343 Community Manager asks if game devs should get vacations, chaos ensues

Halo is Back said:
Of course they do. Who the fuck is arguing otherwise? I guess management is cracking down for thier lack of progress.
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A couple of people here it seems. The "I've had to work on Christmas before therefore no one deserves vacation" commentary is jarring and disappointing.

I've worked on holidays before too, but I'm not against anyone having the holidays off.

For the concerns about "you signed up for it, you should know", that's why there is a (on call) tag with yes. The tweet likely doesn't mean to take a fully signed off vacation day, if it is something urgent that requires their attention, they will be available to handle it. We've all worked days like that.

It's really not a controversial thing at all to agree with the author of the tweet.
 
remember_spinal said:
Star Trek Reaction GIF
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I mean... he kinda has a point. some jobs you work during vacations. but you get paid 1,5 or double. There is also the fact he is not the only person in the company. usually in big companies, they don't all take vacations at the same time. there is a rotation and vacation schedule for employees usually filled by the employee when he wants his vacation months in advance.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Every company with backend tech has a skeleton crew to man the ship in case something bad happens during Christmas. If everything hits the shitter, the boss isn't going to say to IT "Hey guys, enjoy your two weeks off. By the way, when you're back in January can you work on the SAP issues causing shipment problems that started on December 18th?"
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I don't really know who you're replying to, because this has nothing to do with my post, but thank you for taking the time to write. Merry Christmas!
 
There is no way the entire studio is on call. We have on call devs for every single product which means around 30 people on call every given day. That's less than 5% of our engineering workforce and exactly 1% of the overall workforce.

I highly doubt all the devs are on call for Christmas. I bet its just some Network guys and some software engineers. Managers of course get pulled in if shit hits the fan but they get paid the big bucks regardless.

There is definitely something else going on here. Maybe the holidays were cut because they took a whole year to ship online coop. Maybe they are behind on the next dlc and their new studio head is punishing them by forcing them to come to work during the Christmas New Years week. Or maybe this is just a dumb tweet we are reading too much into.
 
SlimySnake said:
There is no way the entire studio is on call. We have on call devs for every single product which means around 30 people on call every given day. That's less than 5% of our engineering workforce and exactly 1% of the overall workforce.

I highly doubt all the devs are on call for Christmas. I bet its just some Network guys and some software engineers. Managers of course get pulled in if shit hits the fan but they get paid the big bucks regardless.

There is definitely something else going on here. Maybe the holidays were cut because they took a whole year to ship online coop. Maybe they are behind on the next dlc and their new studio head is punishing them by forcing them to come to work during the Christmas New Years week. Or maybe this is just a dumb tweet we are reading too much into.
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If shit hit the fan at 343 and employees are asked to work to fix critical issues, then hey do it. The boss will surely give back vacation time later to take off another time. Now if the managers are telling employees to skip their entitled holidays and never get them back that's a different story.

On call can happen to anyone in an important role. It's just part of the job. Now if someone is urgently asked to stick around and fix something, the employee can always try to pull the 'ol "Fuck off everyone, I'll be back in two weeks", but that wont go over well with anyone.

There's been times I've worked on a days off. Or I had to be part of a meeting on that day. Big deal. Tell the boss and he'll say thanks, go ahead and take a different day off.

No company is going to force employees to work on vacation unless there's something urgent going on. In fact, if things are smooth sailing most bosses are happy the employees are off for the week. The worker gets time off, and also another perk for the manager.... any asshead employees are out of their face for a week.
 
Of course, making money and going on vacations is pretty much the only reasons to work in the first place.
 
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It's pretty crazy reading the responses to this thread and then every other thread about Halo Infinite.
Of course devs should be allowed holidays - every worker should.

Every month that Halo Infinite goes by without a content update, though, you get people calling for them to all the worked to the bone. Seems people just agree with workers having holidays in theory until it actually affects them.
 
StreetsofBeige said:
Every company with backend tech has a skeleton crew to man the ship in case something bad happens during Christmas. If everything hits the shitter, the boss isn't going to say to IT "Hey guys, enjoy your two weeks off. By the way, when you're back in January can you work on the SAP issues causing shipment problems that started on December 18th?"
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Yup, it's exactly this. I worked Thanksgiving the last two years (IT), and like it or not the reality is that someone has got to do it. There has to be someone available in case things go south.

Now, it is on the company to make this worth their while. I got paid double for my work on holidays and thankfully since nothing went down there was little work to actually do, easy money. I have no idea how Microsoft handles this but I can't imagine it was more than a skeleton crew.

Not to say I don't sympathize. Working on Christmas sucks, and personally, I wouldn't do it. Hard to say though what the actual situation is here with how vague the poll was.
 
remember_spinal said:
imagine your beeper going off on christmas when you're watching your kids unwrap their gifts because the halo servers went down lol
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Someone gets paid, quite well, to be on call for that shit. Generally, they won't need devs, more systems admin. If you have to be able to take the call, you're on the clock and getting paid. If a business doesn't pay for that, with exceptions for a healthy employment contract with stipulations, then fucking run away from that company. Pretty standard business operational continuity vs employee shit. Some are great at it and others not so much.
 
Kamina said:
Please help a poor person from Europe understand this american madness:
What do vaccinations have to do with work? Is there no government program to get people vaccinated? How would work find out or where is even the problem?
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Not vaccinations. Vacations. Holidays. Time off work. 🙂
 
Work is only work, I work to life , don't life to work .. everyone is entitled to vacation .. that's not to say when I am working 110 % of what I can! And enjoy it. But that's my opinion. I am also not that demanding and we drive second hand cars etc. We do like to travel.
 
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StreetsofBeige said:
I've had to work Xmas too. I am this holiday doing stuff for an hour here or there because I'm the only who does it and the rest of the people still working through the holidays might need my info. It goes with the job. And I'm on salary, so I get zero extra dollars from it. Sometimes the VP asks me for important info during the holidays because he needs to show his US boss something. And for whatever reason it cant wait until January. Hey, if it's got to be done, I'll do it. I always tell the VP I'm around if you need something urgently. What am I going to say? Thanks for the nice salary and bonus, but for this one hour job you really need go fuck yourself because I'm watching a Die Hard marathon?
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Yes, if that's what's in your contract , because the contract was the deal. Go talk to some Germans , most work what their contract says, because that's what was agreed on. But if your contract says you need to be on 24/7, than that's the way.
 
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Not for this mob, get crunching you slags pump out some content, if they dont like it get your fucking HGV licence and become a dirty fucking trucker like me then we will see your silly attention tweets. Hope big Phils over there whiping these shit cunts over the Christmas holiday.
 
I had to dig a tunnel through Mordor with a spoon during last thanksgiving as i do every year since i was 8 so everyone being on vacation on that day is an ungrateful wimpy bastard.

[Lights up cigar with a flamethrower]
 
Missed the original Tweet but if you are on a team that runs a game like Fortnite expect some people to be on call, even at Christmas time. Not sure how this is weird or wrong.

People are opening shit on Christmas morning that connects to your game, they are getting PSN and Xbox cards to buy shit in your game... someone has to be there or at least ready to be there if something goes down.

Not sure if that is the argument or not though.
 
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Surely no one working at a game dev studio with [in theory] one of the biggest multiplayer videogames in arguably the busiest period of the entire year is surprised they have to be either working or on call during this period, right?
 
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I can't believe he puts out this obtuse poll, to who exactly and what was he expecting. The man's whole job is to communicate clearly to the Halo community and this is what he thinks that looks like?

Fail Tom Hiddleston GIF
 
Creatives whining about time off always makes me laugh. I've worked holidays for 20 years. It comes with working in a creative profession. Get over it or choose a non-creative profession and enjoy your boring job and time off.
 
feynoob said:
That is a valid question.
Game devs is a demanding job. I am surprised these guys get a vacation.
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America normalising video game crunch and no holiday pay, no wonder you guys are the laughing stock. Meanwhile I'm here enjoying 2 weeks paid leave over Christmas break. Mad yikes bro lmao.
 
when your community manager tweets something like that, means somethings going on in that studio.
 
SJRB said:
Surely no one working at a game dev studio with [in theory] one of the biggest multiplayer videogames in arguably the busiest period of the entire year is surprised they have to be either working or on call during this period, right?
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No, they aren't. The original tweet said Yes (On call). The tweet author himself acknowledged being on call while on vacation.

He never said a complete shut-out from work.
 
//DEVIL// said:
I mean... he kinda has a point. some jobs you work during vacations. but you get paid 1,5 or double. There is also the fact he is not the only person in the company. usually in big companies, they don't all take vacations at the same time. there is a rotation and vacation schedule for employees usually filled by the employee when he wants his vacation months in advance.
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No he doesnt have a point

Comparing working at a gas station to working as a game dev, where you have to keep your focus 100% of the time is not fair

It's like comparing the work of hospital's secretary to the brain surgeon.

I've been working with payments for 4 years now. I have to keep my focus sharp all the time.

After 8h of work, my brain turns to pasta. It drains me way more than any other job that I've worked with in the past.

Every worker should have vacations tho.

This coming from a Community Manager is just ... Only at 343, man
 
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Valedix said:
America normalising video game crunch and no holiday pay, no wonder you guys are the laughing stock. Meanwhile I'm here enjoying 2 weeks paid leave over Christmas break. Mad yikes bro lmao.
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I am not American. I just have a citizenship there.
 
Enjoy 15 paid vacation days, 10 paid sick-leave days, 10 paid U.S. holidays, plus two personal days every year.
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Hugare said:
No he doesnt have a point

Comparing working at a gas station to working as a game dev, where you have to keep your focus 100% of the time is not fair

It's like comparing the work of hospital's secretary to the brain surgeon.

I've been working with payments for 4 years now. I have to keep my focus sharp all the time.

After 8h of work, my brain turns to pasta. It drains me way more than any other job that I've worked with in the past.

Every worker should have vacations tho.

This coming from a Community Manager is just ... Only at 343, man
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I wasn't commenting on concentration or the difficulty of the work. I was commenting on the compensation. Many people have to work the holidays and a lot of them are poorly compensated. Game devs are well compensated. Anyone that's actually on call is probably part of a rotation and got it this year. This is a totally internal debate for him and his employer. Putting it on twitter like this is beyond unprofessional. Where I work we have an on call rotation. It's not unusual. If I posted it all over twitter you wouldn't know anything about my job or the context.
 
If you're in a job where services are expected to be available 24/7 then sometimes you have to take a turn on the holiday support rotation. It's not always a Monday through Friday 9-5 job. Everywhere I worked with an on-call rotation the support schedule was set well ahead of time and if you needed to be out and completely unavailable during your rotation then you had to find someone to switch with. If I decided to take vacation during the time I would have been on call I would negotiate with someone to cover for me, usually in exchange for covering for them whenever they needed it or some other favor. If I ever had an emergency then management would help find someone to cover. It it was about me just wanting vacation then I needed to find someone to cover. It was always tougher to find someone to cover on the holidays so sometimes I just had to suck it up.
 
When I look at the quality Halo Infinite doesnt has, I would say, the whole development took place during the vacation of the staff

Cracking Up Lol GIF
 
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