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[TRENCHES] Thursday, January 2, 2014 - He Who Is Without Synergy

GethGeth LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
edited January 2014 in The Penny Arcade Hub
He Who Is Without Synergy


He Who Is Without Synergy
http://trenchescomic.com/comic/post/he-who-is-without-synergy

False Pretenses or The Ol’ Bait and Switch

Anonymous

I had been laid off from my previous job, looking to raise my standings in the game industry with no luck. After 3 months of fruitless searching I decided to fold and take contract work, the first time I had taken contract work as a tester, and work for a start up who has managed to be extremely profitable. I’m thinking great, the hours will be reasonable, the pay will be good and the people will be friendly! Boy was I in for a treat.

The first thing my new direct lead said to me was, “I didn’t know you are starting today.” This was followed by me getting thrown an iphone and getting told to familiarize myself with the games that have been shipped. Sadly, games that are meant to be played over MONTHS instead of days tend to be hard to grasp in the short day that I had, and sadly my first 8 hours on the job were wasted. Suddenly, I had permissions, equipment, and was gently (thrown down the stairs) nudged in the direction of being useful for my new team. The rest of the first week went relatively smoothly, although meetings frequently showed foreboding of crunch time to come.

The second week came, went and suddenly in week three fires broke out everywhere! Something needed to be sent out the very next day and everything was broken. I trudged along, kept my head down and worked the 12 hours days and parts of the weekends because I figured this was not going to be a permanent situation. My superiors even assured me of it when I was asked directly! Well, in a way they were right it wasn’t permanent. After we had finished crunching and I put in a 70 hour week I was gleefully informed that the QA team was getting fractured in half, and to save me from being burnt out I was given the cushy 1pm to 9 pm shift.

It was good to know that promised hours and recently signed contracts were thrown out because QA got paid over time and someone in accounting just couldn’t accept it.


Geth on

Posts

  • Ori KleinOri Klein Registered User regular
    I don't get it.

  • blackpariahblackpariah Registered User regular
    That tale...It's like they told two-thirds of their story and then took out all of the last third except for the final line. There's no context here.

  • Music-chanMusic-chan Registered User regular
    blackpariah wrote: »
    That tale...It's like they told two-thirds of their story and then took out all of the last third except for the final line. There's no context here.
    I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that way. Yikes.

  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    So he was given an 8-hour shift? Isn't that a good thing?

  • JackdawGinJackdawGin Engineer New YorkRegistered User regular
    What the hell was that tale?

    So he started a job, was there two weeks, then pulled a 70 hour week, then got an 8 hour shift starting at 1 pm? What's the issue?

  • zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    This isn't so much a tail as just some shit that happened at work.

  • CiriraCirira IowaRegistered User regular
    Maybe his contract was supposed to be something like banker's hours and he is complaining about the 1pm-9pm shift? I don't entirely get the tale either.

  • JackdawGinJackdawGin Engineer New YorkRegistered User regular
    Cirira wrote: »
    Maybe his contract was supposed to be something like banker's hours and he is complaining about the 1pm-9pm shift? I don't entirely get the tale either.

    I would happily work till 9pm if it meant I didn't have to wake up till 11am. Thats college hours sans the 8am math course.

  • ShowsniShowsni Registered User regular
    So... his team weren't expecting him the first day he showed up, so he pretty much wasted a day. But after that he got all the permissions and stuff and could start working properly.
    Then, he got a lot of overtime! So, he was promised to get reduced hours. Then he got reduced hours.
    The end.

    Yeah, I don't get it either...

  • Finnish_LineFinnish_Line Registered User regular
    Those guys in World War One fighting in those dug up parallel lines didn't know how good they had it.

    This guy, he's seen some stuff.

  • SerukoSeruko Ferocious Kitten of The Farthest NorthRegistered User regular
    whats the deal with the new trenches comic posting frequency? seems like it's gone weekly now?

    "How are you going to play Dota if your fingers and bitten off? You can't. That's how" -> Carnarvon
    "You can be yodeling bear without spending a dime if you get lucky." -> reVerse
    "In the grim darkness of the future, we will all be nurses catering to the whims of terrible old people." -> Hacksaw
    "In fact, our whole society will be oriented around caring for one very decrepit, very old man on total life support." -> SKFM
    I mean, the first time I met a non-white person was when this Vietnamese kid tried to break my legs but that was entirely fair because he was a centreback, not because he was a subhuman beast in some zoo ->yotes
  • fortyforty Registered User regular
    There are still two per week, but when they actually go up seems to be a mystery. Tuesday's usually seems to be up by late Tuesday or Wednesday.

  • TaskmanTaskman Registered User regular
    There's a new one up now. 'Rejecting The Call' starring the realisation that the office had a low budget for cubicles in QA.

    uGn5f.png
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