EA scandal(Is anyone surprised?)

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Ned
I worked 90 hours mandatory overtime doing software development before I quit and went to law school.....edit........

wow. I dont even push my virtual populations in Call To Power 2 that far - if i try they revolt

I've done long hrs too in certain jobs, maybe near a few 80hrs back to back for a few weeks max. I always felt the upside of such a strategy didn't always balance the downside though - for me or the job i was doing?

What i dont like about this whole thing in the game industry is that its being used to completely exploit young hopefulls who think games are 'cool', and i'm pretty sure the guys at the top of the decision making know exactly what they are doing.

So imho the sooner some big names get a court ruling against them, the better of the whole industry will become.

[Ned]

child of Thor, the unjust part is that it is both mandatory and uncompensated.

[pchang]

These people are wimps. Medical residents routinely work 120 hours a week. Just ask Guynemer.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Ned


Retired at this point. But I am a patent attorney.

I've been tempted to go back to get a science ba, and take the patent bar.

[MarkG]

i do long hours but i kind of own half the company. who can i sue?

[Dinner]

Blame the US. Everyone else does.

[MarkG]

hmmm i'll just blame Bush i guess

[DanS]

As far as the article goes, comp time does accrue and is taken after a game ships. I see no problem with EA's MO. This is no scandal.

80 or 90 hours a week is doable for a short period of time. That said, I've done 90-100 hours a week for a couple months straight and couldn't take it, once I got into my late 20s. On the other hand, I didn't have a couple months off to recuperate, as an EA employee would, apparently.

Many doctors do those kind of hours consistently, but I don't think they or their patients are any better off for it.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by DanS
As far as the article goes, comp time does accrue and is taken after a game ships. I see no problem with EA's MO. This is no scandal.

The Article says that exactly this isn´t the case

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.

Sounds to me like the Company gets lots of free Labor.
The Employees are obviously forced to work this way the whole time and, if an employee is "wasted" and quits, no problem, as they just hire a new employee who doesn´t yet know of these practices.

[DanS]

Oh, OK. I misread the article. Well, I hope they are paying their people well enough that the extra work is worth it. It's tough to know whether it's worth it without knowing their salaries.

[MarkG]

Originally posted by DanS
As far as the article goes, comp time does accrue and is taken after a game ships.

from the article

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.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Originally posted by pchang
These people are wimps. Medical residents routinely work 120 hours a week. Just ask Guynemer.

So do some nurses. But the difference for us usually is that we are not salaried. But the overtime we get most goes in taxes. andhave to deal with all kinds of people and their families.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by DanS
Oh, OK. I misread the article. Well, I hope they are paying their people well enough that the extra work is worth it. It's tough to know whether it's worth it without knowing their salaries.

Some of those links gave salaries; programers make $60k while animators make $75k. There is a class action law suitewhich has been filed in San Mateo claiming both of those positions don't fall under the excempt status in California law so they are claiming EA owes thousands of employees years of unpaid overtime.

[DanS]

Is that $60k a starting salary? If not, then that's not very good wages, especially in California. Over time, they won't get the good programmers.

I'm inclined to leave this to the industry to figure out.

[:) Smiley]

Say, what ever happened to the 20 hour workweek we were supposed to have by now?