I really wonder what will be the breaking point for the devs themselves who aren’t pro union. like Allison, to become pro union
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It is a stupid decision, its corporate execs getting grumpy that the Blizzard Campus isn’t directly generating as much profit value as it did before and trying to force employees back to make it easier to explain to shareholders why they have to keep paying for its maintenance.
If they HAVE to do a RTO, I don’t see why they do not at least try to compromise and say you need to be back X number of days a week instead of a flat “you must always work from the campus now.”
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With socal rent prices? It’s cheaper to lose your job and look for a new one in the long run lmao
either that or, as was revealed in the lawsuit period, 5-8 devs in a 2 bedroom apartment
What is RTO?
Just realized it’s Return To Office, I’m dumb.
I think joining a company that isn’t close to you is the shortsighted thing, this is something employees should’ve thought about beforehand. Working from home forever is unhealthy and puts society in a bad place. Everyone working from home makes communication more difficult and the office might as well be gotten rid of if people don’t want to come in. I’m someone who gets more productive work done by doing it in person, I’d be sad to have an opportunity to leave the house be taken away. I don’t think people get more productive work done from sitting in their home all the time.
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Corporations don’t need to unionize to stop the hemorrhaging of workers. They need to stop treating their employees like they’re disposable. My last job was a union job, and believe me, it’s not as great as people think it is. We constantly had issues with keeping people and were understaffed most days.
Reality is, when you treat your employees well and pay them well, they’ll want to work and continue to work for you, union or not.
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The issue at hand is negotiating power to stop RTO
That is fixed with a union putting execs on a leash
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There’s so much other stuff that happened while this thread wasn’t being updated, and also a bunch of regulars stopped posting here. I think they settled something related to Esports?
Yeah eSports payout was economically abusive and robbing wages
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I am having a hard time trying to put this RTO business even near the actual stuff that matters.
Did you read that before you posted? You are not everyone - everyone is not you. Just as you would hate one extreme, others hate the other.
There is a middle ground between “everyone working from home” and functional reality for the business to make payroll despite costs. Some people have to show up to turn on the lights and feed the hamsters.
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You basically said the same thing, the same utterly messed up thing.
I mean if you are being a hired by a company that is going through a workplace-abuse lawsuit
why would you willingly agree to go to the workplace in question physically lmao
No, because he is saying it is a negative. I am saying it has its place, but it is not near what actually matters.
Where he calls it a negative, I call it a benign frivolity indulged. I do not think it hurts the company to allow some remote work, but it does not hurt the workers to demand some workplace presence.
I expect that this isn’t what Mike is wanting to say, but rather what Bobby Kotick is telling Mike to say.
It becomes easy to see when you spot the huge red flag which is: “If you think that executives are making a lot of money and you aren’t, you’re living in a myth.”
That’s not the type of thing someone who came up through the ranks says, that’s someone who started as an executive and has never needed to deal with low pay says. Someone like Bobby.
And it’s completely in character for him to do that too. Remember the company wide email that got sent out by Frances Townsend that dismissed the lawsuits? The email that Bobby then lashed Frances for writing? Well she didn’t write it. He did. He used her account to write that email, then when the well deserved backlash was served, he threw Frances Townsend under the bus.
Now, granted, Frances Townsend is no saint and she doesn’t deserve any pity either, but Bobby was the evil behind that mess, and I expect he’s behind Mike Ybarra’s comments too. Demanding that he ‘stick to the script’ or lose his job.
Ask the applicant. Blizzard is being forthright with what the applicant should expect going forward. Apply at your own volition.
If I applied at some work place that was all sexual, I might wear my kinky boots.
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Yes but Dragonflight was made and shipped with everyone not on campus
It stands to reason what they had going was working
but justifying the campus seems more important than creating expansions that sustain and grow the playerbase
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Evil people with no empathy exist.
Edit: As well as deluded people.
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It certainly matters when multiple devs who don’t live in California and worked just fine previously have to lose their jobs.
Your opinion on certainty is laughable.
I disagree. If the Blizzard workers who are not in California live in states that tempted them with weak protections- that is on them.
Workers have a choice - live in states with worker protections and pay the taxes, or not. I have little concern for a non Californian who lost their job at a California company because they do not want to be in California.
I mean, I could not care less about non Californians crying that they have to go to California for work. Back in the day, that was what non Californians did.
Yes, people like Bobby.
Because if you actually listen to people describe Mike Ybarra before this mess? He’s described as an amazing co-worker/leader. Both by folks at Blizzard Entertainment, and people at his previous workplace, Microsoft, who gave him major endorsements when he got appointed to lead Blizzard.
People who get glowing endorsements like that don’t suddenly do a 180 and say crap like what Mike said, not unless they’re forced to.
And Bobby is the power hungry, greedy jerk who would force other people to say stuff like that, because Bobby hates dealing with any sort of criticism. He’ll gladly throw the people who say the crap that he wants them to say under the bus though.
It’s true that I’m not everyone. My mind works in a way where I think several steps ahead, so when it comes to situations like this I’m less thinking about the current moment and more so how those involved in the situation affect the future. I can just see something happening where Blizzard employees no longer have to go into work, which causes a domino effect of other companies taking on such a policy, then we’re in a universe like WALL-E where everyone sits in a chair at home all day. Maybe perhaps I’m just doom pilled. You’re definitely right about there being a middle ground though, working from home during the pandemic was fine but that’s done now and I think it’s time to move on.
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