Pachter Says Team Bondi "Wasn't Entitled to Overtime Pay"
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
a good solution would be to send him to a coal mine and have him work those 110 unpaid overtime weeks, after 2-3 months we'd hear about some unfair work conditions, what a douchebag this guy.
Must... resist... increasing urge... to punch Pachter... in his fat, stupid, irritating face!
I'm actually so pissed off by this, I'm too angry to pull out my Clairvoyant Gypsy Pachter insult/joke/witty retort. That is how incensed I am at this man!
When he talks, he makes me just as angry as when Michael Cole talks!
OK... maybe not that much. But still!
I'm actually so pissed off by this, I'm too angry to pull out my Clairvoyant Gypsy Pachter insult/joke/witty retort. That is how incensed I am at this man!
When he talks, he makes me just as angry as when Michael Cole talks!
OK... maybe not that much. But still!
Well said.cgentero said:
And gotta love his attitude of "Well all the jobs in this industry suck, so you don't get to complain." If all the jobs in the game industry are exploitative, treating salary work like slave labour, then that's a big thing that needs to be addressed, not something to brush off with a "suck it up or get a new job".
But then we're talking about a guy that gets paid to repeat stuff games journalists have been saying for months prior. I can see why he has no empathy for people who actually work for a living.
I wonder what VALVe think of 'crunch time'...
It's no wonder Gabe Newell can hire people just by sending them an email saying "come work for us." Hopefully in the long term the companies holding onto these absurd and unethical business practices will see all their best people lured away from them. I read articles like this and find myself honestly wanting these companies to have a couple of massive flops and go out of business, because they don't deserve any better.
It's no wonder Gabe Newell can hire people just by sending them an email saying "come work for us." Hopefully in the long term the companies holding onto these absurd and unethical business practices will see all their best people lured away from them. I read articles like this and find myself honestly wanting these companies to have a couple of massive flops and go out of business, because they don't deserve any better.
That's just like saying I don't deserve to be paid overtime at my work if I work through my lunch hour and/or stay on a couple of hours longer than my scheduled shift because I get a bonus every year. No. It doesn't work like that I'm afraid. You work and you get paid for it, that's how it works. Overtime is no different especially since overtime is when you should actually be off enjoying your free time.
They should put that in the Oxford Dictionary under 'Troll' if they don't already have a definition.Zero_ctrl said:
Did you work those eighty hours for six months in a row, no breaks? If so, Australia's labour laws are as bad as America's.kalt_13 said:
Perhaps it's because my family has been solidly working class until my mother went to uni, but I simply can't understand this...sycophantic attitude from workers. I mean, I can grasp how the middle classes can weasel their way around the monstrous inequality of consumerist corporatism, and the wealthy have always been divorced from reality, but we've really reached the point where workers will not only sell themselves short simply for the opportunity to lick some management wanker's boots, but are actually arguing in favour of such a system?
Frankly, I find the entire concept of a contract which requires you to work for free(which is what "hours necessary" is) repugnant, but at least in the UK there are laws which limit how much free labour an employer can extract.
Well of the value of your labour is around nil within the entertainment industry it would seem like a good incentive to look elsewhere.
Says the guy with the easiest job in the world, the one that gets paid to talk out of his ass on things he clearly has no clue about. No job should be exempt from overtime, especially one so demanding as this. In fact, during crunch time like this, they are MORE entitled to overtime than any time before or after.
Australia's federal labor laws (which don't apply to everything but should I think apply to Team Bondi) say that the maximum average hours worked per week should be 38, though there is the usual 'reasonable additional hours' wrinkle that always crops up. I haven't seen real evidence of the actual hours being worked at Team Bondi beyond the employee complaints, does anyone know if there's more info?
IMO Pachter is correct that salaried professional employees aren't entitled to overtime pay and often don't receive any. It's also true that making a box retail game, like making a film, involves long crazy hours and anyone who really doesn't want to work those hours needs to try another career. On the other hand videogame developers - with rare high-end exceptions - aren't paid particularly well, especially compared to equivalent roles in other industries, and bonuses on anything outside of a massive hit title are not substantial. Interesting comment from him that probably reveals more of an analyst's 'return on investment' perspective than anything else.
Oh and btw, there will never ever ever be a strong videogame developers' union. Hell will freeze over before that aspect of the Hollywood model gets repeated.
Cheers
Colin
IMO Pachter is correct that salaried professional employees aren't entitled to overtime pay and often don't receive any. It's also true that making a box retail game, like making a film, involves long crazy hours and anyone who really doesn't want to work those hours needs to try another career. On the other hand videogame developers - with rare high-end exceptions - aren't paid particularly well, especially compared to equivalent roles in other industries, and bonuses on anything outside of a massive hit title are not substantial. Interesting comment from him that probably reveals more of an analyst's 'return on investment' perspective than anything else.
Oh and btw, there will never ever ever be a strong videogame developers' union. Hell will freeze over before that aspect of the Hollywood model gets repeated.
Cheers
Colin
No I didn't work those 80hour weeks for 6 months, I was lucky it was only for a month. I agree with you that there should be limits tho.sosolidshoe said:
Working unpaid overtime or extra hours is becoming a standard practice over here, which shits me to tears.
Ok this link is a bit old but it does illistrate what I mean. http://www.newsdigitalmedia.com.au/media-centre/survey-reveals-australians-are-working-overtime-for-free
Actually, Australia's labour laws aren't too bad. Unfortunately there are a number of ways around them, especially in industries that don't have a history of collective bargaining. The easiest way to get around at least half the labour laws in Australia is to hire the person as a self-employed contractor/subcontractor instead of as an employee.sosolidshoe said:
Of course there won't. Until you're skilled enough with a rep to go with it, pretty much everyone in development is replacable with any of the thousand and one kids who'd give their left nut (or ovum) to work in the industry... and hell, they'll probably do it for less money because they still have stars in their eyes and far less financial obligations.maantren said: