Running to twitter and crying about RTO is.
So? They’ll probably have something else already lined up if their next place of employment dares to issue RTO.
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I am retired now, but we had work from home folks and satellite office folks like this for almost 20 years - and the company still does. Starting in the early to mid 2000’s. Once internet was reliable and available enough, and if you did not need specialized equipment only available at the office, it did not matter where you did the work, as long as the work got done on time and correctly. High quality talented people were worth it, and it cost LESS to let them work at a home office.
No overhead costs for facilities for a big one. They did have to drive/fly to attend meetings, esp with software demos to customers, or requirements meetings, but those were not common and people were happy to meet the minimal travel requirements.
You seem to think people:
- Don’t want to work and are not passionate about their jobs.
- That the twitter post was a whinge about having to go in.
The person is upset that the RTO policies are hurting the DF team. The people who did not quit who are trying to get the content done and released on time. They are pissed that the management decisions are costing teh whole Dev team good people are is going to hurt the quality/schedule for Dragonflight going forward!
This directly hurts players who won’t get content on time, or as much of it, because the senior mgt is driving away long term staff with inflexible policies.
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I think it’s 100% inappropriate of these “devs” and I think it’s even less appropriate that if you don’t agree with the devs your forum posts get deleted. I’m working on logging any/all interactions on the forums where I write in disagreement w/ these people only to have my forum account actioned. I will seek out Blizzard’s HR department as well as other higher offices to show them how these forums are being weaponized against them. Sad times.333
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If you decide to break the forum Code of Conduct, yes, posts get removed if they are reported. The “devs” don’t touch the forums. Forum Mods are a subset of the CS/GM team in Texas.
Good luck with that!
Tell me; how do Bobby Kotick’s boots taste? Are they delicious?
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But he is?
It’s almost like you should be blaming the people who leave instead of the company that just wants you to show up for work. This isn’t even a Blizzard specific issue. It’s just people leaving a company that can’t even handle reporting to work as per their agreement for employment.
Showing up to work is not an inflexible policy. It’s the same policy they had before COVID.
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Yeah, it’s the median for total comp for the position, across all ranks.
Associate software engineers come in at $100K (includes10% bonus)
Software Engineers Is are at $129K (includes 10% bonus)
Senior Software Engineer Is are at $158K (includes 8% bonus)
Senior Software Engineer IIs are at $208K (includes 17%-ish bonus)
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Also once you lose your senior team and you have a bunch of new people in the job who gotto adjust and relearn everything… lol a mess… I don’t blame that dev for being frustrated
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My friend works at a tech company in Irvine, senior engineer total comp $450k.
Anyone still working at Blizzard needs to not.
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Adam lost all credibility upon touting Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity as a positive.
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Times change. Technology changes. There is no NEED to sit in an office to do the same thing someone can do elsewhere. They have the computer, internet, phone, video chat, group meetings, email, and everything else they need. Middle managers can’t stare over their shoulder to see the same activity they can see on team worksites? Less real estate is needed so developers get upset about an excess of corporate space?
I will blame a company that can’t be flexible in their work policy. If my co-workers were to leave and the rest have to deal with the fallout when it COULD be prevented? Yeah, that is frustrating and all on the company. I have complained about Blizzard’s campus work policy for at least 10 years now.
I feel that it negatively impacted their hiring options for a long time. If you did not want to give up your home, family, reasonable cost of living, etc and live in California, you did not apply.
I even talked to Mike M. about it, but they had no plans at the time to open East Coast offices for game dev back in 2016 when I had the convo. Of course, now they have acquired Vicarious Visions so have an upstate NY campus. There is also another studio in the Boston area they have recently acquired or teamed up with.
Things change, and will continue to change. Either the company is going to adapt, or they are going to lose staff. Staff who still are trying to get the project done, are going to continue to be frustrated to see their colleagues leave, and to see the impact on a game they love. A game they really want us to enjoy. Seeing possible delays or content cuts sucks.
This is not some strange lazy people thing. The folks leaving are the opposite. They are some of the key folks and they are fed up with a company being behind the times. They will move on from a project they love, to something else for better quality of life.
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Yea, buildings that people will have to work in. This has nothing to do with ‘inflexible work policy’ when the only policy is that they want you to come into the actual office.
It’s a legitimate work policy. Come to work. It’s not that hard.
Going to work is something people have to do. That is not going away because people had a brief taste of WFH during a pandemic. Every Tech Company has a RTO policy.
It’s not ‘inflexible’ to require your workers to come to work.
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People are happy to do their work, on time and at high quality. You don’t need to sit in an office space to do a fantastic job and accomplish the work. We have already established Blizzard game development is not a public space like a store or service that customers physically interact with. That was the condition you felt esp required people to be AT the location to get the job done.
No they don’t. Some do, not all. Which is why people are leaving the inflexible ones and going to the ones that allow WFH other than certain meetings or travel.
This is just as bad as you saying that everyone who works from home is less productive when that is blatantly untrue. Speaking in absolutes or “all” terms is rarely ever accurate.
People work best in the environment that suits them and where they can get the job done effectively. For some that is a home office, for some that is an in person environment.
A company that wants to keep the experienced staff is going to have to consider flexibility, esp when there is ZERO actual reason to make someone add hours to their day in a commute and $1000s per year in expenses. To do the same thing they do in their home office logged into slack, team websites, etc. The mgrs see exactly what they are doing, that it is done on time, and what the quality is.
None of that requires sitting in a corporate office.
Home office does not mean they fail to be on time to their work or don’t accomplish their tasking.
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You don’t need to sit at home either. This is asinine. People aren’t traumatized by driving to an office building. If your work requires you to go to the office, you go to the office.
It’s not an ‘inflexible work policy’.
weforum/org/agenda/2021/09/remote-working-hybrid-productivity
It’s an ongoing debate that’s starting to lean towards the notion that having RTO in some capacity is actually the best option.
WFH people are actually less productive on average because they’re doing other things with their children, chores, etc. and are more likely to cut their own hours short because of it.
If experienced staff want to leave because coming into the office a couple days a week is too much of a burden, as most people do, then they can compete with the finite of WFH jobs because companies cannot exist solely on the internet.
Businesses are not going to just throw out what works, my dude. No matter how much you insist that they should, WFH was an exception and not the rule, and if entitled, over-estimating workers think they can make a better run for themselves, go for it.
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People are gonna keep pushing this WFH thing until the monkey paw opens and Blizzard switches employees to contractors locked in to several years and forced to work in office every day of the work week.
When is Danuser quitting? Please let him take his talent to a game I don’t play.
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Nobody said they were “traumatized”. They don’t NEED to be in the office to do the work. That is the point. They feel that the quality of life and money lost by commuting and living in a high cost of living area, is not worth a fake requirement to work out of a corporate office when the work does not actually NEED to be done in the office.
The only requirement for an office for most of this is driven by corporate policy, not actual task requirements to get the job done.
It absolutely is.
We don’t hand write things on carbon triplicate and mail copies anymore either. We don’t hand write when we can type. We don’t use a typewriter when we can use a computer. We don’t mail letters when we can email.
Just because something worked in one technological era, does not mean it will always work that way, or always HAS to work that way.
Companies that don’t change with the times, and find their core staff leaving are going to be left with frustrated team members. Short handed, lacking the institutional knowledge to train new people. The experienced ones left are trying to pick up without their colleagues and are frustrated. They CARE about the game they love and are upset corporate policy is hurting content and scheduled for DF.
Instead of “hey they could be be flexible and ensure workers are satisfied AND we gamers get the best product on time!”
You seem to prefer the rigid old “sit here because I told you too even if it is no longer needed”. The hell with the game, the workers, etc. Just SIT HERE IN THIS DESK! You lazy lout who might put on a load of laundry between emails! (as if that is any more disruptive than a coffee break and talking to coworkers about the sportsball game).
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Danuser after writing the worst possible scenarios and dialog ever to hit wow:
Nah dude. Let’s ignore all of our technological advances and force people into an environment that is now known for their abuse towards their own employees. Surely this will help work morale! 
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I’ve never laughed so hard.
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