Electronic Arts has succeeded brilliantly in squeezing the most out of their talented workers. According to a livejournal post by an EA Spouse, her significant other is forced to work an 85 hour week with no overtime and no compensatory time.
Some of my earlier employers would be consumed with envy at the EA strategy. The best they ever managed was to get us to work 75 hours a week in times of dire need and they almost always gave us comp time and bonuses.
In fact, the only threat they ever used on us simple-minded engineers was to suggest that we would not get the next juicy assignment if we didn't finish up the current assignment immediately.
We were so eager to get working on the next big breakthrough, that we spent years working through weekends and holidays so we wouldn't miss out on the next big challenge. Duh! It took me two broken marriages before I realized that my addiction was costing me my home life!
EA has carried this entreprenurial strategy beyond its logical limit. In this era of bloggers, that is an unwise practice. The original LiveJournal post had 2528 comments without a single comment denying the truth of her statements. As one anonymous responder put it, "White-collar slavery is alive and well in the games industry."
It looks like the time of reckoning may have come for EA. Ed Frauenheim, a staff writer at CNET News.com, writes about a class action suit being filed against game-publishing giant Electronic Arts for allegedly failing to pay overtime wages.
Attorney Robert Schubert, partner at San Francisco law firm Schubert & Reed, said he has initiated legal proceedings to start a class action lawsuit on behalf of a group of EA employees. "We are seeking unpaid overtime for a good number of (EA) employees who weren't (properly) paid," Schubert said. "EA contends they were exempt. We contend otherwise."
It sounds like there is some uncertainty as to what constitutes an exempt employee. You might want to check it out for yourself.
Hey, from all of us at Minddiversion. We are having a little "friendly competition" and need you help, badly. To help us, just go to www.minddiversion.com. There you will see two posts on titled "Greeting..." the other is "Hello..." if you could just comment on both of those saying "Hi, from (instert location)" we would be so grateful!
Who ever has the least amount is out, there is a whole group of us...not Tiff and I against each other. Please help us! Get everyone you know to help also.
Thank-you.
Posted by: Jessica | Nov 17, 2004 at 02:35 PM
Wow, I love EA games but this sure gives me pause. I'll read up on your links. That's awful. And I wonder how they can dare say some are exempt from OT? Must be because they're management? Automotive industry does that all the time too. Really not a good practice but so many of us need the jobs we keep doing it so it makes changing the practice hard.
Posted by: Carrie | Nov 18, 2004 at 12:23 PM
if so , could u please send me the electronic arts email address,due to i want to ask them a question about a game...but i can not find the address anywhere...not even on there site
please send me it...please
Posted by: matt | Dec 12, 2004 at 06:38 PM
Hey, I recently saw that EA bought the exclusive rights to NFL licencing in video games. This is totally unexceptable to an American consumer. Check out my site @ http://evilempires.blogspot.com/.
I don't want to sit idly by while this corporate bigwigs take advantage of my hard earned money. I thought you might have a suggestion on how to voice my opinion, and make others aware. Thanks
Posted by: chris | Dec 16, 2004 at 11:02 PM