layoffs?

[Zinegata]

Far too many companies act this way, whether it's cutting benefits, shipping jobs to cheaper workers overseas, etc. ... it looks good on paper in the short term, but 1, 2, 5, or 10 years down the road you look at the ruins of your business and wonder why profits are still down and your employees have no loyalty.

Yep. Personally, I think the biggest problem nowadays is that many Board of Directors and other company owners simply don't even bother looking at how their businesses operate, they simply want X amount of money, and they think that by paying their executives and CEOs millions of dollars (most in the form of bonuses that will only be paid for reaching some revenue or profitability target) they'll get results.

What happens in reality is Enron.

Most businesses simply have their natural levels of profitability, growth, and success based on their product and the state of the market. You can't, for instance, expect D&D to become a mass-market product overnight. It's a niche product for a niche market. You'll make a few million out of it, but don't expect something in the hundred-million range (that's what video games are for).

Still, to be absolutely fair to WoTC and Hasbro, the whole DDI & Gleemax thing is a pretty big mess. And personally, I was one of the many voices raising concerns about the viability of the whole enterprise, and it greatly irked me that the response was basically "Shut up troll, Gleemax is really going great!"

So, while I think some people who did outstanding work didn't deserve to be fired (Solice, in particular, was about the sole voice from WoTC who made an effort to listen to people pointing out Gleemax's glaring problems), I can't really say that I'm surprised by the layoffs, nor can I be wholly sympathetic to all of the folks who lost their jobs.

Yes, people get laid off all the time because of bad decisions by top management. But there are also people who are rightly laid off because they frankly screwed up. This whole thing seems like a mix of both.

 

[Brix]

Goodbuy

As a customer I departed from the Realms of WoTC long ago. As they don't show respect for their employees, and subsequently (again) not for their customers, who
* wish to get high quality stuff
* are often fans of certain designers (just take a look on skreyn's impact on FR, or Julia Martin)
But to be frank. IMO WotC does not need many quality people. Why? Easy. 4E is basically finished. Now you only need a few guys to take care of the system, and some other people who invent new names for the crunchy pc powers. A task which a 14 year old boy can fullfill.
The same with fluff. Look at the FR. No need for FR sholars anymore. And the web support for FR is also cut down to almost nonexistance, also from a quality point of view. Just think of the "sleepy hollow" headless Zhentarim rider! As Sean Reynolds already said, they start to do the same errors, because there is no one left to remember.
Personally I use PRPG, now and (maybe) forever. I try to buy all pre-4E FR stuff that is still around, and then I'm happy for the rest of my life.

 

[Talaeden_Denthiir]

This is REALLY sad. My sincerest condolences to all of you who have been laid off during this time of year during such a great finacial crisis for the nation.

Randy Buehler (VP of digital gaming)
Andrew Finch (director of digital games)
Stacy Longstreet (senior art director)
Julia Martin (editor)
William Meyers (creative manager, digital design)
Dave Noonan (game designer)
Jennifer Paige (online community manager)
Jennifer Powers (marketing)
Jonathan Tweet (game designer)

You will all be missed...

Johnathan, glad to see all is not lost at least for you. I hope the others fare as well and are able to fully enjoy the holidays with family and friends.

I don't know what happened in WotC, but I'm no longer working at a job that has 'layed-off' at least 5 people during the only 3+ years I was working there because they were, in fact, making too much money. Most of the people in charge also made poor decisions that didn't affect them in the least but always trickled down the blame and extra fruitless work to someone else below them. Add to that the fact that not only did one of the best employees get 'canned', but it was not soon after the death of her husband. And tragically, not too long after being let go, she passed away as well.

In my personal experience many companies that say they promote workers opinions do not and it's just not about the bottom line but the corporate execs hindquaters and I pray to God that WotC isn't one of them.

 

[avin]

While she could do such a thing, the quality of your products would suffer (much like how the quality of the D&D minis has gone downhill), and that would alienate your customers, and that eventually makes up for the "savings" of hiring cheaper workers. It's stupid and shortsighted.

That explains Dungeons of Dread and some horrible 4E artwork and reuse from 3.5 stuff...

 

[Jonny Nexus]

The moment someone else (or something else) comes along who can perform your tasks more ably or at the same level of ability (and I include trustworthiness and experience as relevant components in my definition of ability) but for less money the company should make plans to move you to a different job or lay you off. That's how competition and innovation work.

That's not how it works in the UK.

Over here, there are two ways that someone can lose their job: sacking and redundancy.

Sacking is when you lose your job because you haven't been doing it properly. That can be anything from poor attendance to insubordination to gross incompetance. The employer has to follow due process, which typically (except for gross misconduct) means that they have to give you a verbal warning followed by a written warning. In this case, you're not entitled to any extra money (except, I guess, the money from your contract's notice period).

Redundancy is when the company lets you go because your job no longer exists. This typically happens when they are having to shed numbers because of (say) a slowdown in orders. In this case, you don't have to have done anything wrong. But you are entitled to more money - I think the statutory minimum is your notice period (typically a month) plus one weeks salary for each year that you've worked for them.

What a company can't do is make you redundant, and then immediately recruit someone to do exactly the same job that you were doing. In that case, you could sue them for wrongful dismissal (i.e. they've effectively sacked you, but without them going through any sort of disciplinary process, and quite possibly without you doing anything that actually merited being sacked).

 

[drothgery]

3) Changing their fiscal year to something other that Jan-Dec means that having these annual layoffs wouldn't happen 3 weeks before Christmas.

Changing their fisical year will not affect all the taxes and labor regulations that work off of the actual year.

 

[TheGM]

Yep. Personally, I think the biggest problem nowadays is that many Board of Directors and other company owners simply don't even bother looking at how their businesses operate, they simply want X amount of money, and they think that by paying their executives and CEOs millions of dollars (most in the form of bonuses that will only be paid for reaching some revenue or profitability target) they'll get results.

What happens in reality is Enron.

Wow, your brush is a little broad there, no?
Sure, Enron happened, but it's such a memory for everyone because it doesn't happen all the time, not because it's the norm.

Truth be told, it's a global economy, and in a global economy production goes where it's cheapest. That's not gouging, that's business. It's been happening forever.

And executive/CEO salaries are out of line in some instances, but if a CEO screws up, people get layed off or the company goes under. If the janitor screws up, the bathroom is gross. HUGE difference. Nowadays if someone makes an accounting error the CEO can even go to jail. Dumb.

If they're taking bonuses when they're not meeting numbers and laying off employees, that pisses me off. You failed, no bonus, just like the rest of us. But in general, I won't begrudge them what they've worked for. And don't understand why anyone would. If you get a job offer with bonuses, it's not like you're going to say "oh no, no bonuses, I'm happier as a wage slave" or anything, why should they?

Don.

 

[xechnao]

Nowadays if someone makes an accounting error the CEO can even go to jail. Dumb.

Oh, there are thousands of ways for them to cover their [insert word]

 

[TheGM]

Oh, there are thousands of ways for them to cover their [insert word]

Yeah, there are some. But the fact that the US even has such a law is ridiculous. If there weren't ways to protect yourself, who would agree to be a CEO?

They're not all angels, just like no segment of the population is all angels. But they're not all opportunistic s either. My issue was with the breadth the brush was used, and the breadth it is used across society. Just because someone worked hard and landed a CEO position doesn't make them instantly vile. Most are good people dealing with complex problems, nothing more.

Don.

 

[xechnao]

Just because someone worked hard and landed a CEO position doesn't make them instantly vile.

Nope. But many people work hard. Not everyone has the same benefits. This makes certain people more, some times much more privileged that others. This situation draws bad feelings and I am sure you can understand it.