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Report from Apex Legends dev shows why work can’t revolve around pre-Covid expectationsIn games, and elsewhere
In games, and elsewhere
Respawn have sought to defend themselves against accusations of crunch, after an anonymous employeewrote a negative review of the company on Glassdoor. The employee writes that they “feel extremely stressed and burnt out trying to keep our seasonal releases on the same aggressive timeline as pre-shelter in place productivity”, “work 12-13 hours a day”, and are “considering leaving without a better job to go to just so mentally [they] can be in a better place”. This emerged last week, causingApex Legendsgame director Chad Grenier to assert that the problem “is not with the intent of Respawn’s leadership”.
Grenier acknowledged partial responsibility in adetailed response to the Reddit postthat drew significant attention to the Glassdoor review. He mentions numerous steps that he and the broader company had taken to avoid this happening.
While Grenier has a clear PR motive to take the sting out of these claims, it should be acknowledged that the company has a 4.5 rating on Glassdoor overall, and that other developershave stated they feel supported. I do believe that Respawn and EA genuinely care about the mental health of their workers - just not enough to take the step of slowing down production.
One of the central issues is that Grenier’s response ultimately shifts the blame towards those that work under him “crunching themselves unknowingly”, when it should have been accepted from the off that adhering to an already allegedly stressful release schedule was never going to work during the upheaval of an unplanned shift to remote-working - let alone during the sapping impact of the pandemic itself.
This is way broader than games. When the end times began, the Canadian government emailed their staff withthese working from home principles. They are excellent, and remain my pinned Tweet. This is an exemplary way of handling an appropriate expectation of decreased productivity when many people are struggling to keep their shit together during a global pandemic. These principles also need to actually be put into practice.
I don’t know much about the current mental state of Canadian civil servants. Perhaps whoever wrote that memo was just talking a good game. For all I know, it could also be more difficult for a AAA games company than a government department to fully embrace these principles - but I do know that they make humane sense.
Like I said, Respawn’s case is one (and far from the worst) story among many. The pandemic hasn’t just created a new reality - it’s rammed home some of the big problems with our existing one.
I work for the Canadian federal government and they sent out an email with work at home guiding principles. It’s amazing to work for a place that speaks like this.pic.twitter.com/idkFMoHxHE— Mark Richardson (@slavetothehat)May 11, 2020
I work for the Canadian federal government and they sent out an email with work at home guiding principles. It’s amazing to work for a place that speaks like this.pic.twitter.com/idkFMoHxHE
— Mark Richardson (@slavetothehat)May 11, 2020
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