EA's bright and shiny new corporate trademark is "Challenge Everything." Where this applies is not exactly clear. Churning out one licensed football game after another doesn't sound like challenging much of anything to me; it sounds like a money farm. To any EA executive that happens to read this, I have a good challenge for you: how about safe and sane labor practices for the people on whose backs you walk for your millions?
I am retaining some anonymity here because I have no illusions about what the consequences would be for my family if I was explicit. However, I also feel no impetus to shy away from sharing our story, because I know that it is too common to stick out among those of the thousands of engineers, artists, and designers that EA employs.
Our adventures with Electronic Arts began less than a year ago. The small game studio that my partner worked for collapsed as a result of foul play on the part of a big publisher -- another common story. Electronic Arts offered a job, the salary was right and the benefits were good, so my SO took it. I remember that they asked him in one of the interviews: "how do you feel about working long hours?" It's just a part of the game industry -- few studios can avoid a crunch as deadlines loom, so we thought nothing of it. When asked for specifics about what "working long hours" meant, the interviewers coughed and glossed on to the next question; now we know why.
Within weeks production had accelerated into a 'mild' crunch: eight hours six days a week. Not bad. Months remained until any real crunch would start, and the team was told that this "pre-crunch" was to prevent a big crunch toward the end; at this point any other need for a crunch seemed unlikely, as the project was dead on schedule. I don't know how many of the developers bought EA's explanation for the extended hours; we were new and naive so we did. The producers even set a deadline; they gave a specific date for the end of the crunch, which was still months away from the title's shipping date, so it seemed safe. That date came and went. And went, and went. When the next news came it was not about a reprieve; it was another acceleration: twelve hours six days a week, 9am to 10pm.
Weeks passed. Again the producers had given a termination date on this crunch that again they failed. Throughout this period the project remained on schedule. The long hours started to take its toll on the team; people grew irritable and some started to get ill. People dropped out in droves for a couple of days at a time, but then the team seemed to reach equilibrium again and they plowed ahead. The managers stopped even talking about a day when the hours would go back to normal.
Now, it seems, is the "real" crunch, the one that the producers of this title so wisely prepared their team for by running them into the ground ahead of time. The current mandatory hours are 9am to 10pm -- seven days a week -- with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behavior (at 6:30pm). This averages out to an eighty-five hour work week. Complaints that these once more extended hours combined with the team's existing fatigue would result in a greater number of mistakes made and an even greater amount of wasted energy were ignored.
The stress is taking its toll. After a certain number of hours spent working the eyes start to lose focus; after a certain number of weeks with only one day off fatigue starts to accrue and accumulate exponentially. There is a reason why there are two days in a weekend -- bad things happen to one's physical, emotional, and mental health if these days are cut short. The team is rapidly beginning to introduce as many flaws as they are removing.
And the kicker: for the honor of this treatment EA salaried employees receive a) no overtime; b) no compensation time! ('comp' time is the equalization of time off for overtime -- any hours spent during a crunch accrue into days off after the product has shipped); c) no additional sick or vacation leave. The time just goes away. Additionally, EA recently announced that, although in the past they have offered essentially a type of comp time in the form of a few weeks off at the end of a project, they no longer wish to do this, and employees shouldn't expect it. Further, since the production of various games is scattered, there was a concern on the part of the employees that developers would leave one crunch only to join another. EA's response was that they would attempt to minimize this, but would make no guarantees. This is unthinkable; they are pushing the team to individual physical health limits, and literally giving them nothing for it. Comp time is a staple in this industry, but EA as a corporation wishes to "minimize" this reprieve. One would think that the proper way to minimize comp time is to avoid crunch, but this brutal crunch has been on for months, and nary a whisper about any compensation leave, nor indeed of any end of this treatment.
This crunch also differs from crunch time in a smaller studio in that it was not an emergency effort to save a project from failure. Every step of the way, the project remained on schedule. Crunching neither accelerated this nor slowed it down; its effect on the actual product was not measurable. The extended hours were deliberate and planned; the management knew what they were doing as they did it. The love of my life comes home late at night complaining of a headache that will not go away and a chronically upset stomach, and my happy supportive smile is running out.
No one works in the game industry unless they love what they do. No one on that team is interested in producing an inferior product. My heart bleeds for this team precisely BECAUSE they are brilliant, talented individuals out to create something great. They are and were more than willing to work hard for the success of the title. But that good will has only been met with abuse. Amazingly, Electronic Arts was listed #91 on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 2003.
EA's attitude toward this -- which is actually a part of company policy, it now appears -- has been (in an anonymous quotation that I've heard repeated by multiple managers), "If they don't like it, they can work someplace else." Put up or shut up and leave: this is the core of EA's Human Resources policy. The concept of ethics or compassion or even intelligence with regard to getting the most out of one's workforce never enters the equation: if they don't want to sacrifice their lives and their health and their talent so that a multibillion dollar corporation can continue its Godzilla-stomp through the game industry, they can work someplace else.
But can they?
The EA Mambo, paired with other giants such as Vivendi, Sony, and Microsoft, is rapidly either crushing or absorbing the vast majority of the business in game development. A few standalone studios that made their fortunes in previous eras -- Blizzard, Bioware, and Id come to mind -- manage to still survive, but 2004 saw the collapse of dozens of small game studios, no longer able to acquire contracts in the face of rapid and massive consolidation of game publishing companies. This is an epidemic hardly unfamiliar to anyone working in the industry. Though, of course, it is always the option of talent to go outside the industry, perhaps venturing into the booming commercial software development arena. (Read my tired attempt at sarcasm.)
To put some of this in perspective, I myself consider some figures. If EA truly believes that it needs to push its employees this hard -- I actually believe that they don't, and that it is a skewed operations perspective alone that results in the severity of their crunching, coupled with a certain expected amount of the inefficiency involved in running an enterprise as large as theirs -- the solution therefore should be to hire more engineers, or artists, or designers, as the case may be. Never should it be an option to punish one's workforce with ninety hour weeks; in any other industry the company in question would find itself sued out of business so fast its stock wouldn't even have time to tank. In its first weekend, Madden 2005 grossed $65 million. EA's annual revenue is approximately $2.5 billion. This company is not strapped for cash; their labor practices are inexcusable.
The interesting thing about this is an assumption that most of the employees seem to be operating under. Whenever the subject of hours come up, inevitably, it seems, someone mentions 'exemption'. They refer to a California law that supposedly exempts businesses from having to pay overtime to certain 'specialty' employees, including software programmers. This is Senate Bill 88. However, Senate Bill 88 specifically does not apply to the entertainment industry -- television, motion picture, and theater industries are specifically mentioned. Further, even in software, there is a pay minimum on the exemption: those exempt must be paid at least $90,000 annually. I can assure you that the majority of EA employees are in fact not in this pay bracket; ergo, these practices are not only unethical, they are illegal.
I look at our situation and I ask 'us': why do you stay? And the answer is that in all likelihood we won't; and in all likelihood if we had known that this would be the result of working for EA, we would have stayed far away in the first place. But all along the way there were deceptions, there were promises, there were assurances -- there was a big fancy office building with an expensive fish tank -- all of which in the end look like an elaborate scheme to keep a crop of employees on the project just long enough to get it shipped. And then if they need to, they hire in a new batch, fresh and ready to hear more promises that will not be kept; EA's turnover rate in engineering is approximately 50%. This is how EA works. So now we know, now we can move on, right? That seems to be what happens to everyone else. But it's not enough. Because in the end, regardless of what happens with our particular situation, this kind of "business" isn't right, and people need to know about it, which is why I write this today.
If I could get EA CEO Larry Probst on the phone, there are a few things I would ask him. "What's your salary?" would be merely a point of curiosity. The main thing I want to know is, Larry: you do realize what you're doing to your people, right? And you do realize that they ARE people, with physical limits, emotional lives, and families, right? Voices and talents and senses of humor and all that? That when you keep our husbands and wives and children in the office for ninety hours a week, sending them home exhausted and numb and frustrated with their lives, it's not just them you're hurting, but everyone around them, everyone who loves them? When you make your profit calculations and your cost analyses, you know that a great measure of that cost is being paid in raw human dignity, right?
Right?
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not an EA issue
Anonymous
December 10 2004, 18:29:01 UTC 16 years ago
I completely agree...
Anonymous
December 10 2004, 19:07:57 UTC 16 years ago
The human story
December 10 2004, 19:40:54 UTC 16 years ago
Human stoy
December 10 2004, 20:06:40 UTC 16 years ago
I hope people work together for the good of all.
UGRailroad on Google Groups
Anonymous
December 11 2004, 00:15:42 UTC 16 years ago
This group is dedicated to delivering game industry slaves to freedom.
Most of us got involved in the industry because of a love for games.
After working in the industry for a while, you have to ask yourself --
do you still really love it?
For the past two years I have been contracting off and on for EA at a
small developer. A week ago, I handed in my resignation, and have
decided to start a small shareware gaming company and go to business
school. I just wasn't willing to be a cog in that wheel anymore. I
want my own damn wheel.
The games I make will be smaller, aimed at a different audience, will
make less money, and won't get the press hoopla of big studio games,
but at least I can do what I used to love -- make games.
This forum is intended for discussion of proactive solutions to
changing the industry. Making games should be the best job there is.
And it is up to us to figure out how to make it that way again.
Welcome to the UGRailroad. Let's get back to loving our jobs again.
Re: UGRailroad on Google Groups
Anonymous
December 11 2004, 07:29:22 UTC 16 years ago
Re: UGRailroad on Google Groups
Anonymous
16 years ago
Re: UGRailroad on Google Groups
Anonymous
16 years ago
Long hours ain't working
Anonymous
December 11 2004, 00:27:34 UTC 16 years ago
Management should take note that setting ridiculously tight deadlines to get a product to market fast does not equate to a good sales. games need to be polished to be top sellers.
management at EA has never heard of the law of diminishing returns
Re: Long hours ain't working
Anonymous
December 11 2004, 00:38:34 UTC 16 years ago
Not to sound like a grinch, but Christmas is the biggest problem with the game industry. Sales are so dramatically higher on this one holiday that there is no room for polish or schedule slippage on many products.
Deadlines will always exist, but how can we keep from constantly overpromising and underdelivering?
Again, for a discussion on fixing the industry in a proactive manner, check out UGRailroad on Google Groups.
http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=UGRailroad
Re: Long hours ain't working
Anonymous
16 years ago
Re: Long hours ain't working
Anonymous
16 years ago
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Anonymous
16 years ago
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Anonymous
16 years ago
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
16 years ago
Be a true American!
Anonymous
December 11 2004, 01:55:47 UTC 16 years ago
Tell management to go fuck themselves
Get fired
collect wellfare
then sue em!
Web address
Anonymous
December 11 2004, 21:45:36 UTC 16 years ago
I want to give you a present: easpouse.com, .net and .org. No strings attached - you're doing a great thing shedding light on an industry full of sharp, creative people that's getting stomped.
Please contact info AT cyberlodge.org.
Thanks!
Deleted comment
Re: How?
Anonymous
December 12 2004, 07:25:18 UTC 16 years ago
I do not see the connection between your clearly troubled childhood and the plight of EA workers.
I thought I read about 50 posts ago that you were retiring from this thread to feed your children or something? What happened to that? Are the kids okay? Are they being bullied in school? Do their shoes fit? Is it time for an oil change for your SO's car, van or truck? Did your parents walk to school or did they bring a lunch?
If you insist on continuing to post please stick to the subject at hand, and wax nostalgic about your own deep-seated issues in your OWN journal.
Oh, wait...
Anonymous
16 years ago
Re: How?
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Re: How?
Anonymous
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Re: How?
Anonymous
16 years ago
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Re: How?
Anonymous
16 years ago
definitions
16 years ago
This is not just a Game industry problem
Anonymous
December 12 2004, 15:14:43 UTC 16 years ago
I worked for Microsoft on Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM) as a Software Test Engineer until October at which point I was laid off. Over the last year and a half I work 90 to 100 hours a week. I went 9 months without one day off (yes you heard me, not one day). We shipped MOM is late August, and for all our hard work 97 people where laid off in early September. There was no fiscal reason to lay us off, our previous product was still making lots of money, our market share went up 200% in 2004, and our division was on track to earning a billion dollars in 2005. We where given 10 weeks of severance, but have sign away our rights to sue to get the severance. I had just bought a house so I had to take the deal. I have never felt more abused in a job. I tried very hard not to get another job with Microsoft but I had to take a contracting job with them.
This seems to be an all to common problem and the abuses are many. I fear there is not much that can be done to change this industry. I am going back to school for engineering so I can get out of software. By the way I am more than willing to go on the record about my experiences. If you ever do get the media involved please let me know.
dgjedde@yahoo.com
Re: This is not just a Game industry problem
Anonymous
December 12 2004, 18:20:41 UTC 16 years ago
The media IS involved, dgjedde, have you read previous pages in this blog?
Smells like Teen Spirit
Anonymous
December 12 2004, 18:31:21 UTC 16 years ago
Most younger employees don't understand the meaning of "hard work." It's easier to blame upper management or the man than it is to own up to your own shortcomings and attempt to fix them. Chances are the team is actually doing something wrong and EA_S's SO can't get it through his thick skull. There is probably some not-so-trivial detail of production that routinely gets neglected and the team is being pushed to compensate or correct. Again, it's easier to scream "injustice" than to put yourself to *work* correcting the situation.
If the long hours truly didn't change deadlines or their being met, then the bottom line and P&L arguments here are invalid. No company pushes people that hard without drawing returns on the effort--it just doesn't make business sense. (Note the MOM Xmas push falls into exceptions due to the revenue thought to be made by releasing for Xmas.)
I'm not saying that bad working conditions don't exist--they do, in almost every industry ('cept probably the DMV and US Post Office ;) ). But a lot of details in the post and in this comment thread smack of exaggeration and being one sided. (No, I haven't read EA's response to get the other side of the story yet, but EA_S's post makes no effort to try and comprehend that there may be valid reasons for the injustices suffered.)
Lastly, EA_S should consider if her SO is truly "at work." Perhaps work is just an excuse to get out of the house and into the bar or otherwise step out?
Re: Smells like Teen Spirit
Anonymous
December 12 2004, 18:49:38 UTC 16 years ago
The thread is not exaggerated; the descriptions are accurate, beyond stupid and the reason I resigned.
'No company pushes people that hard without drawing returns on the effort--it just doesn't make business sense.' Whatever you say, Professor of Economics. If you're so much smarter than everyone else here, why the hell do you even have time the blog?
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sure
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WHAT?
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Re: WHAT?
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Re: Smells like Teen Spirit
16 years ago
reasonable doubt
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
December 12 2004, 20:37:56 UTC 16 years ago
Anonymous
December 13 2004, 06:28:47 UTC 16 years ago
Anonymous
16 years ago
Anonymous
16 years ago
I'm not buying it...
Anonymous
December 12 2004, 21:37:25 UTC 16 years ago
I feel bad for the employees at EA if much of what this person writes is true. And, I wouldn't be amused if I were working in those conditions. I doubt anyone having worked at another studio joined EA with any illusions of whether the job would be hard, the hours long, or the "balance" crappy. I also doubt the personnel nor extra time are overtime eligible under the Fair Labor Standards act.
Grow up. Leave the job if you don't like it. Quit trying to drag what's probably otherwise a good company through the mud in the media.
Re: I'm not buying it...
Anonymous
December 12 2004, 22:20:08 UTC 16 years ago
This is definately the solution for an individual (or couple) to pursue. And in the game industry many people do just that. The problem is what this does to the industry. What remains are seniors that have been promoted to management only because they have survived, not because they have the appropriate skills to manage a project. Finding experienced seniors is difficult for most development companies, so they have no choice but to make the situation worse.
I think many people would like to stay in the industry if only it can change, even a little. I know i would, but my patience is running thin.
Re: I'm not buying it...
Anonymous
16 years ago
Re: I'm not buying it...
Anonymous
12 years ago
Re: I'm not buying it...
Anonymous
16 years ago
UGRailroad
Anonymous
December 13 2004, 01:28:55 UTC 16 years ago
There's nothing there yet, but I'd rather have a small community interested in fixing our problem than a large community that denies that the problem exists. Please post.
Thanks again to EA_Spouse for igniting this firestorm.
Re: UGRailroad
Anonymous
December 13 2004, 05:54:47 UTC 16 years ago
Re: UGRailroad
16 years ago
Re: UGRailroad
Anonymous
16 years ago
Re: UGRailroad
Anonymous
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Re: UGRailroad
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Re: UGRailroad
Anonymous
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Re: UGRailroad
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Re: UGRailroad
Anonymous
16 years ago
Re: UGRailroad
16 years ago
December 13 2004, 04:47:16 UTC 16 years ago
December 13 2004, 04:49:59 UTC 16 years ago
December 13 2004, 16:45:41 UTC 16 years ago
Anonymous
December 14 2004, 07:38:44 UTC 16 years ago
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