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Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

eidosmontreal.com

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Re: Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

#11

Post by dont__panic »

akersten wrote: post #8

In the spirit of always starting your negotiation high and working toward a palatable middle, I'd like to propose a 2-day work week and 5 days off. You may think that sounds crazy, but how many hours of dedicated, actual work do you do in a week? If you work a "9-5" and are reading this comment at work right now, I can give you a hint: it's not 40 ;) I think we'd all be less distracted and more focused if we forced t…

I wonder if the increasing shift toward remote work (often in disparate timezones) will end up pushing teams to eventually adopt 1-3 "core hours" 2-3 days per week with team meetings and collaboration sessions and a more laissez-faire attitude toward working the rest of the usual 9-5 day; I would love to just focus on getting my work done any time I feel like it, attend meetings during core hours, and have the ability to get out of the house and go do things during the normal workweek.

Re: Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

#12

Post by BitwiseFool »

akersten wrote: post #8

In the spirit of always starting your negotiation high and working toward a palatable middle, I'd like to propose a 2-day work week and 5 days off. You may think that sounds crazy, but how many hours of dedicated, actual work do you do in a week? If you work a "9-5" and are reading this comment at work right now, I can give you a hint: it's not 40 ;) I think we'd all be less distracted and more focused if we forced t…

In the 9-5's defense, a good chunk of my "downtime" at work is due to waiting on other people and/or not having something I can make progress on.

I would love less than a 40 hour work week where the effort is more concentrated, but after a certain point you just can't expect full productivity in a shorter space of time.

Re: Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

#13

Post by endisneigh »

akersten wrote: post #8

In the spirit of always starting your negotiation high and working toward a palatable middle, I'd like to propose a 2-day work week and 5 days off. You may think that sounds crazy, but how many hours of dedicated, actual work do you do in a week? If you work a "9-5" and are reading this comment at work right now, I can give you a hint: it's not 40 ;) I think we'd all be less distracted and more focused if we forced t…

that's an interesting idea, but wouldn't work.

my personal theory is that all uncertainty ultimately is derived from the weather and cascades down. that is, even if you eliminated inattention, carelessness, tardiness, and laziness and what not, the weather would inevitably cause accidents and other unpredictable things.

as a result much of the time people spend is actually just waiting around for other people.

Re: Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

#14

Post by Jare »

MattGaiser wrote: post #10
juice_bus wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on man, its in the article: > without changing the working conditions currently in place nor the salaries of employees, thus switching from the 40-hour week to 32-hour.

I wouldn’t be quite that cynical, but gaming is known for tons of extra hours. All companies I have known with bad hours have also officially had 40 hour weeks.

I want to point my finger at you and accuse you of cynicism (sp?). But then I remember that colleague who was crunching as a part time employee, and yeah you have all the right in the world to be because gamedev has always been quite fucked up.

I do believe (and hope to be correct) that many gamedev studios are getting much better, but there's plenty still to do.

Re: Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

#15

Post by Karawebnetwork »

sdf131 wrote: post #7
tomstuart wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No: > In the next few weeks, the Montreal and Sherbrooke studios will be officially closed on Fridays, without changing the working conditions currently in place nor the salaries of employees, thus switching from the 40-hour week to 32-hour.

They’re likely earning ~40-70k so the shift isn’t very significant The real question is: are they changing the deadlines? Studio already suffer from crunch and all the meetings you had on Friday are now spread throughout the week

> They’re likely earning ~40-70k so the shift isn’t very significant

Exactly. I don't work in the video-game industry, but the local (Québec) programmer scene is pretty small and information travels fast.

I've been told by people that work there that the employer already pays the equivalent of a 4 day week and that many employees are quitting now that WFH has opened up the market.

My personal understanding is that instead of increasing the pay, they are betting that by cutting a day, people will stay and keep the same level of crunch time.

Re: Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

#17

Post by poetaster »

akersten wrote: post #8

In the spirit of always starting your negotiation high and working toward a palatable middle, I'd like to propose a 2-day work week and 5 days off. You may think that sounds crazy, but how many hours of dedicated, actual work do you do in a week? If you work a "9-5" and are reading this comment at work right now, I can give you a hint: it's not 40 ;) I think we'd all be less distracted and more focused if we forced t…

I have a frame. 28 hours. M/W/F I do 8 hours, am available. T/T I do 2, alone. Sometimes I do more. I have the good fortune to say when and where, but this gives me modalities and no one has to wait too long and I get quality work time in both parts. Pay is not that good, perks are.

Re: Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

#18

Post by slothtrop »

djmips wrote: post #16
TwinProduction wrote: post #2

Will their salaries be lowered to match the new number of hours per week?

They live in Canada, their salaries are already lowered. This will help them from leaving for better $ elsewhere.

It's the game industry, these salaries aren't generally high in the U.S. either.

Re: Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

#19

Post by NortySpock »

Karawebnetwork wrote: post #15
sdf131 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They’re likely earning ~40-70k so the shift isn’t very significant The real question is: are they changing the deadlines? Studio already suffer from crunch and all the meetings you had on Friday are now spread throughout the week

> They’re likely earning ~40-70k so the shift isn’t very significant Exactly. I don't work in the video-game industry, but the local (Québec) programmer scene is pretty small and information travels fast. I've been told by people that work there that the employer already pays the equivalent of a 4 day week and that many employees are quitting now that WFH has opened up the market. My personal understanding is that in…

"Crunch, and also crunch on Friday, which you now 'have off' but since you are (by design, perpetually) behind, we're going to need you to come in."

Re: Eidos-Montréal Offices shifting to the 4 day work week

#20

Post by imtringued »

Instead of mandating that everyone should work a fixed work week why not just let people decide how much they want to work? The 40 hour work week is just a "social construct". Let the unit of labor be half a work day (4 hours) instead of a whole person. If people want to work 24 or 32 or 44 hours let them.

The labor market isn't much of a market if you can't even do something as basic as decide how much you want to work.

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