To: Amy J who wrote (181358 ) 5/26/2005 12:49:01 PM From: rkral Read Replies (2) | Respond to Amy J, re "but is it possible your style for detailedness means the above interconnections are less obvious? "Electronic Arts offered a job, the salary was right and the benefits were good, so my SO took it. I remember that they asked him in one of the interviews: "how do you feel about working long hours?" It's just a part of the game industry -- few studios can avoid a crunch as deadlines loom, so we thought nothing of it. When asked for specifics about what "working long hours" meant, the interviewers coughed and glossed on to the next question; now we know why. "When the next news came it was not about a reprieve; it was another acceleration: twelve hours six days a week, 9am to 10pm. "Now, it seems, is the "real" crunch, the one that the producers of this title so wisely prepared their team for by running them into the ground ahead of time. The current mandatory hours are 9am to 10pm -- seven days a week -- with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behavior (at 6:30pm). This averages out to an eighty-five hour work week. "And the kicker: for the honor of this treatment EA salaried employees receive a) no overtime; b) no compensation time [ed: explanation of comp time deleted]; c) no additional sick or vacation leave. The time just goes away. "livejournal.com Electronic Arts faces overtime lawsuit ", CNET news.com, Nov 12, 2004, news.com.com Overtime coming to Electronic Arts ", CNET news.com, Mar 12, 2005, news.com.com
