Insider Report Tells of Atrocious Working Conditions at Konami

[Morti]

It's easy to assume that doing non-work things during work hours = less work done. From a purely practical standpoint, it's obviously true. However, work performance is heavily influenced by your workplace environment. Happy workers in a pleasant environment perform better, both in quality and quantity. Removing 'distractions' may force employees into only focusing on their assigned task, but treating your workers like that will negatively affect their performance. And in extreme cases, like this, it will even bring you negative PR, which damages your business directly.

As an employer, you want to keep your employees happy above all else, even if that means some of them will sneak in some time on imgur during work hours.

This is why time-cards are bullshit for anyone on a salary rather than hourly pay. Every task has a deadline, if the tasks are being completed on time then what-the-fuck does it matter what your employees are doing at a particular time of day (aside from obvious network/security issues of course)?

Better that they take a long lunch on monday to go to the bank, pick up a few essentials etc whilst the stores are actually open rather than have them destracted and unproductive all week because they no there's no way they can get all that shit done on the weekend.

 

[RavenTail]

It's easy to assume that doing non-work things during work hours = less work done. From a purely practical standpoint, it's obviously true. However, work performance is heavily influenced by your workplace environment. Happy workers in a pleasant environment perform better, both in quality and quantity. Removing 'distractions' may force employees into only focusing on their assigned task, but treating your workers like that will negatively affect their performance. And in extreme cases, like this, it will even bring you negative PR, which damages your business directly.

As an employer, you want to keep your employees happy above all else, even if that means some of them will sneak in some time on imgur during work hours.

This is why time-cards are bullshit for anyone on a salary rather than hourly pay. Every task has a deadline, if the tasks are being completed on time then what-the-fuck does it matter what your employees are doing at a particular time of day (aside from obvious network/security issues of course)?

Better that they take a long lunch on monday to go to the bank, pick up a few essentials etc whilst the stores are actually open rather than have them destracted and unproductive all week because they no there's no way they can get all that shit done on the weekend.

It's all corporate control BS. A friend of mine works for DISH Network in IT. Now DISH has it's own bad reputation to work for but not nearly as bad as Konami. So all the employees of this branch have to carry about this company card. What does this card do, you might ask? Absolutely nothing, but, if some supervisor or higher up asks an employee if they have this card and they don't then that employee gets in trouble.

Now that's not a huge deal, I know, but it shows the BS need for petty control a company wants over their employees.

 

[Sarge034]

I just wonder how much of this is worded in such a way as to cause anger. Like the thing about not having internet access. You people do know that companies that deal in highly sensitive information and trade secrets almost always have an "air buffer" between their sensitive networks and the internet, right? And those same companies will have cameras set up to watch their employees because, you know, corporate espionage is a thing. You know what, imam play a game and see just how many of these I can flip around.

Konami game developers who aren't seen as useful are reassigned to jobs as security guards, cleaning staff at the company's fitness clubs or put to work on the production line at a pachinko-slot machine factory. This includes not just junior staff, but producers who have worked on well-known game titles.

> Instead of firing employees not adequately preforming their duties, Konami tries it's hardest to find positions within the company for these people to transfer to. At least the employee has a paying job still instead of being unemployed and they are free to look for a better job or re-apply for their old one at their heart's content.

Employees on Hideo Kojima's "Kojima Productions" team are forced to work on computers allegedly not connected to the internet and are only able to send internal messages.

> In order to protect sensitive information and proprietary code from corporate espionage and disgruntled employees, Konami has instituted an "air buffer" around any network that does not require internet access to fulfill it's duty.

Employees leaving the company offices during their lunch break are having their absences monitored with time cards. Those who stay out too long are having their names announced throughout the company.

> Konami has kept up with modern business practices and instituted a time punch card system for tracking when its' employees are on the clock and when they are not. If an employee takes more time off then they are allowed then team and project leads throughout the company are informed so that they may make better personnel selections when forming project teams.

Most Konami employees do not have their own permanent company email addresses. Staff who must deal with people outside the company, such as sales and PR do; however, everyone else routinely has their address randomized and changed every few months. This is reportedly done to prevent headhunting from rival companies.

> In order to prevent spam e-mails being sent to office work terminals, Konami changes the e-mail address of any employee who is not required to have direct interaction with anyone outside of the company on a regular basis.

That there are cameras in the office corridors that aren't there for security, but rather to monitor the movements of the company's own employees.

> In order to combat corporate espionage, Konami has installed internal security cameras to try to identify specious activity.

See folks? I don't know what it's like there, but I DO know that people like to stir shit whenever they can because controversy = views. Grain of salt and all that...

 

[vagabondwillsmile]

We've contacted Konami for comment, but don't expect too much to come out of that...

You can expect an email from a PR Representative janitor some time in the near future.

Wouldn't that actually help the cause of blowing the whistle even more?

I get that people need money to buy stuff to survive but there has to be better ways of acquiring it then working in conditions like this. I'm sure many developers out there are looking to hire people. Plus, with how many devs there are at Konami couldn't they just walkout and make their own development company?

Igarashi walked out and tried to get backing to make a game. After a year of failure and at the beginnings of financial hardship, he got real lucky with Kickstarter. And not everyone has something like director of Symphony of the Night on their resume to draw upon. You can't just go make your own company if you don't have money, and even if they could, going against the flow isn't something that a lot of Japanese workers are going to be willing to do. Given the steps that Konami takes to prevent them from being picked up by competing companies, I'd say that a mass defection is unlikely.

Yah, I wouldn't be surprised if they also have to sign non-competition clauses in their contracts, which would prevent them from walking out and starting new studios -- at least for duration of the clause.

 

[Karadalis]

snip

Allways nice to see that its still possible to rationalize totalitarian systems even in this day and age...

Konami should hire you as a PR person... just take care not to step on the higher ups feets or you might end up in a factory working at a conveyor belt...

OT:

Japanese work culture might be the most alien aspect in the (to the rest of the world) weird crazy mishmash that is essentially japanese culture.

It seems Japan only knows extremes and finding the middle ground is almost impossible over there nowadays.

As was mentioned before, people endure these torturus work enviroments because in japanese culture you ARE loyal to your employer. You wont find a new job if it becomes known that you "betrayed" your former employer. This loyality goes so far that employees do not take their full vacation time out of "respect" to their employer.

Some companies even offer matchmaking services for singles, so they can marry and get their own apartments (lack of living space and again japanese culture make it so that landlords like to rent only to couples? Something like that)

In short:

Japanese work culture and how the employees themselves behave and see their suroundings cannot be understood by westerners without intensivly studying japanese culture as a whole.

That these cultural extremes are highly unhealthy however and lead to all sorts of social problems can also be observed... theres a good reason japanese pop culture is so batshit insane and over the top

Its not surprising that Konami is run like a totalitarian system, and seems to be par of the course. The "shuffling" of employees that slipped up somehow and fell from favour into positions of montonous, meaningless and soul crushing duties is a common thing. I think i remember Sony employing the same system to get rid of unwanted employees.

 

[Sarge034]

Allways nice to see that its still possible to rationalize totalitarian systems even in this day and age...

Care to back that up with facts? Like I said I've never worked there, I don't know what the truth is, but I do know one side will always word information in a way to spin positive bias to their side. I showed that for fun, played devil's advocate.

Konami should hire you as a PR person... just take care not to step on the higher ups feets or you might end up in a factory working at a conveyor belt...

Read my post again dude, I was making a point. My point is that we are getting this information spoon fed to us by a side with an agenda. It may be spot on, it may be half fact and half inflammatory wording, or it may be all inflammatory. I'm smart enough to know that I don't know.

EDIT- But I will say that in certain extreme cases a totalitarian solution is the best solution. I would argue for it in that case, but I'm open to all options so I can pick the best one for the situation.

 

[BX3]

Gaming fans: "Wow, this is awful! I knew Konami was bad, but I didn't know it was THIS bad! No wonder they're going under!"
Gaming fans that are also anime fans: "Huh... so Konami does it too? Shame. *sips coffee*"

Although, I guess to be fair, while Japanese businesses treating employees like week-old donkey-doo is disappointingly common, I was kind of hoping that the world of video game development was at least relatively free from it. I guess the only thing I can hope for now is that Konami's policies aren't the norm.

But they probably are. *siiiigh*
Thank god I don't live there.

 

[Overquoted]

I think it is very weird.

I've been on both sides of the coin, I've worked on web development, and internal technical support for large and small companies.

I have also worked in multiple call centers, and now work in security. Talk about day and night. (U C Wot I Did Dar?)

I'll start with Security and call center, because it's true... I was slow, I got shuffled to a shittier project. I had to claw my way back up to work on the good project again. I've also worked for logitech, and if you want to see Konami's working conditions, boom. Don't work in one of Logitech's centers. I've worked in a good center, and the bad center... Logitech's was the bad center. Only certain people got an internal email, and our access to the internet was very heavily restricted. The cameras, however? Were really only pointed at the lobby and plaza. They were there for, you know, security reasons? I've never worked in a place where internal cameras watched where I was going.

I've worked in both, too. The worst one had cameras everywhere (above every workstation, in every hallway, in the breakrooms). They sometimes used them to 'find' employees who were not at their desk when they were supposed to. On the other hand, I've worked for places that only had cameras at the entrances and the parking lot (the latter only because someone was murdered by a spouse a few years ago while going to her car).

But it's something a lot of businesses are getting into, even if they aren't used specifically to monitor employees for bad behavior.

Now, Security? Yeah... I've had cameras follow me, and watch me. This was for two reasons. Dealing with a 10-11 (Roadside check) is some dangerous work, and it's there to gather evidence if there's an altercation, and 2. To make sure I don't snooze on the job. (It's hard to see inside the car though. ;3)

The shuffling of email addresses is extremely weird. That should NEVER happen. Monitoring of facebook, yes... But only in the event of an NDA being broken. Blue Ocean (Of who I still am under NDA, I think...) mentioned the first time I walked in the building to pay attention to those, the project we supported was fucking ruthless when it came to protecting their li- aah, well... "Image." That being said, We're in agreement when it comes to getting shuffled internally. Janitors? Really? I would have killed to be shuffled to a janitor instead of the project I was tossed to. I was still taking calls and answering emails.

Now to the other side of the coin.

These men are educated. They're professionals. They're not collage students looking to make a quick buck to get by. (Most of us have been there, right?) They're not handling money, and they need all the resources avaliable to do their job.

One of those resources is the internet. Because trust me, being in both fields, one of which was your expertise, and one of which is most certainly NOT your expertise, you need the internet to do your job because there are blocks of code that just don't make sense, or you get confused due to some shitty commenting. (? The fuck does this do... *tip-tap-type* Oooohhhhh!!) The cameras? That's also kind of fucked up. Again, I get them for security purposes... But these are programmers on salary. There's no reason to watch them within the halls. They've got paperwork and timecards to fill out. They've got punch cards and bug reports. The paperwork will weed out the lazy ones. That's what paperwork is for.

From a professional standpoint, the time-cards are foolish. It makes sense in the call center, but in the big-boy job? Nope. Again, these are professional men on salary. They file reports about what they're doing, and it's their job to get so many projects or tasks done in a span of time. This includes working from home. There's been cases where I've gone, "Oh fuck, I took an hour and a half lunch today!! I better stay late to work on that server." or in the case of my brother, "Eeh, I'm just not going to the office today... Better pull out the laptop and put in a few tasks for the day."

As for the email addresses? Just malicious. If that happened to me, I'd just use my personal address and look for work. Which is not an easy endeavor. As an employee? There really is nothing you can do.

What Konami is doing, is fucked up. I'm sorry that in your line of work, shit sucked, I really am... But a call center is not a professional place to work. These are people with an expensive skill. These are people with a salary. And they've got a job to do. This is fucking with their job, and harming Konami in the long run. Well, 'Cept for the anti-head-hunting tactics... Making sure your employees never leave is some Shadowrun shit that can keep people in your office for way longer than they should be.

Say what you will about professionals getting different standards, but this is just how a lot of large businesses are beginning to function. I have friends who've worked as programmers for various companies (including some that required security clearance). The worst places they worked were no different when it came to the company monitoring their time away from their desks/offices. To be fair, government work is not the kind of work you can take home. But at the same time, these companies were also expecting people to work 10-16 hour shifts on a daily basis, regardless of how much work was accomplished in the day. Taking a long lunch with those hours hardly seems something to punished over, no? And yet, it happened.

It's just easier to do it to people who aren't considered "professional" since they generally lack the entitlement and attitude that comes with that title. Also, given that I've known adults whose 'careers' were in call centers (mine isn't), you sneering down at them with your phrase 'big-boy jobs' is pretty crap. Anyone who works to earn a living, rather than just working so they can buy drinks on the weekend, has a 'big-boy job.' And given that a large number of adults have these kind of jobs (or worse), it's nice that you think it's ok for employers to treat them that way...as long as they don't treat you and people like you that way. Real progressive ideology you've got there.

My point in bringing up some of my experiences was to point out how common the behavior is becoming in the US. The fact that it's occurring in "big-boy jobs" isn't surprising. What, exactly, is going to stop any company from doing this to "professionals" when they can do it to low-end employees? After all, you get paid better, why not put up with it? And if it's the de facto behavior of most companies in the market, what choice would you have then?

Like I said, give it 5-10 years and this article won't seem as shocking.

 

[SweetShark]

In the next Episode of "Konami Break":

"Did you hear? They caught Jim posting a comment in the Facebook!"
"All the employees who will help this Facebook comment get many likes, we will make them work in the broken Coffee Machine until they die!"
"I know who monitor the comments in Facebook"
"He is one of us!!!!"
"Hand over suitcase! None must learn Kojima's Konami Break Master Plan!"

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Are any developers good to work for? Seems like there's a horror story for each one out there.

 

[BeerTent]

[...]
It's just easier to do it to people who aren't considered "professional" since they generally lack the entitlement and attitude that comes with that title. Also, given that I've known adults whose 'careers' were in call centers (mine isn't), you sneering down at them with your phrase 'big-boy jobs' is pretty crap. Anyone who works to earn a living, rather than just working so they can buy drinks on the weekend, has a 'big-boy job.' And given that a large number of adults have these kind of jobs (or worse), it's nice that you think it's ok for employers to treat them that way...as long as they don't treat you and people like you that way. Real progressive ideology you've got there.

I gotta stop you here man, I don't think any of this is okay at all, and I'm not sneering down on anyone. I guess you could say I'm sneering down at the work itself. Everybody deserves a proper work environment, and a living wage and I wouldn't want it any other way. I just felt, at the time, going to work to answer calls all day is a pretty shitty job, and it doesn't get challenging. Especially at some of the projects I worked on where emails consisted of copy/pasting legal documents. You couldn't actually answer the person's question, you had tho find the right document, or tell them to fuck-off in legalese. That's interac, baby!

I don't know where you think I said it's okay for employers to treat anyone this way. I'm trying to say it's understandable from konami's point. If you make your employees harder to head-hunt, and pay them a lower wage, they'll be less likely to leave. A lot of these people have families, and they need to support those families too. Head-Hunters can't find them, and they can't take an extended break to find more work. That's how you keep people stuck, and afraid, and that's not alright at all.

My point in bringing up some of my experiences was to point out how common the behavior is becoming in the US. The fact that it's occurring in "big-boy jobs" isn't surprising. What, exactly, is going to stop any company from doing this to "professionals" when they can do it to low-end employees? After all, you get paid better, why not put up with it? And if it's the de facto behavior of most companies in the market, what choice would you have then?

Like I said, give it 5-10 years and this article won't seem as shocking.

Then you Americans need to stand up for yourself. I'm trying to point out that a good chunk of Konami's behavior is unheard of over here. Shitty work conditions exist when it comes to employees who don't have professional skills, yes... Sometimes it's unavoidable in a scenario like a corner store. (Where the camera above your head is for both, protection from the employee, and protecting the employee.) but those in a more professional standpoint often have something to stand up on and make demands with. It's not easy to find an assembly programmer, but call-center employees are a dime a dozen. It sucks, it's not fair, but it's reality to these employers.

 

[Overquoted]

I gotta stop you here man, I don't think any of this is okay at all, and I'm not sneering down on anyone. I guess you could say I'm sneering down at the work itself. Everybody deserves a proper work environment, and a living wage and I wouldn't want it any other way. I just felt, at the time, going to work to answer calls all day is a pretty shitty job, and it doesn't get challenging. Especially at some of the projects I worked on where emails consisted of copy/pasting legal documents. You couldn't actually answer the person's question, you had tho find the right document, or tell them to fuck-off in legalese. That's interac, baby!

I don't know where you think I said it's okay for employers to treat anyone this way. I'm trying to say it's understandable from konami's point. If you make your employees harder to head-hunt, and pay them a lower wage, they'll be less likely to leave. A lot of these people have families, and they need to support those families too. Head-Hunters can't find them, and they can't take an extended break to find more work. That's how you keep people stuck, and afraid, and that's not alright at all.

Just the phrase 'big-boy job' was enough. The middle class is pretty eaten-through here. Fast food joints used to be placed for teenagers to work but it's pretty common to see adults working them these days.

Then you Americans need to stand up for yourself. I'm trying to point out that a good chunk of Konami's behavior is unheard of over here. Shitty work conditions exist when it comes to employees who don't have professional skills, yes... Sometimes it's unavoidable in a scenario like a corner store. (Where the camera above your head is for both, protection from the employee, and protecting the employee.) but those in a more professional standpoint often have something to stand up on and make demands with. It's not easy to find an assembly programmer, but call-center employees are a dime a dozen. It sucks, it's not fair, but it's reality to these employers.

Shitty work conditions exist outside of dime-a-dozen jobs, too. You have to be lucky, unionized or extremely specialized to find employers who don't treat you like dirt in some fashion. As for standing up for ourselves? Yeah, not gonna happen. We're a country whose political leaders get re-elected after passing laws that allow an employer to fire you for any reason (which frequently translates to them firing you for legal, off-the-job behavior/activities/'life-style' or because you asked for better treatment). At-Will laws essentially mean we'll never stand up for ourselves because we'll all be fired for it. (Unless it's related to forming a union, but that's a different thing entirely.)

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I wonder how long it has been like this at Konami. Since the 90s? The 00s?

I've heard that their computers lacked Internet access back in the eighties.

Jokes aside, may I ask why computers lacking Internet access is a terrible thing? Not trying to be controversial; I genuinely don't get it.

To root out possible distractions?