Now we know what the wives think, but what really matters is how the Rockstar employees in question feel. Maybe they just love their job and want to make Red Dead Redemption a truly great game.
I know a few animators that work at Pixar that actually enjoy working full shifts on Saturdays, and they do it, willingly, very frequently.
Of course, that's the same as saying people at Google love their work environment. Perhaps an unfair comparison, but with the email from Rockstar mentioning the free massages, I can't imagine that they have it too tough there.
I've seen this kind of environment before in coding sweatshops.
While it's not necessarily "required" to work crazy overtime, the project almost dictates it, and hey, you don't want to be labelled a "non-team player", now do you?
"Oh, we understand you have to go home at 5 while the rest of us work and slave. That's cool. We get it. You have a kid. So does Bill, but he's staying until midnight cause he wants to make sure the AI glitch gets fixed. Tim is working on Bug 13225 cause if he doesn't get it, then Sam and Joe can't work on 32217. That's cool though. Somebody will pick up your slack."
It's a hive mentality. Nobody wants to get singled out as being a boat anchor, so they all bust their asses beyond all reasonable measure because management doesn't "discourage" it. "Oh, look how hard you're working! We appreciate it!"
And then when the game gets released, hell, they may lay off half the staff.
If management set a firm "5pm lights out" policy for EVERYONE, the problem would be solved.
Situation sometimes gets worse, not only due to management but due to employees too. If nobody wants to leave before the others and stays at work to "act" like working, everyone starts staying longer. This can also happen if the manager keeps the record of "early leavers" and starts overloading them. I have been there. But yes, "5pm lights out" policy is the solution.
Things would still be tense and overworked around release regardless. There is an understandable amount of trepidation with a huge project like Red Dead coming to fruition after years of development and being way over budget. That these sort of things happen, I don't know if it helps to point fingers at management, shareholders, or crew.
To some extent, welcome to the industry, that was made very clear to me every step of the way through school and I expect it to be true after I'm hired. I know a lot of guys who work those kind of hours all the time, I know the guys at Bungie & Lucas Arts are doing that at crunch time. No one lasts very long at Blur studios because it's always like that so when the burn out they move on. Hopefully they'll get a couple of weeks off after Red Dead is complete, I've seen some studios give great vacation time at the completion of a project but more often it just means you get a break by way of lay-offs.
That said, that really shouldn't happen for nine or ten months straight, that's ridiculous and people do have legitimate obligations to family but maybe that's not the kind of employee Rockstar attracts. It's a seriously tough call and I'm sympathetic to both sides.
Unrealated; it's about time we get a Husbands of X Studio Employees letter, and not just because I want more women in the industry
If management set a firm "5pm lights out" policy for EVERYONE, the problem would be solved.
Except that people would then start coming in earlier and earlier instead of staying late for the same reasons.
I kind of like the way my employer does things (granted the webhosting industry isn't the same as the development industry). They specifically say don't work more than 10 hours OT per week unless you talk to us about it first and we okay it. That and they will also make people take vacations or cut back their OT if they feel they have been working too hard. Once again though, not the same industry.
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I know a few animators that work at Pixar that actually enjoy working full shifts on Saturdays, and they do it, willingly, very frequently.
Of course, that's the same as saying people at Google love their work environment. Perhaps an unfair comparison, but with the email from Rockstar mentioning the free massages, I can't imagine that they have it too tough there.
While it's not necessarily "required" to work crazy overtime, the project almost dictates it, and hey, you don't want to be labelled a "non-team player", now do you?
"Oh, we understand you have to go home at 5 while the rest of us work and slave. That's cool. We get it. You have a kid. So does Bill, but he's staying until midnight cause he wants to make sure the AI glitch gets fixed. Tim is working on Bug 13225 cause if he doesn't get it, then Sam and Joe can't work on 32217. That's cool though. Somebody will pick up your slack."
It's a hive mentality. Nobody wants to get singled out as being a boat anchor, so they all bust their asses beyond all reasonable measure because management doesn't "discourage" it. "Oh, look how hard you're working! We appreciate it!"
And then when the game gets released, hell, they may lay off half the staff.
If management set a firm "5pm lights out" policy for EVERYONE, the problem would be solved.
That said, that really shouldn't happen for nine or ten months straight, that's ridiculous and people do have legitimate obligations to family but maybe that's not the kind of employee Rockstar attracts. It's a seriously tough call and I'm sympathetic to both sides.
Unrealated; it's about time we get a Husbands of X Studio Employees letter, and not just because I want more women in the industry
I just hope Rock*'s environment is par for the course, and not as brash as the allegations make them out to be.
I don't think we should become comfortable with this kind of work environment, but it certainly isn't changing.
Except that people would then start coming in earlier and earlier instead of staying late for the same reasons.
I kind of like the way my employer does things (granted the webhosting industry isn't the same as the development industry). They specifically say don't work more than 10 hours OT per week unless you talk to us about it first and we okay it. That and they will also make people take vacations or cut back their OT if they feel they have been working too hard. Once again though, not the same industry.