Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 508 posts

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#231

Post by fredrikholm »

_nalply wrote: post #175
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #63

I worked for a company big enough to be in the HN headlines (sorry, have to stay somewhat anonymous) where development virtually stalled for a couple years after a mass exodus event. The CEO went on a rampage and fired some people on the spot for something they weren’t even responsible for, which destroyed the already fragile morale and created a steady exodus of good talent over a couple of years. It didn’t kill the…

So the good ones left when they realized what was going on and the mediocre ones stayed. I, being Deaf, would have been forced to stay with the mediocre ones because interviewing is difficult for me. I am lucky that I don't need a job now.

Don't they accommodate you knowing that you are deaf?

Granted, I don't know where you're situated, and from what I hear the hiring process in the US is sketchy, but this sounds like an easy problem to fix, if it's even a problem at all.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#232

Post by aaron695 »

ec109685 wrote: post #83
knob wrote: post #67

I have the inverse story; factory workers picketing outside. First day the owner of the company walks up to them and explains: this company is worth $X. The terrain (land) it occupies is worth $10X. Please get back to work.

So if the factory is in business, the owner has an $11x asset. Otherwise, a $10x asset. Seems like still in best interest to have employees for factory.

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#233

Post by mellavora »

robinsoh wrote: post #48
hollywood_court wrote: post #2

The wedding photographer/videographer business I discussed in another thread last week. All his employees quit and he went under. I've personally been involved with more than one general contractor going under. When I was a young carpenter, I followed my best friend from job to job and contractor to contractor. When he walked off a job, the rest of us followed. He and I and a group of Dominicans (from Dominica not th…

> It's incredibly difficult to find skilled tradesman in the Caribbean that will show up sober each day and perform quality work. There's a lot to unpack in that sentence. Care to elaborate?

Having just overseen a construction project in rural Spain,...

workers show up sober, that's not the problem. Problem is they are not trained in the trade.

Never heard of vibrating concrete. Or curing times.

Setting pillars by 'eye', not even using a plumb line.

Carpenter delivers the doors unfinished. These are outside doors.

Door lock mechanism installed wrong, such that the door locks (once) but cannot unlock.

The painter was decent, but his background was as a Venezuelan helicopter mechanic. Left Venezuela for economic reasons.

Workers showing up without the basic tools for the day's work, so had to supply them myself. Obvious stuff like blades for the angle grinders.

Oh, and coordinating supplies and work, nah, not really a thing.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#234

Post by astura »

rvanlaar wrote: post #209
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaming abounds with stories like this. A friend of mine went to work for a small game studio in Oklahoma that'd gotten some acclaim for their quake mod pack. They took that momentum and started on their own novel IP as a quake licensee. They made a ahem mildly successful game named Medal of Honor. Some time down the road, the owner of the studio didn't want to share the wealth. As a result the top programmers, design…

What an interesting story. It made me look up how medal of honor started. Could you clarify a few things? I don't think the story adds up. Wikipedia has the followin information. Medal of Honor was made by DreamWorks interactive. [..] Filmmaker Steven Spielberg Spielberg founded DreamWorks Interactive in 1995. [1] And: Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video g…

If you go to the souce on the Wikipedia page, it tells a slightly different story than what the OP said -

https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/publishing/the-medal-of-...

>Yet 2015 would never get the chance to make another Medal of Honor. EA decided to take all development for the franchise in-house. Morale was low amongst the team and they were looking to start up on its own.

>We had bonded as a team, but decided we wanted to work with new management. Many members of the team were actually going to leave to find new jobs, regardless of potential royalties coming in from Medal of Honor.

>After leaving 2015 we were working with a major publisher. For legal reasons I will say things didn’t go as planned with it. We were left in a situation of unpaid milestones that were delivered and no finances to operate on,” says Thomas.

>The company was potentially going to disband. In a last ditch effort our then president, Grant Collier sent out a signal to all the major publishers in the industry letting them know that the majority of the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault team was available. Within days of closing the doors on the studio, Activision responded immediately with an offer.”

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#235

Post by vintermann »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #202
orange_joe wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's incredible about this is that Activision remains an industry leader whereas I'm not entirely sure if Atari even still exists.

Atari still exists today. In 2018 I met Frédéric Chesnais in NY, and learned about the latest things related the company. Here's an interview I found from 2019. [0]. It seems that the current CEO is now Wade Rosen. [1] Company is still up and running. [0]: https://frenchamerican.org/interview-frederic-chesnais/ [1]: https://venturebeat.com/games/atari-ceo-wade-rosen-interview...

No, the Atari name exists today. Famous defunct company names regularly get bought by entities wanting to cash out whatever goodwill or positive associations still left in them. Would-be buyers with less extractive ambitions can't compete in the auctions.

So no, Atari doesn't exist today, what exists is a company wearing Atari's skin as a suit, in order to fool you. Don't be fooled by names without the organisational continuity to back it up.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#236

Post by throwaway24424 »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #229
rvanlaar wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an interesting story. It made me look up how medal of honor started. Could you clarify a few things? I don't think the story adds up. Wikipedia has the followin information. Medal of Honor was made by DreamWorks interactive. [..] Filmmaker Steven Spielberg Spielberg founded DreamWorks Interactive in 1995. [1] And: Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video g…

Yes, I'm talking about 2015. The first two Playstation only MoH games were not exactly failures, but they were little more than Goldeneye clones with WW2 themes. The first PC game is really the start of what we think of as the Medal of Honor franchise proper. The team that bailed founded Infinity Ward, which was the origin of Call of Duty, or at least the first like 8 games in the franchise. So yes, my story does in…

You didn't really provide that much detail, how are you expecting someone to understand what to Google?

If your suggestion is for people to not question, or be curious at all then I think you're in the wrong place...?

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#237

Post by actionfromafar »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #196
dahart wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try not to take it personally, there are both devs who are replaceable and devs who aren’t, and with ~40 Call of Duty titles on almost as many platforms, a million and one people have worked on it, some doing more mechanical port work than others. There’s truth in there; the games industry is tough, and it’s relevant that some studios that (for example) demand lots of overtime haven’t seen any large exodus, or someti…

It's particularly ironic that you mention CoD as an example of how you can treat gamedevs as replaceable cogs. Here's the history: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32833895

Call of Duty then and now are very different. Back then, it was more like an indie movie. Now, it's Disney size. Their animators are cogs.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#238

Post by jasonwatkinspdx »

astura wrote: post #234
rvanlaar wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an interesting story. It made me look up how medal of honor started. Could you clarify a few things? I don't think the story adds up. Wikipedia has the followin information. Medal of Honor was made by DreamWorks interactive. [..] Filmmaker Steven Spielberg Spielberg founded DreamWorks Interactive in 1995. [1] And: Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video g…

If you go to the souce on the Wikipedia page, it tells a slightly different story than what the OP said - https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/publishing/the-medal-of-... >Yet 2015 would never get the chance to make another Medal of Honor. EA decided to take all development for the franchise in-house. Morale was low amongst the team and they were looking to start up on its own. >We had bonded as a team, but decided we…

Yeah, I'm giving a simplified version, and also avoiding disclosing some details that might blow back on my friend. It was considerably more nasty than that article portrays via the quotes.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#239

Post by ClassyJacket »

jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #229
rvanlaar wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What an interesting story. It made me look up how medal of honor started. Could you clarify a few things? I don't think the story adds up. Wikipedia has the followin information. Medal of Honor was made by DreamWorks interactive. [..] Filmmaker Steven Spielberg Spielberg founded DreamWorks Interactive in 1995. [1] And: Danger Close Games (formerly DreamWorks Interactive LLC and EA Los Angeles) was an American video g…

Yes, I'm talking about 2015. The first two Playstation only MoH games were not exactly failures, but they were little more than Goldeneye clones with WW2 themes. The first PC game is really the start of what we think of as the Medal of Honor franchise proper. The team that bailed founded Infinity Ward, which was the origin of Call of Duty, or at least the first like 8 games in the franchise. So yes, my story does in…

They asked very politely for you to clarify some details after they tried themselves but were unable to verify it by looking it up. Your hostility is unwarranted and rude. People are not psychic, it was quite reasonable for them to ask.
Post reply on HN