I have heard that many cool games are under threat because Blizzard decided to order their workers return to the office.
In my opinion, there were many good things that came out of the covid pandemic; you see, before covid, a lot of employers were intolerant and didn’t believe you if you were chucking a sicky, and it’s nice to live in a world where people are taking peoples physical health a little more seriously.
Now I accept that human nature is fallible, and I’ve seen many people I enjoy working with suddenly disappear from work, and I’m told ‘yeah they are just away sick’ but two weeks later, surprise surprise, they have moved onto a different company or position. They just say they are sick or take sick leave or whatever in order to get themselves organized.
If I was to be very honest, why my last job was in a factory where obviously couldn’t work from home, I think in many industries, people should 100% be allowed to work from home, and I’ll argue my case.
First, it’s good for the environment; the commute to and from work can be costly, and allowing that extra bit of sleep can be very beneficial for employees, spending more time with family, exercising, and having time to prepare for healthier meals rather than just getting takeaway on the run are all things that in my opinion, can lead to a more productive workforce,
Second, while the covid pandemic is settling down in the world, that doesn’t mean it’s completely over yet, it’s more the case that people are starting to treat it just like they treat the flu now, and how long will it be until the next pandemic comes out, while I accept we are social creatures, it’s probably safer for us to not interact in larger groups unless we really need to, larger gatherings are sometimes needed for sure, but we should be wary,
Third, I hate to bring it up but when Blizzard had issues of harassment of women in the workplace a few years back that actually did the company a lot of damage, but by encouraging work from home you reduce the risk of harassment in the workplace and other office distractions that you don’t need, but you also save costs on office space,
Now obviously I am not saying that it should become mandatory to work from home and people should be allowed to commute to the office if they wish to, as staff can feel isolated, and if it’s the case you’re having difficulty monitoring performance, and information security risks but that’s what VPN’s and so on are for, but anyway, why there are some arguments as to why some employees should be in the office, I think working from home is a safer option,
Though if I was to be very honest, I have often avoided making friendships with work colleagues a lot of the time, as workplace politics and people competing for higher positions in companies annoys me to no end, workplace competition rather than co-operation sucks, so have always preferred to work in industries where I’m left to my own devices,
Anyway I am not saying that employees should HAVE to work from home, but I believe that there should be a hybrid approach, I believe the benefits from working from home though far outweigh anything, I mean geez, during covid had people lie about having covid when in reality they were changing industries, so everyone is in a panic telling me to get tested so I going through all that nonsense getting tested for absolutely nothing,
People in industries where it’s not necessary to be in the office all the time should be entitled to work from home if they wish to, and I know that games like Diablo 4 actually looks really good, Dragonflight is doing okay, and if we are to see more good wow expansions, and get a Starcraft 3 and other cool Blizzard games in future, they really should change their position on this return to work order.
Just something for them to think about.
