As one of the world's largest game developers, EA dominates headlines for its well-known titles like The Sims, FIFA Soccer, Madden NFL Football and The Lord of the Rings, and is certainly not scrutinised for its operating practices.
But the winds of change are blowing ferociously and software developers at the US$3 billion company have had enough.
Employees and those who have quit or were fired tell of a sorry tale. The real situation is dotcom-esque where able-bodied men and women traipse around like zombies, working non-stop, obscene hours.
They claim the company consistently forces workers to clock 80 hours or more per week. These alleged sweatshop-like conditions have resulted in a lawsuit against EA, which stands accused of failing to pay overtime wages.
A former employee and software developer, Joe Straitiff, has gone on record to tell his story. And it's pretty appalling.
Straitiff claimed EA employees were more or less expected to live at the office. His manager had a neon sign which brightly glowed the words "Open 7 days".
"You shouldn't be able to ask a person to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week for months on end," Straitiff said. "You really fry a person working like that."
After a year and a half at EA, he was fired.
Many developers and designers go the extra mile when a project is underway but things get ugly when work is prolonged. "Once it starts, it doesn't let up until the game ships, which can be up to two years away," wrote one developer who claimed to work for an Atari-owned studio. "It starts with 50 hours, then 60, 70, 80 ... they don't want people to have lives or families."
Workers are used to overtime without pay but it's when they're taken for granted and treated with disrespect -- that would stoke feelings of animosity and dissent.
To every employer, every boss, I'll leave you with this quote from Jason Della Rocca, a program director at advocacy group the International Game Developers Association: "Happy workers are more productive ... happy workers are more creative."
Hi Fran another spot on article .
My views ... the whole of the IT industry operates more or less like this and I am not sure why it thinks this is beneficial. To some extent I blame the bottom line Accountancy approach to business that has so painfully whizzed across the world in the late 1990's to present day but its also driven by the fear that a competitor will steal a march on a new idea . This is a bit immature and I must confess I have taken a clear dislike of companies and business that operate and behave this way. I hope my buying trends reflect that fact.
I just think that until these companies start to understand that people are NOT machines then nothing will change and personally I think they will have trouble attracting top line candidates to work for them. Maybe at the moment they are enjoying pushing IT people around - because they can .. but that will not last forever and the payback could be swift and quite brutal.It is quite an anomoly that many of these organisations have no plans for filling holes left by the departure of key people because they arrogantly think that key people either won't or can't leave. There is always a flash point and we must be getting closer the longer this goes on.
From an HR perspective how can any informed and sane CEO truly believe his staff is functioning at 100 % efficiency after months of 12-15 hour days and ongoing weekend work. Apart from the unpaid hours issue it just churns and burns people and it is then that you quickly realise that to be in IT today you are simply a name and a number but not a real person.The message being given is you only work in IT if you are really desperate , nerdy or just plain devoid of any life. Why this would be attractive to new entrants has me guessing ???
You might actually be better treated as a drone in a bee colony but the analogy is quite similar. I certainly thought that as humans we were capable of much better than this but in spite of all our technology the promise of easier lives has not transpired at all and in fact the IT industry is in real danger of being overlooked and avoided as other technologies like the good old pen and paper , landline telephone and shock horror face to face interviews with real people become popular again. After all the phone lines are rarely down .. and when they are down its usually as a result of a fire , flood , lightening , acts of god etc - when in a face to face situation you can make a much better assessment of the untold language .. ie body language which can tell so much more than mere words.
I am one of the lucky ones to escape the 80-100 hour a week sweatshop environment making me much poorer financially but much richer in spirit and a feeling I am alive again. Many others will follow me sooner I think ...
Keep the probing articles going .. I enjoy them ..