It's Almost the Season for WOTC layoff!

[Thornir Alekeg]

In all honesty, I don't believe that they are barely profitable. It is much more likely that they are barely exceeding profit margins expected of them by their coporate masters. As they approach the end of the fiscal year, they see that they are not going to make their goals and so need to make changes. They either need to cut costs or increase revenue. Since increasing revenue isn't really an option on such a short-term basis, cost-cutting is the only choice.

What it comes down to, is I believe these are short-term decisions and, while there are other choices they could make, none are as expedient as layoffs. Ideally WotC would be able to do long-term planning to reduce costs and increase revenue and not need to maintain this pattern, but the economy and other market forces make that kind of planning not so simple.

 

[Dedekind]

I go back and forth on this, but I ultimately feel okay about my company's approach. If you only hire people that you really NEED, then you're less likely to lay a bunch of people off when belts have to be tightened since you won't have a lot of excess staff.

It sucks for people who are currently looking for jobs, of course, but I think it's an okay strategy (for both companies and workers) in the long run.

You make a very good point. The whole thing is complicated, however, by the fact that the workload can be volatile. At the peak, you may 30 people, but the trough may require 20. This is where freelancers come in, I guess, and we know WotC makes use of that.

On a different note, my company reduces staff by not filling vacancies. How often do people actually leave WotC R&D on their own?

 

[Mistwell]

There are far too many factors involved to be able to figure out the cause of a particular layoff.

It's all based on budgets. A department gets it's budget cut in a year, and that means they need to cut expenses somehow. Usually that is done by laying people off, but it can also be done by pay cuts, and cuts in other expenses.

Regardless, the reasons for a budget cut are numerous. Sometimes it means the company is doing WELL, not bad. Sometimes what it means is profits went up to the point where the company can almost afford to expand into a new department, and so needs to make budget cuts in other departments to make up the difference between what they can almost afford for the new department and what they need to really do it right.

Sometimes it means sales are down. Sometimes it means so many projects were completed that there is simply less to do. Sometimes it means the parent company is buying another company, and they need the money to do that. Or because there will be redundancies in positions somewhere from an acquisition.

I could go on and on about possible reasons, but my point is there are too many factors involved, and there is no way to know for certain if it means the company is doing well or poorly, seeing big profits or not, or anything of the sort.

That said, this is the part I find tasteless:

I wonder who will get the axe this year?

 

[avin]

Well, maybe is tasteless (and maybe cruel) to post on this board... but it's almost like a game after all these years and I bet many EnWorld readers have this question popping on their minds.

I do.

 

[ggroy]

Playing "dead pool"?

Dead pool - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[jaerdaph]

Well the good news is, Paizo is usually HIRING.

 

[nedjer]

Well the good news is, Paizo is usually HIRING.

At present that consists of an Internship. 20 hours a week of totally unpaid hard work with zero contract and few rights. Promises "large workload" and "aggressive deadlines". Makes WotC look enlightened. If they're making as much money as their leader keeps claiming why don't they offer a proper wage for a hard day's work? Pure shady IMO

 

[jaerdaph]

At present that consists of an Internship. 20 hours a week of totally unpaid hard work with zero contract and few rights. Promises "large workload" and "aggressive deadlines". Makes WotC look enlightened. If they're making as much money as their leader keeps claiming why don't they offer a proper wage for a hard day's work? Pure shady IMO

 

[nedjer]

What a babe! I want to marry her

I'll resist the temptation to post a few pics of Fidel cheering me on and simply ask - do you want games produced by the best talent or do you want games produced mainly by those with parents who can afford to subside their college and wages until they're 30 and to the tune of 10s of thousands of dollars?

 

[CharlesRyan]

There are far too many factors involved to be able to figure out the cause of a particular layoff.

It's all based on budgets. A department gets it's budget cut in a year, and that means they need to cut expenses somehow. Usually that is done by laying people off, but it can also be done by pay cuts, and cuts in other expenses.

Regardless, the reasons for a budget cut are numerous [many good ones snipped]

Mistwell's points are dead on. WotC's budgeting cycle is based on a calendar year, which means budgets for the next year are put together, honed, and approved in September, October, and November. At the end of that process, whatever cost-cutting measures are indicated are then carried out.

For obvious reasons, I'm not a fan of WotC layoffs, and my personal view is that they're too quick to accept job cuts as a cost-cutting tool--but that's an issue of philosophy. But I also point you back to my friend and ex-colleague Stephen Radney-Macfarland's post. Despite this cavalier attitude, WotC is a terrific place to work when you're there, and when they show you the door they generally do it with a supportive, even generous severance package. Small consolation, perhaps, but I've been treated worse--much worse--in other layoffs.