Forked from WotC Layoffs: Industry Size

[Mark]

(. . .) to state that they must have some sort of annual layoff policy is (. . .)

Evident. Apparently the anonymous source of Morrus and the report of Charles Ryan who was personally effected, as well as the annual layoffs all seem to be in agreement.

I doubt there are some evil suits twiddling their mustaches and cackling over who'll they'll axe this year.

Funny. Of course, that isn't something I put forth. In all likelihood, the people who were involved in canning other WotC employees some years ago aren't the same ones doing it this year. BTW, reductio ad absurdum only works if the point against which you are arguing hasn't already been confirmed.

It's a year-by-year decision, as it is for every company of decent size.

"Decent?" Your irony meter must be pegging about now.

It's simply a shame WotC hasn't learned, or taken the time to learn, how to change their business model to avoid this recurring problem.

So, in your scenario, WotC hasn't the institutional memory or collective intelligence to avoid a recurring problem, rather than a general policy that each year they will ensure their bottom line by making staff cuts. I'm interested to know why you think ill of them? In my own scenario I consider them corporate and neutrally unfeeling while in your scenario those running the division must not have the sense to adjust to an annual slip up that costs many employees their jobs. Between the two of us, I am actually the one giving those who work for the corporation the respect they deserve.

 

[Dire Bare]

So, in your scenario, WotC hasn't the institutional memory or collective intelligence to avoid a recurring problem, rather than a general policy that each year they will ensure their bottom line by making staff cuts. I'm interested to know why you think ill of them? In my own scenario I consider them corporate and neutrally unfeeling while in your scenario those running the division must not have the sense to adjust to an annual slip up that costs many employees their jobs. Between the two of us, I am actually the one giving those who work for the corporation the respect they deserve.

Wow Mark, you and I certainly are not on the same page . . . I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree, which is cool.

I do feel that WotC does not have any sort of annual layoff policy and that the layoff decisions are a year-by-year decision. And that the situation certainly looks like regular annual layoffs is a result of poor management decisions.

That's not to say that all of WotC's management decisions are poor, but obviously they haven't figured out how to fix this one yet.

To assume that means I feel ill will towards WotC and/or their management is silly. It just means I feel they have a problem they have not yet solved.

Overall, WotC is one of several companies I actually respect. They have lasted a long time in a tough industry and have put out stellar product that I purchase on a regular basis. But I feel their attitude towards retaining employees/talent is too cavalier, and that lessens my respect for the company.

It's a common corporate flaw in this day, WotC is far from alone on this issue. One of the reasons why I personally try and avoid working in corporate environments.

 

[wingsandsword]

While Chris is spot on that nobody is really the size of Wizards in both market share and number of employees, I do want to point out that Paizo has 26 full-time employees (and we are hiring still) who work in our 7,000 square foot office with a 16,000 square -foot warehouse. They get very competitive salaries and Paizo pays all of their medical and dental insurance as well as that of their spouses/domestic partners and their children. I just don't want people to think that Paizo is some sort of fly-by-night company working out of somebody's garage. We have a full-time accountant, two customer service reps, two warehouse guys, and a heck of a lot of full-time designers. WotC may be the 800 lb. gorilla in this industry, but Paizo is at least a 400 lb. gorilla.

Wow, y'all have come a long way. I remember when I called in Summer of '03 to order some back issues of Dragon and you answered the phone and took the order. I figured if you were answering the phones yourself you had to be kinda small, never quite thought about how much you must have grown over the last 6 or so years.

Good to hear you're doing so well.

 

[Eridanis]

This has been an informative thread with good information. Please don't force us to close it because of a degenerating tone of conversation.

Let's try to keep this closer to Chris' original topic (size of RPG companies) and away from focusing on the current round of WotC layoffs (plenty of other threads for that).

 

[Mournblade94]

While it's true that layoffs are sometimes a necessity, repeatedly laying people off right before Christmas requires a disturbing lack of sensitivity. Just the sort of lack most often seen in bigger companies, in fact...

I am no defender of WOTC's policy, but huge corporations (of which WOTC is PART of) often lay off employees just before christmas. It has nothing to do with WOTC being even worse. It simply works out with fiscal year ending.

 

[waxbanks]

not gorillas but elephants...

Mod Edit: If you'd like to get a week long ban from ENWorld then posting a post like this right below a moderator warning to keep things civil and on topic is a great way to do it.

Wow, y'all have come a long way. I remember when I called in Summer of '03 to order some back issues of Dragon and you answered the phone and took the order. I figured if you were answering the phones yourself you had to be kinda small, never quite thought about how much you must have grown over the last 6 or so years.

Good to hear you're doing so well.

I understand the combination of defensiveness and pride that *PaizoCEO* displays, and it's swell that they're doing swell, but the biggest difference between Paizo and WOTC is that no one has ever heard of Paizo or any of their products, and everyone has heard of D&D.

Just trying to make the point here that thinking about Paizo and WOTC in terms of business 'competition' is a little silly; Paizo makes specialty products in a specialty field, WOTC makes mass-market products (in that same field) which land on the nonfiction(!) bestseller lists. The difference is not size.

Businesswise, Paizo doesn't really have the capacity to find or make new audiences; their flagship product, remember, is a $50 textbook reworking a WOTC game. They consciously ride WOTC's coattails. Ken Hite said of the PFRPG launch, 'Wizards is building a band, Paizo is building a religion.' That's lovely and admirable in its way. But the Big Inflexible Corporation put out a radical reworking of its flagship product in 2008, while in 2009 the '400 lb. gorilla' put out a gorgeous, lovingly-detailed product designed to closely resemble the Old News.

If you can make a living at that, then your nonexistent deity of choice has blessed you. So do I!

But as has been pointed out upthread, no one makes the decision between an awesome new X-Box game and a copy of Mouse Guard RPG - or Pathfinder - while someone might decide between video games and D&D. Every RPG except D&D 'competes' against other RPGs. D&D is the hobby's face, and therefore competes for cold cash, on behalf of the entire hobby, with things other than roleplaying games.

Comparing business decisions by each company means taking that stuff into account. Since this is a fan board about gaming, such comparisons aren't likely to be super-duper fruitful here (if anywhere).

And that's my grousing for the day. Carry on, (mostly) gents.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I normaly think small basment start ups as haveing 100-1,000 or so employees... the fact that wotc and you guys are so small really speaks volumes...

Wow, you must have HUGE basements over in the States!

I normally think of small basement start ups as having 1-2 employees (mostly owner-operators)!

Cheers

 

[catsclaw227]

In the US, the general guidelines are:

SMBs (small and medium businesses - in EU called SMEs)
SOHO 1-10 employees
Small 11-100 employees
Medium 101-500 employees

 

[Piratecat]

I asked WotC's president Greg Leeds about the nearly annual layoffs when I spoke to him this summer, as I was curious how lean they were running.

At the time both he and Bill Slaviscek agreed that they were at about the right level of staff. WotC restructured in December 2008 when trying to figure out how to integrate in the digital organization. Greg said that having the right level of staffing is a moving target and that they were constantly looking at opportunities to make sure they had the right number of people to meet them. Most of their recent hiring had been in technology.

Clearly, that means that they probably do a Q3 evaluation to see what their correct staffing levels should be over the next 12 months. It disappoints me that such talent was laid off.

 

[SSquirrel]

Businesses typically cover a large portion of an employee's health care each month. As much as we lose each paycheck, the employer loses more. If they fire you on Jan 1st, they still have to pay for January and are out that money. If they fired you in December, they will only be required to have covered you thru the rest of that month. Keeps extra people off of quarterly reports and such as well, simpler bookkeeping. Why have 50 full time people who list thru an entire quarter plus 5 other people you first the first week of the month when you could have had them off the records the month before.

People always want to get on companies for doing these things at the holidays, but not everyone celebrates those holidays. I'm not in favor of people losing their jobs and not really trying to defend companies doing it, but it's going to happen at some point in the year, if they feel it needs done. They will have a better idea of how their books are looking than we do and know when they need to take the actions.

Piratecat probably has the right of it. Look at things in the fall, take action in the winter....