EA Spouse Outed 104
patio11 writes "EA Spouse, who sparked a revolution (or, at least, a wave of lawsuits and promises for improvement) in the game development industry with a blog post decrying labor practices at Electronics Arts, was outed as Erin Hoffman in a Mercury News article. She and then-fiance, now-husband Leander Hasty were plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits against EA and continue to develop games and be activists for better working conditions for game developers." From the article: "More than a year later, game developers have won settlements in three class-action lawsuits alleging EA created exhausting work schedules without paying overtime and successfully pressed employers to ease unrelenting workloads. And EA Spouse, whose true identity has been cloaked until now, is becoming a voice against America's culture of overwork."
Already Revealed (Score:2, Informative)
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/06/04/26/1733244.shtm
Re:Already Revealed (Score:2)
Company details are very interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
SFC was seriously good, and BFME sucked big ones. So it seems clear even if it was not already obvious that working people to death WILL result in substandard dross games, even if they obviously have the talent.
Sadly BFME probably made mroe money, so the suits at EA who probably dont even like games dont give a damn.
Thank god I left that stupid industry to work as an indie.
Re:Company details are very interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Company details are very interesting (Score:2)
Re:Company details are very interesting (Score:1)
What's even more interesting is that the "guy" is actually a "girl".
right back at ya, fascisst pig! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:right back at ya, fascisst pig! (Score:2)
Re:right back at ya, fascisst pig! (Score:2)
Re:right back at ya, fascisst pig! (Score:2)
Re:right back at ya, fascisst pig! (Score:3, Interesting)
Unfortunately, she is legally unable to look for a job as long as she's on welfare. She can't go off of it to look for a job because some necessary medication she takes is hundreds or thousands of dollars a month, and even if she did get a full-time job that had medical insurance, a lot of places make you wait awhile before you're covered. It's a catch-22.
I'm sure it's always worth a laugh for some people to take cheap shots at
Re:right back at ya, fascisst pig! (Score:2)
Re:right back at ya, fascisst pig! (Score:2)
That sounds like unemployment to me, not welfare.
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:4, Insightful)
We don't want to be like the Europeans. Generally speaking, the US produces far more and creates much more wealth than most European countries. This is not only good for the economy as a whole, but it's also a good way to increase personal income [finfacts.com] and purchasing power. Europe knows this, and thus countries like France [cbsnews.com] are starting to repeal some of their Draconian employee protection laws.
The problem in the US is that some employers abuse the strong work ethic. They only see graphs that say More Work == More Profit without properly understanding how things like employee exhaustion and low morale impact their bottom line. They also fail to understand that far more work can be produced by improving working conditions and morale rather than demanding slave hours. Unfortunately, many employees are reticent to change jobs during times of economic uncertainty, and they're also cautious about bringing suits against their employer. Thus some (not all) employers get away with it for a time. However, it can't last, and employers end up shooting themselves in the foot long-term.
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:3, Funny)
Absolutely - when I was over in the USA the other week, I found my effective personal income and purchasing power was greatly increased by the sorry state of the Dollar compared with the Euro.
So please, carry on! I have my eye on a rather nice telephoto lens to complement the one I bought last week, and the reduction is price is brilliant!
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:3, Insightful)
Putting aside the remark about the "sorry state" of the dollar (it's only a 1.2:1 ratio for the Euro, yeash), the lower value of the dollar is intended for exactly what you're using it for: Encouraging US production and foreign purchases. Thus your money is going into US pockets instead of European pockets. Which is good for the US at the moment, and very, very bad for the
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:2)
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:1)
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:3)
Speak for yourself.
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:2)
But some of us disagree and would rather have our time than more money. Personally, I've
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:1)
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:3, Interesting)
Eeeerk! "I'm sorry, " says average American, "You can't do that. In fact, we've passed laws against it."
"But why," I ask, "I have a perfect driving record!"
"Well, " say
Question. (Score:2)
Since when was my main goal in life declared to be wealth creation, instead of something a bit more hedonistic and less puritan?
I mean, if you want no vacation time a year, go ahead. I'd much rather have a couple months of paid vacation to work on my hobbies and ideas. Google seems to understand, with their hobby Friday model.
Re:Question. (Score:2)
Re:Question. (Score:2)
Some people's idea of rest and relaxation is vastly different from yours and does not include spending a dime or very little.
Just one example: frying my ass on a public beach on a summer day. If I could do that for 2 months instead of the 2 weeks I do right now, I'd be MUCH happier. It'd probably have other benefits like making my geeky, pale face somewhat more attractive.
Unfortunately, since I only get 2 weeks of vacation I kinda HAVE to do the "big v
Yes, this is one of the drawbacks of North America (Score:2)
"On the other hand, the "market" for free time hardly even exists in America. With few exceptions, employers (the sellers) don't offer the chance to trade off income gains for a shorter work day or the occasional sabbatical. They just pass on income, in the form of annual pay raises or bonuses, or, if granting increased vacation or personal days, usually do so unilaterally. Employees rarely have the chance to exercise an actual choice abou
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:2)
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Ingrained Behaviour (Score:2)
Heh. I love it when stereo-types collide. We're lazy over-working Americans.
Is this the root of EA's problems? (Score:5, Insightful)
Also unrealistic deadlines have a negitave effect on creativity.
EA is a victim of it's size... they have a huge pressure to be sucessfull so huge in fact that they lose sight of what really makes games (and all art) great.
Great inventive games do not always sell a lot of copies and that is the real crime here... EA wouldn't make crap if people didn't buy crap and then complain about it (but not return it because the big chains have made quality of product not a reason for a refund... but that is a diffrent rant.)
Demand quality and don't settle for buggy incomplete games and this "problem" of overworked developers might just solve itself... or at least save gameing from a slow painfull death.
Re:Is this the root of EA's problems? (Score:1)
Re:Is this the root of EA's problems? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Is this the root of EA's problems? (Score:2)
Re:Is this the root of EA's problems? (Score:1)
What they are doing is second guessing themselves and relying on focus groups to do there thinking and that is a huge mistake, "market testing" seems to be yealding fewer and fewer hits lately and I don't think the answer to that is more market testing.
Re:Is this the root of EA's problems? (Score:2)
After it got big, it stayed big for a while, and then at some point things changed. That would be in the 90's when Madden st
Re:Is this the root of EA's problems? (Score:3, Informative)
Nah, artists always work best when they're coddled, fat, and happy. Oh, wait
Just kidding, although I do think that sometimes a deadline is the kick in the pants that's sometimes needed for people to produce their best work, there's no excuse to just abuse your people continually. You can only maintain that kind of increased tempo for a certain amount of time, before it just becomes fatiguing and output quality is going to dr
Re:Is this the root of EA's problems? (Score:1, Informative)
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/04/exclusiv
There's a link to the original LJ post as well from there.
It's interesting that I've been working with ea_spouse for a while now at 1stPP and I didn't even know it
Re:Is this the root of EA's problems? (Score:2)
there, the "big push" started 6 months ahead of projected ship date.
if you figure on 6 months of "big push" as part of the scheduling, you're either incompetent or corrupt. or both.
Right on! (Score:5, Funny)
I, for one, am tired of this culture of overwork in America. Occassionally I have to close my browser and answer a phone call. This is intruding into my social life entirely too much.
Re:Right on! (Score:2)
Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:4, Insightful)
Eventually people will favor creativity, and people like me will 'herd the cats' and make some sweet games. Until then, have fun with John Madden 20XX!
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:1)
Making cool games. Fitting in with the team. The threat of termination is not really a factor. There's possibly a perception that this is the case but it's typically never threatened, and rarely even hinted at.
The problem is, when you're told the rest of the team is working late, so you should too, it puts you into an awkward position. Generally you quite like these guys. You don't want them to suffer. In addition, you do want to
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:1)
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:2)
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:1)
From parent
"Until then, have fun with John Madden 20XX"
Shouldn't that read
"Until then, have fun with John Madden 2XXX" at the very least?
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:2)
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:1)
Madden XXXX
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:1)
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:2)
Re:Shouldnt surprise anyone (Score:1)
Personally I think that if you don't control how many hours a week you put in, then you are automatically an hourly employee. That would solve all these abuse problems. Only after you stop 'offshoring' though.
Another EA? (Score:1)
entitlement (Score:3, Insightful)
As opposed to the culture of entitlement in most european countries?
Re:entitlement (Score:1)
Re:entitlement (Score:1)
Re:entitlement (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:entitlement (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:entitlement (Score:1)
It is people like you who have made unions necessary because your cult of the invisible hand blinds you to the immorality of mistreating other people. Your dogma says the market will decide all but the market is inhuman - if the market had its way we would all work 14 hour days without time off, including
Re:entitlement (Score:2)
Re:entitlement (Score:2)
Re:entitlement (Score:2)
My mom was waitress and my dad was a truck driver. They got divorced when I was 7. That left my mom to support me and my sister who was 2 years younger. We never lived in the same place for more than two years. We moved wherever there was family support.
I couldn't afford to go to college. I've waited tables, I worked in a styrofoam plant and driven a forklift.
I lost a job because of a fuckup with an on-call schedule and was out of work for 6 months. Becau
Re:entitlement (Score:2)
You aren't even "entitled" to a job. There is nothing, at least in the U.S. Constitution, that says you are entitled to a job.
I didn't say you were entitled to a job. I said that being employed by a company doesn't give them the right to exploit you, one form of which could be making you work unreasonable hours.
A job is a contract. You are free to negotiate the terms of that contract.
There are certain rights you can't sign away.
Furthermore, define reasonable.
I don't have to. It's a represe
Re:entitlement (Score:2)
Is being on-call considered unreasonable? I'm a salaried employee but I'm on call and don't get additional compensation for it. Some people would consider it unreasonable to be woken up at 4AM with an emergency.
There are certain rights you can't sign away.
No argument there. Those are the ones that are inalienable. I find it
Re:entitlement (Score:1)
However, in the civilised world, we expect people to behave with decency and civility rather than using the difference in negotiating positions to force the employee to accept some fairly draconian positions. Since such civilised behaviour is unfortunately wishful thinking, we enact laws to prevent employees from being exploited in this way.
Re:entitlement (Score:2)
I make no pretenses about my politics =)
I honestly believe that the federal government should stick to its constitutionally defined role. The problem is, and I'll be the first to admit this, everyone has a different interpretation of what is defined as "the common good".
Interestingly enough, I would think many "slashdotters" would agree with the whole idea. I mean we bitch and moan when someone lumps all gamers together or all linux people together or all people together.
B
Re:entitlement (Score:1)
Re:entitlement (Score:4, Interesting)
Really? According to the CIA World Fact Book, the US has a GDP of $12,410,000,000,000, compared to Europe's $12,180,000,000,000 (all figures in US dollars). Contrast that with Europe's population of 456,953,258 against the US's 298,444,215. That gives the us a per capital product of $41,582.31 against Europe's $26,654.81. So far it looks like the US is more productive.
Let's look closer. The European Union has a labor force of 218,500,000, compared to the US's 149,300,000. Leaving out the unemployment rates for each group (9.4% vs. 5.1%), we're left with 197,961,000 workers in Europe compared to 141,685,700 in the US. We'll leave that for a moment.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workweek [wikipedia.org], which sites a spreadsheet from OECD, workers in the US work an average of 1777 hours per year. Taking the average of the EU member states (the spreadsheet only lists individual countries), we get 1576.33 hours per year.
So, the US has a total of 251,775,488,900 work-hours per year, giving an average of $49.29 gross product per work hour. Europe has 312,051,863,130 work-hours per year, giving an average of $39.03 per work hour.
I'm sorry, who's more productive did you say?
Re:entitlement (Score:3, Informative)
Re:entitlement (Score:2)
Re:entitlement (Score:3, Informative)
Re:entitlement (Score:3, Interesting)
If both you and the studies I've heard are correct, it would seem Americans choose to work in more productive fields, on average.
I'm not an economist - but the people I've
Re:entitlement (Score:1)
I feel so privilaged.
Re:I call Bullshit! (Score:1)
Vacation. They have the time and the money to cross oceans on their vacations, while most of us can't afford to cross an ocean to vacation in the 50th State.
"Why do they all buy American products over their own?"
We have "products?" You seem to be confusing the US with China.
"Why are their products not as good?"
They have "products?"
Re:Only in America (Score:2)
Re:Only in America (Score:1)
Re:Only in America (Score:2)
I'm arguing the same point as you. Happy (or hopelessly oppressed) empoyees always produce a better quality of work. And I don't know how many game companies are in Britain and Sweden (lots of mobile game studios I bet), though if I'm not mistaken, game developers in France get a special government subsidy
Re:Only in America (Score:2)
Re:Only in America (Score:1)
Re:Only in America (Score:1)
Nor have I...
nuff said,
Ben
PS. FF7 was pretty good though..
No compaints, just the highest suicide rate (Score:1)
ok that last one I'd probably be fine with.
If you want to emulate another cu
misnomer? (Score:2)
So doesn't that mean that, at the time, EA Spouse was in fact not a spouse?
Re:misnomer? (Score:1)
I'm not so sure (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I'm not so sure (Score:2)
I don't believe Japan has kicked our ass (in the automotive and electronics industries) due to our laziness. They kick our ass because they embrace and extend...they didn't invent the automobile, but they sure as heck figured out how to make a higher quality, more reliable version for about the same price or only slightly more than the USian model.
China isn't kicking our ass because we're lazy.
Re:I'm not so sure (Score:1)
It talks about how Toyota turned down offers from several American states and instead built a plant in Ontario because "Ontario workers are well-trained."
From the article, "The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need
Overwork? (Score:2)
In other words, a voice working hard to make sure we're as much like Europe--with half the productivity and none of the job growth of the U.S.A.
You don't wanna work lots of hours, then go get a job where you don't have to work lots of hours.
Sheesh.
Americans work long hours (Score:3, Insightful)
Some very silly people use money as a measurement forgetting totally that money does not have the same value. 1 dollar in say New York has a totally different value then 1 dollar in say Greece. Hell everyone knows this is even true in far small areas like say New York vs Hicksville.
So any comparison between the money produced by either economy is silly. Even more if you realise that even in europe working hour practices are different. The brits for instance lean far more to american working hours.
So who is right?
Funny thing but one of those wise lessons from american sitcoms/dramas is that nobody on their death bed ever regretted not having spend more time in the office.
If you do not live to work then surely the only sensible number of hours to work is the amount you need to be able to afford to live right?
So how much do you need to live? This can get very funny. It starts simple. Cheap supermarkets are open from 8 to 8 in Holland. (Can't say for the rest of the world so don't attack me for that). There are a few that stay open later but they typically charge more and only carry the brand names (wich are more expensive) and don't have sales. The cheapest places to get food however is the market wich opens officially at 8 but is usually closing as early as 16:00.
So now you get the following effect. If your unemployed you got the least amount of money BUT have the time to shop at the cheapest place, the market. If you got a 40 hour 8-5 job the market is out so you need to shop at the regular but slightly more expensive supermarket. More money but your also spending more on food. Now if you work longer hours and can't make the regular opening hours you need the special stores at train stations. More money offcourse in salary but your food expenses shoot up. Work even more and you won't even have time to cook and eating in restaurants or takeaway really becomes fucking expensive.
Kids follow a similar pattern. The more you work, the more you make but also the more you spend on childcare. I had one co-worker who flatly refused to work on a friday (4 day contract) unless the company paid him double since that was his day to take care of the kid and if he worked on friday his entire salery would go to childcare meaning he effectlivly worked for nothing AND missed out on spending time with his child.
Same with other stuff. You can eat better cheaper and healthier if you can shop for fresh food every day. Don't have the time? Pay more AND pay for a huge fridge and the electricity.
The above is not just crap made up by some slashdot idiot. The effect that being going from unemployed to employed while leading to an increase in salary actually ends up with the person having less money is a big problem for countries with a decent social security system.
Some of you may even have experienced the effect of a promotion and payment increase actually ending up with you having less "free" money because all of sudden you need to buy rounds not of beer but whiskey or wear real suits or chip in for golf clubs instead of mousemat birthday gifts.
Whenever I see someone defend a 80 hour workweek because they are more productive I don't even bother with trying to reason that such a person will be too tired at work to do a decent job. I just wonder how that person finds enough free time to actually have some fun. Congrats that you earn twice as much as me. I will be sure to envy you while I am sitting with my feet up in the sun after a short day at work.
annoying (Score:1)