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The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

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Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#21

Post by shadowgovt »

kjs3 wrote: post #7
oneoff786 wrote: post #3

> Contractors increasingly see themselves as second-class citizens This made me laugh My dude, you’re not a citizen at all.

Yeah, weird...'contractor' as an employment category by definition means that a company doesn't deal with you as a regular employee. What exactly did these people think they signed up for?

In general, "a job at a name people know."

It's not like Google, for example, is looking to hire you if you don't have one of the couple-dozen college names they're into on your résumé. But if you get hired by a contracting company that posts you at Google to do a contracted task, you'll get to put that "Worked at Google" experience on the résumé and get a leg up.

Plus some people (falsely) assume that the environment will be great because the company has a great reputation. At the interface of the contractor level, that varies widely. I had to go to bat at my old office because I randomly showed up on the weekend and found out all the contractors were working in 85-degree heat in an office building; the building turned the A/C off on the weekend to save power, and nobody had thought to ask it be turned on when we moved a whole contracting team in to work weekends.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#23

Post by ipaddr »

kjs3 wrote: post #7
oneoff786 wrote: post #3

> Contractors increasingly see themselves as second-class citizens This made me laugh My dude, you’re not a citizen at all.

Yeah, weird...'contractor' as an employment category by definition means that a company doesn't deal with you as a regular employee. What exactly did these people think they signed up for?

If a contractor is part of the team treat them like they are or don't expect them to be part of your team.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#24

Post by shadowgovt »

kodah wrote: post #19
kjs3 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, weird...'contractor' as an employment category by definition means that a company doesn't deal with you as a regular employee. What exactly did these people think they signed up for?

Employers make it a point, often, to blur the lines. Contractors, by government definition, get to choose their own hours, their own tools, they must be compensated dynamically for their expenses. When I was a contractor I felt that I was an FTE with shittier benefits; I was told where to be and when to be there, my tools were dictated to me, and if I ever asked about purchasing something to do my job better I was as…

The healthiest thing to do, as a contractor, is to draw the line in both directions. Be very familiar with your contract and if an employer asks you to do something outside it, reply with a very clear "I'm sorry but that's not in the scope of my duties. If you need me to take that on we can renegotiate."

It feels shitty if you're of the mindset that you want to solve problems and not play legal games, but Lord knows the employer isn't incentivized to not try and wring every ounce of work out of you they can get for below-market FTE prices.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#25

Post by ipaddr »

shadowgovt wrote: post #21
kjs3 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, weird...'contractor' as an employment category by definition means that a company doesn't deal with you as a regular employee. What exactly did these people think they signed up for?

In general, "a job at a name people know." It's not like Google, for example, is looking to hire you if you don't have one of the couple-dozen college names they're into on your résumé. But if you get hired by a contracting company that posts you at Google to do a contracted task, you'll get to put that "Worked at Google" experience on the résumé and get a leg up. Plus some people (falsely) assume that the environmen…

How do you put on your resume worked for google when you worked for actionforce or outshored?

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#27

Post by shadowgovt »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #10
artificialLimbs wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"minimum standards for employment" What is that? Do you mean "law"?

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but tentatively I think the answer is yes. They avoid the legal standards for employment by abusing a 'contractor' legal status. A contractor is supposed to be an outside expert, not a sub-employee.

And there are very perverse incentives that put massive pressure on an individual contracted employee that is absent when they're an FTE.

A sexually-harassed FTE may be concerned that fighting for their rights is going to black-ball them in their career, but they rarely need be concerned that it'll cost all their colleagues their jobs, because a company is rarely incentivized to cut a whole department if one employee sues but can decide working with a contracted company isn't worth it, and go with one of their competitors to fulfill the contract, if one of the contracted employees makes waves.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#29

Post by lots2learn »

oneoff786 wrote: post #18
smoldesu wrote: post #9

The past 20 years for Nintendo have been pretty interesting, to say the least. They started with the Gamecube, a console that sold weak numbers and faced stuff competition despite it's library of modern classics. They followed that up with the iPhone of game consoles, the Wii, and moved hundreds of millions of units like it was no big deal. Seeking to capitalize on that same success, they made the Wii U, which seemin…

Nintendo has a lot of cash and is more of a toy company than a console company. I tend to think they will be fine. Their weakest link is almost certainly their marketing team. The Wii U was really cool. Nintendo Land was insanely fun. The asymmetric local multiplayer was cool as shit. But nobody understood this. Most people didn’t know the Wii U was a different console.

Many many years later, my kids still get a ton of mileage out of the wii u. As one kids gets old enough to play, the others return to the games and get more out of the stellar multiplayer aspect. Nintendoland, Mario kart, Mario 3d world, new super Mario bros u, Wii party, Mario party - loads of fun.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#30

Post by wk_end »

shadowgovt wrote: post #24
kodah wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employers make it a point, often, to blur the lines. Contractors, by government definition, get to choose their own hours, their own tools, they must be compensated dynamically for their expenses. When I was a contractor I felt that I was an FTE with shittier benefits; I was told where to be and when to be there, my tools were dictated to me, and if I ever asked about purchasing something to do my job better I was as…

The healthiest thing to do, as a contractor, is to draw the line in both directions. Be very familiar with your contract and if an employer asks you to do something outside it, reply with a very clear "I'm sorry but that's not in the scope of my duties. If you need me to take that on we can renegotiate." It feels shitty if you're of the mindset that you want to solve problems and not play legal games, but Lord knows…

Not that you're wrong...but (speaking from second-hand experience: my ex was [0] a contractor at FB) this sort of thing is a fabulous way to lose your job. The company will do whatever it has to do to bring the hammer down on any nails that stick out, and they've got enough legal and financial resources to get away with it.

[0] https://medium.com/@techworkersco_79433/who-fired-the-ras-or...

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