Why only game workers? Why not software workers/codewriters in general? I'd prefer something closer to SAG than the auto workers union personally.
Why do "software workers/codewriters" need a union? It's an employee's market.
Game Workers Unite
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Re: Game Workers Unite
#12Consider some of the negative affects of unions when working alongside low and high performers in technology:
- Protection for under performers alongside high performers. Difficult or darn near impossible to terminate employment. Ability to enforce performance evaluation and plans could be killed by the union. Common in teacher unions.
- Without being able to measure performance, pay may be solely based on tenure, not skill.
Re: Game Workers Unite
#13Consider some of the negative affects of unions when working alongside low and high performers in technology: - Protection for under performers alongside high performers. Difficult or darn near impossible to terminate employment. Ability to enforce performance evaluation and plans could be killed by the union. Common in teacher unions. - Without being able to measure performance, pay may be solely based on tenure, no…
I have been working in the tech industry for 5+ years now (not too long, I know). I have yet to see a company that commonly identifies low performers and successfully terminates their employment for performance reasons only.
In fact, the three times I have seen companies terminate employment after somebody was put on a PIP it was directly related to other mental health issues the employee was going through at the time. Anecdotal m, obviously, but this complaint about unions smells bogus to me, since a common complaint about the tech industry is about blood sucking low performers that stick around long past they’re due.
As for measuring performance I again fail to see any company that does an adequate job of this with heuristics that aren’t at least partially, and usually fully, based on tenure.
In short, what makes you think we’re good at these things now, such that unionizing would make them worse.
Re: Game Workers Unite
#14Consider some of the negative affects of unions when working alongside low and high performers in technology: - Protection for under performers alongside high performers. Difficult or darn near impossible to terminate employment. Ability to enforce performance evaluation and plans could be killed by the union. Common in teacher unions. - Without being able to measure performance, pay may be solely based on tenure, no…
Filmmaking, especially in Hollywood, has a long tradition of strong unions. As all your statements are invalid in terms of Hollywood, I don't see why they should be valid for the game industry.
Re: Game Workers Unite
#15Consider some of the negative affects of unions when working alongside low and high performers in technology: - Protection for under performers alongside high performers. Difficult or darn near impossible to terminate employment. Ability to enforce performance evaluation and plans could be killed by the union. Common in teacher unions. - Without being able to measure performance, pay may be solely based on tenure, no…
Unions are reactionary organizations. They tend to create and enforce rules around how things work now. Unions don't like it if new technology lets two workers do the work of forty.
Re: Game Workers Unite
#16Why only game workers? Why not software workers/codewriters in general? I'd prefer something closer to SAG than the auto workers union personally.
Why not all employees? All humans? :) Sometimes subsets are usefully distinct and are better suited to certain purposes. In this case, it's because game workers are so poorly treated compared to the average worker of a similar tenure in other parts of the software industry.
Re: Game Workers Unite
#17Consider some of the negative affects of unions when working alongside low and high performers in technology: - Protection for under performers alongside high performers. Difficult or darn near impossible to terminate employment. Ability to enforce performance evaluation and plans could be killed by the union. Common in teacher unions. - Without being able to measure performance, pay may be solely based on tenure, no…
I have been working in the tech industry for 5+ years now (not too long, I know). I have yet to see a company that commonly identifies low performers and successfully terminates their employment for performance reasons only. In fact, the three times I have seen companies terminate employment after somebody was put on a PIP it was directly related to other mental health issues the employee was going through at the tim…
I have seen people fired for incompetence. In fact, I appreciate companies where that happens at least every now and then. I've left jobs where incompetence wasn't corrected in some way.
Though generally what happens is employees get basically cost-of-living raises indefinitely. Over a decade or two, the company ends up with a half-price employee, compared to market rates.
Also we don't have to be good at evaluating employees to get worse at it. Giving raises on certification and seniority will make engineers chase promotions and titles instead of solving problems and finding managers that appreciate the work.
Re: Game Workers Unite
#18Consider some of the negative affects of unions when working alongside low and high performers in technology: - Protection for under performers alongside high performers. Difficult or darn near impossible to terminate employment. Ability to enforce performance evaluation and plans could be killed by the union. Common in teacher unions. - Without being able to measure performance, pay may be solely based on tenure, no…
That, sir, is just FUD. The dangerous type.
Unions protect workers from being exploited and abused. If you're not happy with how some employee performs, you can still fire him in place. But be ready to prove it. No more firing people on a whim just because.
If game industry isn't sustainable without exploitation, then we need it to adapt, and not the other way around.
Re: Game Workers Unite
#19Re: Game Workers Unite
#20Consider some of the negative affects of unions when working alongside low and high performers in technology: - Protection for under performers alongside high performers. Difficult or darn near impossible to terminate employment. Ability to enforce performance evaluation and plans could be killed by the union. Common in teacher unions. - Without being able to measure performance, pay may be solely based on tenure, no…
That, sir, is just FUD. The dangerous type. Unions protect workers from being exploited and abused. If you're not happy with how some employee performs, you can still fire him in place. But be ready to prove it. No more firing people on a whim just because. If game industry isn't sustainable without exploitation, then we need it to adapt, and not the other way around.
> But be ready to prove it.
How do you prove that an employee took two weeks to find a bug that should have taken one day to find?
How do you prove that writing a domain-specific language was a bad decision compared to defining a complex XML schema?
How do you prove that an engineer is bad at explaining technical concepts?