Activision Blizzard Layoffs, Blazing Ingots and Animacones Quests Hotfix, DLC #765

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I'm going to make a fairly accurate guess from this post that you don't actually understand what severance pay is, or how any of this works. The people that are being laid off from Blizzard are being offered a three month severance pay to hold them over until one of two things happens - they successfully file for federal unemployment, or find another job and circumvent the need to file for unemployment.

Do you know what happened to most people that got laid off during the pandemic? They didn't get severance pay - they got laid off, and then spent the next month (or more depending on your area) trying to sign up for, and claim, federal unemployment. During that time - they had no income, at all. No health insurance, no severance, no nothing. They had to pray to god they had money saved up to feed themselves and their families during that period of time, and also had to hope no one got sick, because I guarantee you the majority of their employers also didn't offer to let them stay on their company-issued health plan either.

But no, no let's focus on the silly $200 Battle.net card (which is more of a "Hey, thanks for working for us, sorry it didn't pan out, here's a little something to remember us by" gift than anything else), and completely ignore the full year of health insurance they get to keep, the three month severance pay that will help them get by until they can file for unemployment or get a new job. Blizzard is literally handing them a giant safety net to keep them afloat due to their lay offs, something the majority of companies didn't do for workers who were laid off during this pandemic.

Honestly, your guys' blind hatred for Blizzard is getting tiring. You're ignoring how the reality of the world works, what any of these words mean, and focusing entirely on trying to twist the situation into a way that lets you continue hating Blizzard because..why, exactly? I can't even keep up anymore why so many posters on this website and others seem to want to hate on Blizzard, despite them doing things most companies don't do, when it comes to treating their employees.

I take it from your post you can inject a ton of assumptions and then hand down the guilty verdict as judge, jury, and executioner. Not very impressive.

[Theangryone]

That sweet $200 blizzard bucks will pay a lot of rent.

[Smeeh]

That sweet $200 blizzard bucks will pay a lot of rent.

Because 3 months of pay sure wont.

[Eapoe]

I like everyone acting like Blizzard ONLY gave them a $200 gift card. It was an extra thing added on top of the severance package and continuing health insurance.

[Nzx]

Dunno what shithole country you come from, but where I am three month of severance is pretty basic, and kicking people when you make billions of profit is still being a big asshole.

Hahahaha. "Shithole country" wow bro super edgy. Weird crossover here of communistic "you're making billions how dare you fire people who aren't bringing your organization any value anymore" and conservative "your country is a shithole if it's not my country".

At least I can tell you aren't one of these people. Take a look around you and say in 3 months this is gone if I don't find probably an equal or better job in a pretty bad job market and think that you were given a big time gift when the company probably writes off more in losses of sugar packets and creamer in a year than your salary. But hey, at least you got that 200 dollar battle.net store card so you might not need to cancel that WoW sub or CoD annual pass by the time the quarter ends here in 15ish days. Probably would have been better if it was a 200 dollar amazon card where at least they could have gotten some roman noodle to live off over while they desperately search for a job.

This is absurd. Blizzard are allowed to fire people. If the division that you were hired to work in is no longer making the money that it used to make then reducing the cost to run that division is logical, which is what Blizzard have done. They've also decided to be generous to their employees and give them three months worth of pay to ensure their next job search is funded, 12 months of their existing health benefits to give them an extensive period of time to either replace these privately or with their new employer, and then given away $10k worth of potential future earnings in gift cards as an additional "thank you" for the work those people have done over the past however long.

I am about as lefty as it is reasonable to be but these arguments are fucking ridiculous. Private companies shouldn't be expected or forced to maintain existing staff levels during a global pandemic any more than they are expected or forced to during normal business. If my own employer had a division that was bleeding money and they continued to employ a bunch of people to sit around and twiddle their thumbs while the division had no work to do while I was working my ass off in another role that wasn't as substantially impacted by the pandemic I'd be looking for another job, because the leadership and governance is clearly poor. Blizzard are doing the right thing in this instance and they're even going above and beyond what should be expected, but people like you seem to think they should be forced to either retain these people or give them $50k and a blowjob each.

[Alatie]

That sucks for those people, but that's a pretty good severance package. It's kind of sad to see people talking about Activision-Blizzard having a record year as if that means they can't do lay-offs in areas that their company is moving out of. Shitty situation all around. Bad for the people laid off and bad optics for the company.

Dont forget the 200mil bonus for the CEO .

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I like everyone acting like Blizzard ONLY gave them a $200 gift card. It was an extra thing added on top of the severance package and continuing health insurance.

Yeah its only fair 200$ giftcard for those with no job and 200million bonus for the CEO.

[Ielenia]

That sweet $200 blizzard bucks will pay a lot of rent.

Mmhm. Those 200 bucks will also pay for an entire year's worth of health insurance! Oh wait, no. Activision-Blizzard will be paying for that. And three months of salary.

Reading is hard, I guess. :/

[munkeyinorbit]

What? Why? You're acting like they should be forced to keep people they no longer need.

I think there maybe legal repercussions for not doing this. The company has responsibility to maximise profit as much as possible as long as it's reasonable. Maybe they could get sued investing in this when there is no foreseeable profit from it.

[Akka]

Hahahaha. "Shithole country" wow bro super edgy. Weird crossover here of communistic "you're making billions how dare you fire people who aren't bringing your organization any value anymore" and conservative "your country is a shithole if it's not my country".

You should probably look up what "edgy" means.

[rhorle]

I think there maybe legal repercussions for not doing this. The company has responsibility to maximise profit as much as possible as long as it's reasonable. Maybe they could get sued investing in this when there is no foreseeable profit from it.

Not entirely true. I'm not a lawyer or anything but I know the Unions used to force the Big 3 US automakers to have X amount of people working even if there were no jobs for them. So some people got paid to basically set around and read a newspaper. Shareholders though might not like such a waste now a days and revolt or do whatever they do to express displeasure.

[Nzx]

You should probably look up what "edgy" means.

And you should probably get a real job.

[Akka]

And you should probably get a real job.

Funny how the people who call others "children" tend to be the ones to who it applies the most.

[Nzx]

Funny how the people who call others "children" tend to be the ones to who it applies the most.

Dude you're literally in this thread complaining that people shouldn't be allowed to be fired from their jobs and that being given $200 in addition to a more than reasonable severance package is a "slap in the face". It doesn't get more childish than that. The only people who think this kind of thing have only ever worked in entry-level retail jobs before and have absolutely no understanding of how large-scale companies operate, or are hardline Marxists (which is totally fine, but not really applicable to the case at hand given that there are no currently functioning Marxist economies, and Blizzard is certainly not part of one).

Also, FWIW, and you seemingly aren't arguing from a position of logic anyway, but I never called you a child before you brought it up yourself. Are you projecting?

[rrayy]

Funny thing is I can buy and play those games from my Blizzard launcher and they were given 200 dollars on battle.net. These companies are for sure 100% seperate.

They are separate companies under one roof. Why should Activision make their own launcher when they can share the one their sister company already has?

[Darkeon]

No one saw that amazing bonus coming. Completely out of the blue lol.

[GUZ]

Good who even likes esports...spend more time on gameplay not some irrelevant shitty contest. we all play video games to avoid sports an some how it made its way into gaming derppp

[Eapoe]

Dont forget the 200mil bonus for the CEO .

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Yeah its only fair 200$ giftcard for those with no job and 200million bonus for the CEO.

So you want them to keep people hired on in a position Blizzard no longer needs?
Or are you saying Blizzard should have fired them and given them nothing?

[SirBeef]

Because 3 months of pay sure wont.

Nor will the year of not having to pay for healthcare. The idiocy in this thread is astonishing. But really oar for the course at MMO-Champ.

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I think there maybe legal repercussions for not doing this. The company has responsibility to maximise profit as much as possible as long as it's reasonable. Maybe they could get sued investing in this when there is no foreseeable profit from it.

Not really.

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Mmhm. Those 200 bucks will also pay for an entire year's worth of health insurance! Oh wait, no. Activision-Blizzard will be paying for that. And three months of salary.

Reading is hard, I guess. :/

Hate boner agendas are apparently easier than 5th grade reading and comprehension.

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Dont forget the 200mil bonus for the CEO .

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Yeah its only fair 200$ giftcard for those with no job and 200million bonus for the CEO.

Shareholders approve of CEO pay/bonuses. Blizzard has no say on that.

[ONCHEhap]

You should probably look up what "edgy" means.

He should also probably look up what both conservative and communist means

[rowaasr13]

HAHA A gift card from and for the company that has possibly short term just ruined your life and financial situation. Basically lowkey scrip for the company store.

If a company can "ruin your life" by not being forced to keep you on paycheck forever, then you need to do some serious fixing in that life of yours. Right NOW.