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Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

kotaku.com

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Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#121

Post by KallDrexx »

cloakandswagger wrote: post #10
lquist wrote: post #9

Is severance normal at a startup or a game studio? I would think first priority would be contractual obligations (payroll, contractual severance, vendors, etc.) and then only then severance.

I don't think severance is normal or expected of any business teetering on insolvency.

When the one game job i worked at laid everyone off and files for bankruptcy i got 6 weeks severance paid for by the government about two months later. Of course this was Australia where companies pay a per employee tax to support this.

won't happen in the states.

Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#122

Post by tomc1985 »

kevinh wrote: post #35
dogma1138 wrote: post #3

I wonder how much the closure was financial mismanagement vs their business model simply catching up to them. TTG shtick was essentially “emotional abuse simulators” all their games had one trick get you attached to characters and see them die with very little actual player control over it. They were one trick pony and the novelty wore off rather quickly. Their games also were based on expensive franchises and they o…

> TTG shtick was essentially “emotional abuse simulators” all their games had one trick get you attached to characters and see them die with very little actual player control over it. Some of their games were like this, but others were not. The Tales from the Borderlands series and Guardians of the Galaxy series were primarily vehicles for comedy, and did not rely on the trope you're mentioning.

Their early work... Strongbad Episodes, and the Sam and Max series, were really quite amazing. TTG's later franchises never really interested me; I had assumed the games were just as good. To hear that their later franchises resorted to these kinds of tactics makes me sad :(

Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#123

Post by toomuchtodo »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #108
toomuchtodo wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Severance is never guaranteed though, bankruptcy or otherwise. If a company is going bankrupt, of course they're not going to have the funds to pay severance when closing up shop. Unless I'm misunderstanding the point (and the quotations around generosity were intended to convey that in bankruptcy, that doesn't exist). Regardless, I suppose the end result should be to make unemployment kick in faster so you don't nee…

Severance can be put in a contract like anything else, so it's as 'guaranteed' as any other obligation so long as the company can pay for it.

If severance is in your contract, and the company is insolvent, you are SOL. It is not like any other obligation, as an example, unemployment: your company pays into unemployment funds every month (mandated by government), which is what allows you to collect if you're let go, regardless of their solvency situation.

A severance agreement with a bankrupt company is worthless.

Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#124

Post by danso »

captain_perl wrote: post #95
avip wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens in the US if you leave your employer when in a degraded health state (let's say cancer)?

For acute emergencies, like a heart attack or car accident, US hospitals are obligated to treat your immediate needs if you enter the lobby. You just clutch your chest and say, "Help, I think I'm having a heart attack!" Sadly, cancer doesn't qualify. Either you pony up $50,000 - $200,000 in the hospital lobby, or they call a security guard and escort you out of the building. Then you go home and die.

Pretty good summary of "uncompensated care" here:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/07/03/who-...

The 1985 Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act requires hospitals to provide emergency services "regardless of ability to pay".

https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EMT...

Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#125

Post by bobthepanda »

dleslie wrote: post #107
elvirs wrote: post #105

"One employee, a source told Kotaku, had been working until 3 AM the night before" Moral of the story, never work for any company until 3am.

_Never_ work longer hours than you would be willing to be paid hourly for given your salary. _Never_. I've been interviewed at companies where it was evident from my questions that I would make more working half time at my current employer than the hours typically worked at the prospective employer. Really, I don't see why overtime is so rare in our industry. Not having it is more often an excuse to over utilize and…

The industry is largely white collar, and those jobs in America tend not to be unionized. There is also a not insignificant libertarian streak within tech. And games has the unfortunate distinction of having lots of people willing to work pittances for passion.

Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#126

Post by [deleted] »

bobthepanda wrote: post #125
dleslie wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

_Never_ work longer hours than you would be willing to be paid hourly for given your salary. _Never_. I've been interviewed at companies where it was evident from my questions that I would make more working half time at my current employer than the hours typically worked at the prospective employer. Really, I don't see why overtime is so rare in our industry. Not having it is more often an excuse to over utilize and…

The industry is largely white collar, and those jobs in America tend not to be unionized. There is also a not insignificant libertarian streak within tech. And games has the unfortunate distinction of having lots of people willing to work pittances for passion.

[deleted]

Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#127

Post by vecter »

dleslie wrote: post #107
elvirs wrote: post #105

"One employee, a source told Kotaku, had been working until 3 AM the night before" Moral of the story, never work for any company until 3am.

_Never_ work longer hours than you would be willing to be paid hourly for given your salary. _Never_. I've been interviewed at companies where it was evident from my questions that I would make more working half time at my current employer than the hours typically worked at the prospective employer. Really, I don't see why overtime is so rare in our industry. Not having it is more often an excuse to over utilize and…

Never is a pretty bad rule. If you want to get ahead in life and advance your career, sometimes working more is the only way to do it. Everyone should decide at the end of the day how much they want to balance work vs. life, but for many people, working hard is the right choice.

Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#128

Post by tibbon »

ryandrake wrote: post #17
cloakandswagger wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think severance is normal or expected of any business teetering on insolvency.

In my experience, severance (as part of your employment agreement) is not normal or expected for any job in the USA. I’ve been working for decades and have never seen even a hint of it in any employer’s benefits info. Severance is something only big shot executives get.

I've gotten severance (just like, 4 weeks or so?) from the last 3 or 4 companies I've worked for. Just as a datapoint.

Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#129

Post by thaumasiotes »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #39
keerthiko wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just another among 10s of reasons why healthcare shouldn't be left to the market. Lining up capitalist incentives with public health is incredibly hard -- the people who need more expensive treatment more badly are almost always the people who are less capable of affording it, for evident reasons: being invalid made them unable to work, being in poor conditions in the first place led to their health conditions, it's…

Interesting to note though, employer provided health insurance is a direct outcome of govt policy: Most insurance in the first half of the 20th century was bought privately, but few people wanted it. In 1942, with so many eligible workers diverted to military service, the nation was facing a severe labor shortage. Economists feared that businesses would keep raising salaries to compete for workers, and that inflation…

> President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9250, establishing the Office of Economic Stabilization. This froze wages. Businesses were not allowed to raise pay to attract workers.

Tangent: from where does the president draw the authority to do this?

Re: Telltale Employees Left Stunned by Company Closure, No Severance

#130

Post by pandaman »

TylerE wrote: post #97
ta987654321 wrote: post #19

This studio closure hits a little close to me, since I know a few former employees: - They really did not see a full studio closure coming so suddenly. Yes, they were aware that they were struggling, but the 25% staff reduction was supposed to keep the studio sustainable. - They were in the planning stages for an original IP, their new leadership realized too late that expensive IP licenses were unsustainable. - Thei…

I wonder how many companies ever lay off 25% of staff and then actually come back to succeed? I can't really think of any examples off hand.

Sony Santa Monica.
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