So after having conversations with co-workers and looking at resumes of others in the industry I have been thinking about this more and more and wanted to get all your opinions/experiences.
Is your studio family friendly? What I mean is, does it allow you to do what you love while not being married to it. I want to be able to spend time with my family and have a life away from work and not worry about moving from place to place every year. It might be the nature of the biz, but I know there are places where good 8-10 hour day Mon-Fri… or am I way off. I have heard too many different sides and want to hear from you all.
I’m with you all the way.
Personally, I will no longer work anywhere where my hours are unreasonable and leave no room for family time. It is completely pointless to work more then 50 hours a week because it is not effective and you burn out. If who ever manages me doesn’t udnerstand that, then I don’t want them managing me in the first place.
That said, the places I have worked at so far have been reasonable about it. Bioware was good, Frantic was good. And obviously my own game company has been good
Other people may have had other experiences at those studios. I think to some degree it also comes down to you putting your foot down and jkust saying: “Sorry I am going home to spend time with my family. I will be back tomorrow freshly recharged to work for you again”.
Well here’s the reality of business in LA when it comes to film at least.
Every place, almost without exception, will have an 9 hour work day plus one hour for lunch. This means you are spending a combined total of 10 hours at work. If you factor in any commute time you are more likely looking at 11 hours away from home.
When it comes to film there’s no notion of job security anymore. You’re most likely hired for run of the show contract.
With the spread of studios to locations like Vancouver, London, Sydney and Singapore you’re pretty much considering a move every time you go from contract to contract desperately hoping you will find something in town before you really have to make the hard choice. And while relocation is less of a problem in Vancouver now for example, it’s not going to last forever. Things like removing the HST tax could very well mean some of the studios that quickly moved to town can move to Toronto just as fast looking for those same incentives.
Game studios fare a little better with at least an offer of steady employment but work hours are worse. I interviewed at a place recently (well known respectable studio) that said they work on average 50 hours a week, and that’s when do not have to crunch. Bare in mind the overtime hours are unpaid either, unlike in film.
There is no easy answer to this question. Knowing when/how and why to say no to terrible working conditions takes nerve and time and in a current state of “your lucky to have a job, you will do what I tell you or we will find some one else” attitudes can make it even worse.
There are good studios with bad managers, good studios with bad publishers, bad studios with good managers… all end up in overtime or crunch but it matters how the artists are treated during. If you hire good people give clear direction and trust them to do the work required during tight deadlines allowing flexibility for life things are great.
In my mind that happens far less often than it should, to often it is a micro manged directionless mess that through sheer pride of the team and a ship date that can’t move any further the game manages to get out the door.
I will say that it is not a unique situation to our industry. Many have it worse.
What does not make sense to me though is that if you look at the top 100 companies to work for 100 Best Companies to Work For 2011: Full list - from FORTUNE or the ones that are ranked best for family’s Farewell and Thank You | Seramount you can see a blueprint for both balanced life and massive scale and success. Yet each project repeats the same mistakes has the same problems with no solid reason that I have been able to figure out.
I’d be interested in knowing the reading lists of management in various companies who a) achieve this balance and b) utterly don’t.
I read a lot of management and productivity books like 4-Hour Workweek, Getting Things Done, The War of Art and I’m even choking my way through Management by Peter Drucker but I don’t know a lot of colleagues who do.
I’m wondering if the overall conversation in CG/Games/Film businesses are missing out on some of these newer concepts such as ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) remote working or the ideas in Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind that demonstrate what really motivates and drives human productivity.
That said, I’ve been in various companies that have been better or worse for how they treat their artists, but crunch time almost always shows up at some point and is totally accepted like a calcified habit. I agree with Brad that it’s perplexing.
My criteria go like this. Ignore everything positive a studio says about work hours and family life. Here’s what it comes down to:
Has the studio released a game similar to that they’re working on? No? You’re definitely going to crunch.
Is the studio or company currently making money? No? You’re probably going to crunch.
Did the most recent released title involve crunch? Yes? You’re definitely going to crunch.
How have the last 2 projects your department manager (Art Director/Manager) gone? Did he crunch people? You’re probably going to crunch.
I’m sure there are more factors and obviously these all play into one another. There ARE studios that experience very little crunch but recognizing them requires some skill and experience and compromise (don’t expect to work in most areas of sub-AAA. I think the ‘best’ studios may have some less crunch but most AAA studios have it).
Stay away from the areas with higher cost of living (LA) but still with a developer/technology presence (Austin), and use your sense, and talk to them honestly about it (if they’re upset about that, they’re not for you), and you’ll be fine.
I’ve given up trying to get angry about the state of people’s views towards crunch or trying to fight against the culture at a studio. You’re not going to win if the prevailing culture is crunch. You just need to leave and find some place more mature.
Yeah I’ve excepted the fact that there will be crunch and I really don’t mind it when it comes down to it, I think I have just heard too many horror stories about sleeping on couches and not seeing people for 12 weeks at a time(in LA of course), so I wanted to get some insider opinions to add to the arsenal when it comes time to finding a place to apply to. Thanks for the tips.
Every company and even department within it is different. For example, our central art studio serving 3 games and marketing hasn’t crunched since September 2008. We have taken it upon ourselves to stay late as a team or on individual basis when we thought it was appropriate or really important to the company. Other teams have crunched and we were never made to “sympathy crunch” which is the worst kind of crunch, imho. Don’t get me wrong, we are not perfect by any means, but management inside the art studio is really good and upper management has really come around over the years too.
Sounds like a plug for the studio I work at, but it’s not meant to be really. Just goes to show that there are a lot of different options out there. As for what to look for in a company, I agree with all that’s been said and would like to add this. Simply ask the employees you interview with about it during the interview. Ask things like “how does the company handle times when there isn’t enough bandwidth?”. I think that’s a better question than “how much do you crunch”.
Glad to hear that Alex, one of my old instructors from school works there as a CG Generalist, but according to him it’s not as great as that. I’m just saying it’s another example of how different things can be depending on location and the person it seems. Thanks for the input on Nick though, good to hear both sides.
