WotC Penny Arcade and the layoffs.

[darjr]

Hasbro was in the process of lobotomizing their golden goose.

They fired the kind of people you don't fire when you have the upcoming slate they do. That's the part that really gets down to it for me. It would be like trying to remove parts of an engine based on some dim intuition, or the twitchings of a dowsing rod: The people who transform creative work into products. Designers. A thirty-year vet. People who ensure that their brands arrive in one piece when they make projects with partners, the people who maintain communion with the player. There's people I know are gone that haven't even said so. I won't speculate on it; it's naughty word enough without me trying to crazywall this madness.

The Archfiend - Penny Arcade

Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.

www.penny-arcade.com

 

[LordEntrails]

I just think it's funny that everybody thinks they know better than the people with the information that are making the decisions. And then they try to present their obviously biased personal opinions as some type of journalism.

 

[Waller]

I just think it's funny that everybody thinks they know better than the people with the information that are making the decisions. And then they try to present their obviously biased personal opinions as some type of journalism.

Cool, cool. So we can safely assume that you have never, and will never made any type of comment regarding any kind of news or event?

 

[Alzrius]

There's people I know are gone that haven't even said so.

That's a minor-but-not-unimportant point that I think runs the risk of getting overlooked in the flurry of headlines. There are more people at WotC who've been laid off than we know.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Can we keep everything on the layoffs in the one master thread? It's really beginning to clutter things up and drown out threads on everything else. Right now 5 of the top 6 threads here are on the subject.

 

[jgsugden]

I just think it's funny that everybody thinks they know better than the people with the information that are making the decisions. And then they try to present their obviously biased personal opinions as some type of journalism.

Do outsiders know the full story? No. However, one big problem with layoffs historically is that the decision makers do not, either. There are plenty of academic writings that studied, from an expert position, the impact of layoffs and has concluded that most of them were disasters as implemented.

Further, you assume that many people speaking are ignorant of the situation. Unfortutanely, almost everyone that has worked in Corporate America has either been laid off, or has survived a lay off and fought through the chaos afterwards. They are rarely well planned - and instead come down to dictates of, "just get rid of 30% of them". Decisions are often made by finance, not the people understanding the essentiality of given individuals. Too many people speak from an educatedposition on this topic.

Sometimes layoffs are a necessary evil. However, even when they are, they are often poorly executed and cut healthy - and necessary - tissue along with the excess tissue that can afford to be trimmed.

In the end, it often comes down to the people making the decisions on a layoff situation having short term goals (that impact their bonus) prioritized over long term goals (that serve the company better in the long term). Corporate America is ripe with these decisions. The companies that do the best over the long haul are the ones that - as should be a shock to no one - put long term company goals over short term bonus driven ones.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I just think it's funny that everybody thinks they know better than the people with the information that are making the decisions. And then they try to present their obviously biased personal opinions as some type of journalism.

There's a lot of comfort in assuming that big corporations know what they're doing and their executives are making decisions based on data and logic and considering the health of the company. That is, also, a fantasy.

 

[Shardstone]

I just think it's funny that everybody thinks they know better than the people with the information that are making the decisions. And then they try to present their obviously biased personal opinions as some type of journalism.

I just think it's funny you think the people running these companies always know what they're doing.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I just think it's funny that everybody thinks they know better than the people with the information that are making the decisions. And then they try to present their obviously biased personal opinions as some type of journalism.

He isn't presenting it as journalism. It's, literally, an opinion column.

 

[Scribe]

I just think it's funny that everybody thinks they know better than the people with the information that are making the decisions. And then they try to present their obviously biased personal opinions as some type of journalism.

I can only speak for my company, but I can tell you that what is mentioned in the Penny Arcade post, about how it came out of nowhere, no planning, some teams now lack managers, its been chaotic?

Thats the reality I know. In my own company. I've seen it, I'm living it.