Why nobody ever gets fired at Blizzard?

[Gadzooks]

Even at McDonald's it's not that common anymore. I manage a big box retail store and it is really hard to fire someone these days.

Ways to get fired:
a. Threaten someone's life or physically assault them. (fairly easy to avoid doing)
b. Steal (again, not that common)
c. Stop showing up to work (basically quitting without telling me)

Outside of that it's very difficult to let someone go. The employee has to repeatedly be written up for the same action. For example I could have a guy on a final for tardiness and insubordination at the same time. Unless he refuses to do what I ask or shows up late, I can't fire him. Even if he screws up in some other way, it doesn't count toward those finals. The final say in termination is decided by the corporate office in another state and they baby the workers to a point where some feel like they can exploit the system for years.

I wish these people would put the same amount of thought and effort in to their work as they do trying to avoid it. Ultimately it's my fault for not making right call during the hiring process though.

It depends on the industry. In the Ad Agency world, you're job is only as good as your last client, I've been on both ends of that - seen good, competent teams fired because the client's choices didn't work out, and have worked for companies that fired a team from an ad agency for screwing up, and that team were all let go. It's why I decided early on to not work in that industry anymore, it's too much of a rollercoaster. The people I know who stayed change jobs almost yearly these days, they just go from agency to agency. The good ones eventually set up their own agencies and get protected from getting fired by being the boss. The same is true in consulting, law, many industries, where your job is always on the line.

Gaming, it doesn't seem to be that way, and as it's been noted many times, Blizzard tends to hang onto people for a long time, which creates problems for advancement. Sadly, this is not standard in a lot of industries. 2 years is considered a long time in my job (art direction/senior designer).

I would bet that most firings at a company like Blizzard are from abusing perks, like giving away game codes and beta invites, blabbing their mouth over upcoming content that is secret, or inter-personal issues and personal issues.

[Indigenously Abled]

Felt bad for the guy, because his post was really spot on, but I also understand why he had to be let go for having such a public meltdown.

Such a shame, always liked him as a CM.

The part that gets me is:

Coreiel later modified her signature to read:

Flaming a blue should aggro every blues. It makes sense.

Coreiel left Blizzard shortly afterwards.

[deadman1]

I'm sure people have been fired, even bigger names, you just don't know unless it was a really messy situation.

If they were just like "you're fired" and the person was like "oh ok" then we will never find out.

It's poor form to talk about firing people, and no one that got fired is going to burn bridges and talk about x/y/z after they get fired.

[Raelbo]

If my design bleed the game for over 5 million subscribers I would say that's ground for firing.

The game isn't built by one person, it's built by a fairly massive team. And while I know this absolutely doesn't suit your toxic narrative, that team is one of the best in the world at what they do. Firing the lot won't help because, even assuming it was possible to find the right people to build a better team, the amount of time it would take to build that team and for that team to become as effective as the current team would actually kill the game.

You fire people when the quality of their work is substandard, or when they are causing discord within an organisation, not when your product fails to live up to the ridiculous and unrealistic expectations of some kids on a gaming forum.

[Simplex]

They certainly should communicate their staff decisions with public. It worked so well for Valve.

Never forget: Tseric

http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Tseric

*wipes tears* What a wonderful community WoW used to have back in the glorious days.

[Thelxi]

Of course they get fired. It's just good PR and corporate manners to let people "resign" and give them good notice.

[Denkou]

I'm sure a lot of people have gotten fired, we just don't know about it.

[djcoin]

We all know ghostcrawler was fired for sucking for so long.

[Indigenously Abled]

Wow..that is pretty sad over a damn computer game. Maybe somebody will claim that it is just like that on the official forums....I definitely haven't seen mods here attacked badly (Well, a couple of them get some hate...and there are the inevitable topics on "incompetent and biased" mods.)

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How exactly do "we all know" that? And good on him that not only did he get a better job right away, people still like his opinion on WoW and MMO matters. But I guess you also know that he is now single handedly ruining the company he works at.

Man. Tseric's old forums signature was epic.

Side effects from viewing these forums may include mood swings, cognitive dissonance, decreased work productivity, moral relativism, dilated tear ducts, insomnia, hypersensitivity and gout.

- - - Updated - - -

http://blue.cardplace.com/newcache/us/32184798.htm

Maybe it's important and more impactful to these people that an official representative of a company actually expresses themselves. Perhaps it is the surprise of a corporate mouthpiece spewing out internet fads in leetspeak that strikes them as all the more absurd?

You're trying to quantify subjective impressions. That has burned out plenty of folk. But, if you want to rail against the world or the 'lesser folk', fanbois, suck-ups or whatever you want to regard them as, who am I to stop you?

[xindralol]

This.
"You made talents I don't like and now I suck in pvp/pve even more than I already did! It's your fault! You should be unemployed and collecting unemployment, putting your family and life in jeopardy!"

it's more like 'you have made hundreds of bad decisions this expansion / during the course of the last year which lead to us losing subscribers / money' this sure as hell gets people fired xD

[Aoyi]

Blizzard laid off 600 employees in the beginning of 2012, so it does appear that not everyone gets to just leave when they want.

[Gadzooks]

Contracts. You just can't up and fire someone. Certain processes have to be taken - especially if they are part of a union.

I imagine many contracts aren't renewed - you could take that as a way that Blizzard doesn't want that person anymore (or "fire" them).

Game design is not unionized work, or a protected class. They can be fired, under California labor laws, at any time.

Also, the people being discussed, the people who's names are know, and are the faces that show up at Blizzcon, are not contract employees.

[Elfezen]

There have been plenty of people who got fired especially in France's Paris Blizzard department which has the most strict and annoying employers (trust me i know it first hand).

[Syfy]

What in gods name made you even think that nobody gets fired at Blizzard? Are you in the HR team for Blizzard?
Do you know how easy it is to get fired with all the NDA's over there. Have you actually had a job in real life to know how easily you can get fired, especially at such a big company with so many NDA's.

[Eleccybubb]

There have been plenty of people who got fired especially in France's Paris Blizzard department which has the most strict and annoying employers (trust me i know it first hand).

Highly doubt you do but ok. Also on topic if you really think nobody gets fired over there then you are delusional. They just don't have to tell us about everything that goes on over there.

[Donald Hellscream]

Because for the most part the people who goes to the forums to demand firings does so for out of this world idiotic reasons.

[apples]

it's more like 'you have made hundreds of bad decisions this expansion / during the course of the last year which lead to us losing subscribers / money' this sure as hell gets people fired xD

7000 people working at blizzard and only 1 person designs, implements, and bug fixes every design decision they have

seems like an odd business model but what do i know

[MoanaLisa]

Someone should be fired for WoD....out of a cannon into the sun.

That's pretty unlikely but there's a reason why there is now what looks like a new executive position for the game called Assistant Game Director with Watcher occupying it. More responsibility for the game assigned to him means less for someone else.

[arcaneshot]

I've always wondered about this.

The best example is what an absolute PISS POOR job Jay Wilson does with Diablo 3 design, not to mention his totally unprofessional comment about David Brevic.....then gets himself a sweet developer job on WoW. It reminds me of CEOs that fail miserably yet still get their golden parachute. Reward for failure.

That's not a golden parachute, he got demoted.

[Vichan]

Because the content droughts cause people to quit for good...WoD started at 10m subs and dropped to 7m after three months...then down to 5m not too long after that...i wouldnt be surprised if they are barely above 2m subs at this point. Yes it's still millions for them and i get that, but the goal is to keep as many people as possible throughout the expansion...if you think Legion will bring them to 10m subs again you're not just crazy but delusional. They will be lucky to break 6-7m subs.

Do you have proof that it's caused any of these people to quit for good? or that subs are even close to being as low as you claim? Blizzard has said already came out and said that they are fine with people unsubbing until new content