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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

#31

Post by mgraczyk »

crooked-v wrote: post #11
mgraczyk wrote: post #4

I never understand articles like this. Am I supposed to feel bad for playtesters because they don't have access to a soccer field and D-pad shaped couches? Most people have jobs without those perks. Does the fact that you do work for a company "in tech" make it worse that you're not showered with benefits? The margins aren't high and the work they are doing can be done by almost anyone.

It's not about being "showered with benefits", it's about the basic workplace culture leaving employees so uncomfortable and paranoid that (as noted in the article) they literally reenact cartoon plots to auto-press a keyboard so they can go the bathroom without being hassled.

I'm just saying the article talks a lot about benefits these people don't have, but almost nobody has such benefits.

If the article only talked about conditions like what you're describing, it would be 1/8th as long and I wouldn't have complained.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#32

Post by AmericanChopper »

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.

A contractor is supposed to be a person operating a business that provides services on a contract basis, a contractors business is no different from any other business that provides professional services. A contractor engages in this work knowing that they are exchanging all of their employment rights for better remuneration. This is how I personally manage to get paid anywhere between $200-$500/hour, and the only person abusing the system here is me taking advantage of companies inability to hire enough permanent staff.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#33

Post by SgtBastard »

ipaddr wrote: post #25
shadowgovt wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

>worked at Google.

At, not for.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#34

Post by TAForObvReasons »

guelo wrote: post #26
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.

What is your point? Sencond-class citizen seems like a valid analogy for two types of employees.

There's arguably a difference between a contractor employed by Nintendo (receiving a 1099 from the company) and a contractor employed by an outsourcing firm that Nintendo uses (paid by the outsourcing firm). The former seems analogous to "second-class citizens" while the latter seems analogous to "foreign resident"

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#35

Post by Melatonic »

blintz wrote: post #17

I suppose this is run-of-the-mill for the video game industry, but man, it's sounds so hellish; people deserve not be humiliated like this at work. Isn't the solution unions, akin to the heavily unionized movie / TV business? Short of that, Nintendo deserves some bad PR for this at least; as long as people keep leaking their crappy workplace conditions to the press, the execs will have to keep reading these articles,…

Definitely unions are becoming more and more popular again for a reason!

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#36

Post by fzeroracer »

mgraczyk wrote: post #31
crooked-v wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about being "showered with benefits", it's about the basic workplace culture leaving employees so uncomfortable and paranoid that (as noted in the article) they literally reenact cartoon plots to auto-press a keyboard so they can go the bathroom without being hassled.

I'm just saying the article talks a lot about benefits these people don't have, but almost nobody has such benefits. If the article only talked about conditions like what you're describing, it would be 1/8th as long and I wouldn't have complained.

Can you explain to me which benefits exactly the article is describing that is over the line? With quotes from the article.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#37

Post by gunfighthacksaw »

beebmam wrote: post #16
gunfighthacksaw wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The startup I currently work for has (IMO) a reasonable number of benefits - weekly lunch - get drunk on the company a handful of times a year - dogfooding our product for free - certs + professional development A company offering substantially less than that I’d consider stingy or too up tight. Not appreciative of the workers. Look at low margin industries like the warehouse. A company offering more, Id feel good ab…

I have a hard time taking any company seriously that facilitates the consumption of alcohol during work hours, with the exception of parties/celebrations.

I was mostly referring to parties, though a liquid lunch during a (rare) slow week is not unheard of and can prove quite conducive to meetings.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#39

Post by phreack »

didip wrote: post #22

Isn’t this the reality inside any large companies in America? Contractors will always live in a different world than full timers. It sucks, but that’s what it is.

It is what it is but it's so awful it's actually illegal to make contractors work as employees in most of the world. I'd wager it's got to be illegal in at least some American states.

Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade

#40

Post by teg4n_ »

Some of the attitude expressed in this comment section show just how out of touch a lot of you are. These contractors are not contractors by choice. They are not even contractors in the sense you probably think like sending an invoice to Nintendo and having it paid. They work for shitty companies like Aerotek that provide very little benefits AND they can only work 10 out of the 12 months of the year due to laws trying to prevent exactly what Nintendo is doing which is using contractors as discount full time employees. The tax payer is subsidizing Nintendo because these people end up on unemployment for two months every year.
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