Electronic Arts apparently exploits the willingness of hardworking, creative people and perverts that into an insane company-mandated orgy of 7-day work weeks. It is manifestly insane because long hours of non-stop work increase errors and require even longer working hours to repair the damage. <\/p>\n
This scenario comes about when top management focuses on maximizing short-term financial return and ignores what it takes to produce quality products.<\/p>\n
EA’s work practices were exposed earlier by an EA Spouse<\/a>, but a recent article by Joe Straitiff, a former software engineer at EA, provides a first-hand view of what it is like to work in such a mentally unbalanced environment. His disturbing account<\/a> of his work and termination from EA elicited 443 comments, most of them corroborating his observations. <\/p>\n The confusingly unreal dialog between Joe and his management at EA Most designers I knew worked very hard to produce the best possible The middle managers who enforce this destructive activity and behave The end result of this insanity, in every company where I have seen One of the critical points, in my opinion, occurs when qualified job There are still many applications for every opening, but their Electronic Arts apparently exploits the willingness of hardworking, creative people and perverts that into an insane company-mandated orgy of 7-day work weeks. It is manifestly insane because long hours of non-stop work increase errors and require even longer working hours to repair the damage. <\/p>\n This scenario comes about when top management focuses on maximizing short-term financial return and ignores what it takes to produce quality products.<\/p>\n EA’s work practices were exposed earlier by an EA Spouse<\/a>, but a recent article by Joe Straitiff, a former software engineer at EA, provides a first-hand view of what it is like to work in such a mentally unbalanced environment. His disturbing account<\/a> of his work and termination from EA elicited 443 comments, most of them corroborating his observations. <\/p>\n
\nbrought back painful memories for me, as this bizarre business practice
\nis not confined to the game industry. Long hours are a fact of life in
\nalmost every high tech industry, because the work is all about dealing
\nwith challenges that have never been tackled before. What stings is the
\nbetrayal. <\/p>\n
\ndesigns to whatever deadline was needed and we often put in 60 hour
\nweeks for months on end. As I mentioned earlier, the only goad we
\nneeded was the promise that we would get to work on the next big
\nproject as soon as we finished this one. When this willingness becomes
\nthe target of calculated enforcement, the payoff for long hours is no
\nlonger satisfaction. Management uses subterfuge, falsehoods and guilt
\nto compel that which was once given willingly.<\/p>\n
\nso callously, have drunk the corporate Kool-Aid<\/a> and understand that
\ntheir own retention depends on following the company script, even when
\nit is obviously non-productive. The few decent managers and HR people
\nget severely reprimanded by upper management and are fired as an
\nexample to the rest. You will see this in their comments to Joe
\nStraitliff’s article.<\/p>\n
\nit, has been impaired product quality, cover-ups, more floggings,
\ndeclining sales, declining stock values, more firings, and eventual
\ncollapse or takeover by a competitor.<\/p>\n
\napplicants are warned off by reports of actual working conditions. In
\nthat regard, Electronic Arts may be on its way down the chute. <\/p>\n
\nannual employee turnover is currently around 20%. Would you want one of
\nyour friends or family members to work there?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"