was here looking for people earlier, ran her story on NPR recently.

Here's a link to an audio archive of the story - good stuff.

http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=4206253

Enjoy.

-Peter

Having worked for an enterprise software company for several years, the situation is much the same. As I suspected, our "reward" for meeting impossibly tight deadlines--the ones that followed the original schedule that no one believed--was to do the same thing all over again, only with the bar raised higher. Did quality suffer? Did employees burn out? Did the company have any idea whether it was giving its customers what they wanted? Did executives turn into venom-spewing alpha creatures, deflecting the pressures on them onto their employees? Are these rhetorical questions?

I only recently had an interview with a company that is under EA's wing. Everything went well, and I was confident that the job would be mine. I didn't get hired there, and I was upset about the fact, but after reading all this, I'm relieved that I didn't. I hope this lawsuit *stomps* EA.

Reading through these posts, it seems like EA is the worst of the lot, but there are many other software companies that treat their employees like crap. Are there any decent video game or software companies to work with anywhere? This is horrible that people put up with this crap at EA just for fear of being fired/blacklisted from a high paying job, but then again, if it's not better anywhere else, what's the point of leaving? If there are any decent companies that people can personally vouch for, please let me know!

There are some that the IGDA mentions by name in its open letter to the industry. They are Blue Fang and Ensemble. I've also heard that Neversoft, makers of Tony Hawk, normally work four 10 hour days a week, and move to five 10 hour days when crunching, and never work weekends. However, I've also heard that this was in response to previously terrible working conditions and employee revolt.

Right now the IGDA is working on some kind of approval process for companies. Companies with good labor practices and quality of life will get this "seal of approval," which will help people decide where they should work before they get there. This is a great idea, and I'm looking forward to seeing it implemented - when recruiting is hurt at companies that didn't get the approval, then maybe they'll start reconsidering their practices in order to attract top talent once again.

-Peter

I work at EA. I don't think I've attended a meeting in the last few weeks where this blog hasn't been mentioned either as a nervous joke or a serious concern.

Why is EA suddenly a hot topic? - perhaps a fairly stagnant stock price over the last year combined with massive staff influx has brought us to some kind of critical mass. Who knows but I think 'ea_spouse' has definitely lit the blue touch paper...



Ok so now for my rant. Can anyone explain how the 'high tech' companies in British Columbia managed to make themselves exempt from standard working practices? It seems to open the way for poor treatment of staff. I'm from Europe and I was staggered when I discovered this:

http://www.labour.gov.bc.ca/esb/facshts/high_tech.htm



Can EAC classify itself as 'high tech'? I thought videogames companies lived in the 'interactive entertainment' pigeon hole. I don't see videogames developer in the government's list. We don't build or design the hardware so how would we be any different from someone at Mattel or Hasbro who develops the latest toys?

If EAC do fall into the scope of being considered 'high tech', last time I checked we have a few hundred programmers who might fall into the category and 1000+ staff who probably do not.

Even ignoring working time excess, I believe EA have actually breached my employment contract a number of times. Although it would be unfair to say that no breach of contract has ever happened at another employer that still doesn't make it alright.

At EA I've worked many weekends and far more hours week-on-week than any other company I've ever worked at. If I was working similar hours to my previous employers I would say I received fair compensation. I have worked crazy hours at another developer but never sustained for so long. I actually received overtime and/or bonuses from that developer during crunches so this is not an alien concept for some of us in the industry.

I have never seen any mention of an employee / employer liaison committee for discussing these overtime practices.

I would like the 'high-tech' employee and company status of EAC to be clarified by HR. A simple job classification head count via internal email would suffice.

I firmly believe everyone at EA should aim to receive compensation for excessive overtime or reach rational scheduling agreements before crunch time so employees can perform at their optimum and not at their limit. I also believe EAC should make employees aware of how they are following the relevant legal procedures. If you're from EA and want to pursue this or from another company and have prior experience of these agreements, please mail me:

maybe_we_need_a_union@hotmail.com

If you work for EA and feel that I am wrong to add my thoughts to this blog, please feel free to mail me as well. It may turn out to be a cathartic experience for everyone involved.

Ok. EA are not the only ones who may have their hand in the tempting cookie jar of employee abuse. If you in the industry or are considering games development as a career it is likely you will come up against more than one employer who behaves like this. However for a company with the $x,000,000,000 stockmarket footprint of EA I believe we should take them to task. There are many great points to working for EA and everyone reading this should be aware that it is certainly not all bad.

Just for the record, EA have not overstepped my mental 'line in the sand' *yet*. If they do, I will almost certainly do what Joe Straitif (sp) did. Like him (and other experienced game developers), I am lucky enough to be in a position where I can move fairly easily to another job if required.

I have enough experience in games to realise that excessive overtime indicates poor workflow and management. I worked at company previously where we hit every milestone and we would usually go home around 7 o'clock during the week before a milestone. I am giving EAC the benefit of the doubt over the coming year but they won't get a chance for a third strike.

Continued on next post...

If EA put their house in order and address their workflow issues they will (re)discover they can do the same job with fewer staff and in less time. That means more great titles can be pushed in parallel with less pressure on the development staff and more staff will come and work for them. That means we all make more money in the long run because the stock will follow.

Given the resources of EA I often find myself wondering why we are putting out sequels on a yearly basis with a ship date close to the final project date. Why not get ahead of the game and schedule a team to final 6 months or even a year before it's launch? We are not a small development house who cannot afford a solid safety margin at the cost of a period of overlap to get the ball rolling.

Many smaller developers do a great job with a fraction of the staff we have on our teams and produce comparable or better output.

Would their employees leave their employer if they were treated in the way many at EA are? Yes.

Do crunched up (EA et al) employees produce better work than reasonably rested ones do? No.

On a personal note, in the past I often worked in my spare time and went beyond my job mandate just to get something done. I definitely noticed that when being made to crunch for months on end at EA the last thing I wanted to do at home was anything related to EA.

Theres probably a disclaimer on this website but just to be sure:

Everything I've expressed in this post (except the quoted website) is entirely my opinion.

Whew...
/endrant

quit.

you're under no obligation to work for an employer that's actually detrimental to your health. there's no "contract" on the face of this earth that's "legal and binding" in the face of health issues.

as for your "family" that you must "support", if you're so much in debt that losing your job will cause a catastrophy in your family, you're not only ill, you're a goddamn idiot.

no job is worth losing your health for. in fact, faced with worry and misery, i'd choose poverty over a well paying job. "to have" through "sacrifice" of things that are really important is, well, fucking stupid.


Anonymous

There's many problems with this. One problem for a lot of people is just leaving the lifestyle they're acustomed to. It's hard to leave a job that's paying you lots of money so you can buy a nice car, eat at fancy restarants, live in a fabu neighborhood and pay for whatever college your kid wants to go to. Programmers make a decent amount of money, and it's not something that can be easily given up.

Also, many of these people simply love the industry. Why would someone want to program a database for a bank or hospital when they could have fun making a video game? There's also a certain culture that people have in the video game industry. These people are very similar in that they're smart, casual and love playing games. A programmer from the video game industry would probably have a hard time fitting into the professional 9-5 business attire yuppie environment.

I could be wrong, but this is what I've seen from my observations of the industry. The solution isn't just quitting because these positions will be filled immediately by young people who will do anything to get into the industry (this is where I am btw). Instead, those who are in the industry need to impact change now from where they are. I don't think unions are necessarily the answer, but there needs to be some kind of solidarity among the work staff to not put up with these hours no longer.

- Some dude wanting to see change in the industry