- bribing a mastering facility to jump an EA burn ahead of another company to meet a Wall Street expected ship date
- firing people 2 weeks before Xmas
- demanding 24 hr testing, but refusing to expand team sizes
- rewarding cronies when other people actually did the work
- stress people into nervous breakdowns or divorces. (It's hard to have a personal life when you're not allowed to go home.)
- promise people a bonus for completing a particularly difficult chore. Fire them when it's done and the skill is no longer needed - without the promised bonus.
- dismiss people without warning, then tell them they have to sign the severance package on the spot or the company will withdraw its offer
Some things, no.
- the CEO's mother becomes the head of HR
- the CEO's uncle becomes an executive producer whose idea of people management is to scream
- employees are fired for breaching porn posession policies, but senior developers and producers have collections too big to burn on a single CD.
I'm not making this up. I joined EAC when the staff size was counted in double digits, so I know a lot of the skeletons. They weren't as slick then at hiding their sins.
EAC was (not) fondly nicknamed EA Mexico because staff saw themselves as powerless peasants serving the owners. People used to sleep under their desks because travel time wasn't useful when you had to be back at work in 5 hours.
EAC execs were even involved in discussions with the government before the new law was passed to reduce the requirement to pay OT. The idea was "OT wasn't paid in lieu of a bonus".
The CEO had a bonus of 24 million last year. Take a guess at what the total bonus payout for the entire staff was.
I hold no grudge because moving on was one of the best things that happened to me, but I remember a lot of pain and heartache dished out callously in the name of meeting dates. Something EAC was especially diligent in. On many occasions, other studios were slipping their dates, so EAC brought one of it's products in ahead of schedule to keep the overall books balanced. Sorry, let me rephrase that. The hard work and sacrifice of the teams brought the games in ahead of schedule.
It also explains why some products shipped with up 800 open bugs.
For the record, I have no axe to grind. My time at EAC was a mix of pleasure and pain - with the creative talents of artists, programmers and musicians responsible for 99% of the pleasure. You can guess who provided 99% of the pain:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't it like that? Some things yes.
- bribing a mastering facility to jump an EA burn ahead of another company to meet a Wall Street expected ship date
- firing people 2 weeks before Xmas
- demanding 24 hr testing, but refusing to expand team sizes
- rewarding cronies when other people actually did the work
- stress people into nervous breakdowns or divorces. (It's hard to have a personal life when you're not allowed to go home.)
- promise people a bonus for completing a particularly difficult chore. Fire them when it's done and the skill is no longer needed - without the promised bonus.
- dismiss people without warning, then tell them they have to sign the severance package on the spot or the company will withdraw its offer
Some things, no.
- the CEO's mother becomes the head of HR
- the CEO's uncle becomes an executive producer whose idea of people management is to scream
- employees are fired for breaching porn posession policies, but senior developers and producers have collections too big to burn on a single CD.
I'm not making this up. I joined EAC when the staff size was counted in double digits, so I know a lot of the skeletons. They weren't as slick then at hiding their sins.
EAC was (not) fondly nicknamed EA Mexico because staff saw themselves as powerless peasants serving the owners. People used to sleep under their desks because travel time wasn't useful when you had to be back at work in 5 hours.
EAC execs were even involved in discussions with the government before the new law was passed to reduce the requirement to pay OT. The idea was "OT wasn't paid in lieu of a bonus".
The CEO had a bonus of 24 million last year. Take a guess at what the total bonus payout for the entire staff was.
I hold no grudge because moving on was one of the best things that happened to me, but I remember a lot of pain and heartache dished out callously in the name of meeting dates. Something EAC was especially diligent in. On many occasions, other studios were slipping their dates, so EAC brought one of it's products in ahead of schedule to keep the overall books balanced. Sorry, let me rephrase that. The hard work and sacrifice of the teams brought the games in ahead of schedule.
It also explains why some products shipped with up 800 open bugs.
For the record, I have no axe to grind. My time at EAC was a mix of pleasure and pain - with the creative talents of artists, programmers and musicians responsible for 99% of the pleasure. You can guess who provided 99% of the pain :-)
Just my 2 cents to add to the record.