[TRENCHES] Thursday, March 21, 2013 - Sacrifice
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
Sacrifice
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/sacrifice
We don’t need to test.
AnonymousI am the sole developer for an in-house fully custom CRM. It was developed by an amateur and was clunking along managing a mid-sized company’s affairs. It was undocumented, messy, and riddled with tricky bugs. I was brought in to maintain and extend it.
The first thing I wanted to do was document it, clean it up. Nope. “That’s not what we’re paying you for” I was told. “We need you to fix the big problems and add features, and we need you to do it fast.”
Okay then.
I made a herculean effort to give every senior employee every item on their wish list, no matter how nonsensical. The timeframe I was given was something like half of what I needed to do a good job, so I half-assed it. I’d write a new feature, test it once, and call it good.
Months down the line, I’m still getting so many requests for new features and behaviour tweaks that I have absolutely no time to make sure my code works well. Occasionally, something will fail spectacularly and I’ll have to scramble to fix it. My boss will not allow me the time to slow down and do a better job, and when asked if I could have a tiny percentage of someone (anyone!)‘s time in the office so that I could have SOME kind of QA I was told that my code shouldn’t have bugs in the first place. This was accompanied with some pointed words about my upcoming personnel review. I attempted to explain that ALL software has bugs, and that QA (and documentation!) are a necessary part of the process. No joy.
The lesson here, fellow trenchermen, is twofold, number one, INSIST on the time and resources you need to do your best work. If you do not get what you require, communicate that you will not be responsible for problems down the line. Put it in writing. The second lesson is don’t work for a boss that can’t code. It sucks big fat hairy monkey balls.
Posts
( I guess it's not news, after rifling though a bunch of strips I found this http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/lineage )
WITH THAT SAID, stories like that are the reasons why the game industry needs a Union. Unpaid overtime should be illegal, lying to employees should be illegal, and not fulfilling a verbal contract IS illegal (but hard to prove without a full legal team that a Union can provide).
Gil, the problem with a Union is game development is still perceived as desirable, so any Union will be scabbed into uselessness quickly. You need to use stories like Trenches about how grueling the work is before you can think of a Union.
Cora. How could you? You were the fight for the users person! You were the basically decent person on the cast! You were the chosen one! You were supposed to bring balance to the comic, not leave it in darkness!
Yep. As long as there are legions of starry-eyed young gamers willing to debase themselves and work for peanuts for a chance to "tighten up the graphics on level 3 a little bit," the issue of unionization is basically moot.
So, this story doesn't actually make sense to me. The first paragraph mentions a QA team but then the rest says they are a development team. Does the first paragraph not relate to the rest or am I missing something?
It's sad that such things are so predictable.
I'm pretty sure these stories are completely made up, like parables from the bible. Allegory, you know? There's some deep shit in there.
heh, I had to do a double take too when the story said they had to develop levels.
In short, the guy thinks he was promised a contract but I don't think he ever was. I'm guessing he misunderstood the studio head.
Sometimes I wonder.
The moral of the story here is, don't do any more work than you are contractually obligated to do. If they want more, it's time to renegotiate your contract. NEVER, and I mean NEVER, do any work based on a promise. Those studio heads knew what they were going to do from day 1 and they took advantage of them.
Ah, but that "non-exempt" is the killer. Thanks to the "Computer Employee Exception", tech people get screwed. As long as you're making enough (and we're not talking about six figures or anything) and you're a programmer, you get no paid overtime in the US.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17e_computer.pdf
I love that this is part of the FAIR Labor Standards Act.
Of course, that's not necessarily "off the clock". If you're paid hourly, you still get your base pay. You just don't get overtime pay. And if your salary, you say, "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
Ah, but that "non-exempt" is the killer. Thanks to the "Computer Employee Exception", tech people get screwed. As long as you're making enough (and we're not talking about six figures or anything) and you're a programmer, you get no paid overtime in the US.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17e_computer.pdf
I love that this is part of the FAIR Labor Standards Act.
Of course, that's not necessarily "off the clock". If you're paid hourly, you still get your base pay. You just don't get overtime pay. And if you're salary, you say, "Thank you sir, may I have another?"
Ah, but that "non-exempt" is the killer. Thanks to the "Computer Employee Exception", tech people get screwed. As long as you're making enough (and we're not talking about six figures or anything) and you're a programmer, you get no paid overtime in the US.
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/fs17e_computer.pdf
I love that this is part of the FAIR Labor Standards Act.
Of course, that's not necessarily "off the clock". If you're paid hourly, you still get your base pay. You just don't get overtime pay. And if your salary, you say, "Thank you sir, may I have another?"[/quote]
True, but the guys in the tails stories are usually testers, and they generally don't meet the DOL tests for computer analyst, programmer or engineer.
However a lot of people in entry level fields just take abuse because of being job scared. I don't necessarily blame them, but I am always a big fan of documenting incidents. "Hey clock out and start filing", write it down in a small notebook or on a calander after work. "I need you to work late tonight but we don't have any money budgeted for overtime." do the same.
I have never seen a person regret logging those kind of transactions. If you can legally record it, even better but some states have rules against it.
Anyone who thought Cora was somehow the "good" one in this cast has really not been paying any attention at all.
I have yet to see a "good" person in this comic. They're all pretty universally terrible, with the exception of the new girl (whom we haven't seen enough of to accurately judge.)
Quality Artists? Quiet (level) Assemblers?
I was being more than a little hyperbolic with that post. Still, the rollback plot arc set up Cora as being exactly not the kind of person who would be terrible in this way, specifically, so her response here kind of took me by surprise.
People are fucking dumb about asking for time off and this demonstrates it. I'm shocked he got the time he did, that's unreal.
After a six month litany of events I've decided to characterize as 'hijinks', we rolled around to the wedding week I was supposed to get off. And then I lost one day of it due to 'a pressing project we really need to have done'. Then two days. And then everything up to the wedding.
My boss was trying to text me with questions and demands literally while I was at the altar. He was the owner and operator of the business so he doesn't get my usual benefit of the doubt that someone higher up was breathing down his neck.
So I guess I've got two points: one, dev's a good job a few years in, generally, but goddamn if there aren't a lot of really shitty jobs that can fall between you and that promised land. Two, a lot of people are very bad at management, and those are the people who tend to become managers. Some of them eventually become executives. On the way up, these budding executives hire young men and women who remind them of themselves, back in the day. The circle of incompetence is perpetuated.
It actually wouldn't be an uphill battle at all. If those are the facts, the team would have a really strong case. Yes, it's practically guaranteed that their contract contained a clause classifying anything they made on the job as a work for hire. (A work for hire just means that it's your employer's property, not yours.)
That wouldn't prevent them from recovering damages here. I can think of two ways off the top of my head -- unjust enrichment and promissory estoppel. Unjust enrichment is pretty simple -- employer got a benefit that he didn't pay for, and as such needs to compensate his former employees. (It's a bit more complicated than that to prevent random people from randomly mowing your lawn and then demanding payment, but that's the gist.)
As for promissory estoppel, it's kind of like contract-lite, and arose under the common law for situations in which someone was a total dick but there was no legally binding contract. It happens when one party makes a promise and another party reasonably relies upon that promise and suffers some kind of detriment as a result of that reliance. (Classic case: a guy promises his brother's widow a home. She loads up her kids and possessions into a wagon, sells whatever property won't fit, and travels a great distance. She gets there, and brother decides he doesn't actually want to give it to her. She sues, he rightfully says there isn't a contract, and the judge says stop being an asshole and give her the damn house.) Here, boss promises the team a new contract if they work crazy unpaid overtime producing a product. Team reasonably relies on promise, works crazy unpaid overtime and creates product. Boss takes product, then breaks promise and fires team.
Never assume that because your employer was the one who wrote the contract you have zero recourse if they screw you. There's a lot of things that you can contract out of, but not everything. Find a lawyer -- a lot of them will do an initial consultation for free to see if your case if worth pursuing -- and find out what your rights. Don't just roll over.
Standard disclaimer: don't rely on random forum posts by strangers for legal advice. Talk to a lawyer.
It actually wouldn't be an uphill battle at all. If those are the facts, the team would have a really strong case. Yes, it's practically guaranteed that their contract contained a clause classifying anything they made on the job as a work for hire. (A work for hire just means that it's your employer's property, not yours.)
That wouldn't prevent them from recovering damages here. I can think of two ways off the top of my head -- unjust enrichment and promissory estoppel. Unjust enrichment is pretty simple -- employer got a benefit that he didn't pay for, and as such needs to compensate his former employees. (It's a bit more complicated than that to prevent random people from randomly mowing your lawn and then demanding payment, but that's the gist.)
As for promissory estoppel, it's kind of like contract-lite, and arose under the common law for situations in which someone was a total dick but there was no legally binding contract. It happens when one party makes a promise and another party reasonably relies upon that promise and suffers some kind of detriment as a result of that reliance. (Classic case: a guy promises his brother's widow a home. She loads up her kids and possessions into a wagon, sells whatever property won't fit, and travels a great distance. She gets there, and brother decides he doesn't actually want to give it to her. She sues, he rightfully says there isn't a contract, and the judge says stop being an asshole and give her the damn house.) Here, boss promises the team a new contract if they work crazy unpaid overtime producing a product. Team reasonably relies on promise, works crazy unpaid overtime and creates product. Boss takes product, then breaks promise and fires team.
Never assume that because your employer was the one who wrote the contract you have zero recourse if they screw you. There's a lot of things that you can contract out of, but not everything. Find a lawyer -- a lot of them will do an initial consultation for free to see if your case if worth pursuing -- and find out what your rights. Don't just roll over.
Standard disclaimer: don't rely on random forum posts by strangers for legal advice. Talk to a lawyer.
Maybe the guy who gave him time off knew they were all getting fired. He could offer as much time off as he wanted then, and artificially improve morale. Bonus points if he phrases it in some supervillan-y way..."Soon you'll have all the time off you'll need! We'll be sending you on...an extensive vacation. Trust me, you'll be properly...rewarded..."
OT: It's been asserted that most of the industry's asshattery is coming from CEOs who don't know a thing about games or coding or what they require. But what about the developers who are now those higher ups? What do they think of the whole situation? Particularly the big names who tend to weigh in on industry trends and are generally considered to be swell guys (Cliffy B., Ken Levine, GabeN)? Now, I understand this is like expecting Russel Crowe to weigh in on the working conditions of cameramen, but has anyone ever asked any of these guys about the horrible things going on under the hood?
Cora? Decent? Miss let someone else get fired for my actions?