Blizzard Q&A With Leadership about Return to Office, WoW Hotfixes - February 17, 2023

[Drusin]

Maybe but it's my opinion that we are all Scum to some degree by someone's measure.

Sounds like a take on the "Everyone is the hero of their own story" quote lol.

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Employees interpreted that comment as suggesting that employees who do not like the return-to-office policy should leave.

I LOVE work from home and the current remote work push that is going on in the I.T field because I do NOT want to work from home Everyone wanting to work from home and leaving jobs/turning down jobs that don't offer it are making it easier for my people (work at the office people) to find nice jobs lol.

[Aliven]

Do you think these companies don’t know what’s best for themselves? Do you think they actually would choose something that is going to lower their overall efficiency just to be mean? Come on now.

They literally harassed people in work offices, were too lazy and drunk to update and create game content so interns and low lvl employees needed to do that. They have drunken crawls in office for fuck sake. Metzen would stumble into office drunk and or high on drugs and make incoherent rambles for hours.

Have you not read the lawsuit?

[Linkedblade]

Sounds like a take on the "Everyone is the hero of their own story" quote lol.

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I LOVE work from home and the current remote work push that is going on in the I.T field because I do NOT want to work from home Everyone wanting to work from home and leaving jobs/turning down jobs that don't offer it are making it easier for my people (work at the office people) to find nice jobs lol.

I don't understand how you can do IT remote, perhaps software support, but without being able to see hardware in person how do you diagnose most problems. Baffles me.

Couldnt imagine trying to develop software in a team setting. I dont have that much faith in internet infrastructure.

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They literally harassed people in work offices, were too lazy and drunk to update and create game content so interns and low lvl employees needed to do that. They have drunken crawls in office for fuck sake. Metzen would stumble into office drunk and or high on drugs and make incoherent rambles for hours.

Have you not read the lawsuit?

Eye witness testimony means nothing.

[h4rr0d]

Wow, a company wants people to come to work again. Let’s bring the pitchforks out! Having worked on several full remote software projects, even if individual people each are able to do more work (which, especially for peope with kids is arguable to say the least), the team as a whole is nowhere near as effective as if everyone was sitting in the same room.

[Aliven]

Eye witness testimony means nothing.

It means in the actuall world outside of your head and waah waah

[Nymrohd]

It's not about being mean. It's about their toxic desire to utterly control employees. Ybarra's comments pretty much proves that those in charge care more about utterly controlling employees over productivity.

Middle management in bureaucratic corporations need to feel secure about their jobs so they need to be seen controlling employees.

[Eosia]

Wow, a company wants people to come to work again. Let’s bring the pitchforks out! Having worked on several full remote software projects, even if individual people each are able to do more work (which, especially for peope with kids is arguable to say the least), the team as a whole is nowhere near as effective as if everyone was sitting in the same room.

The praise people have for Dragonflight begs to differ. And now what progress the developers have made is going to be destroyed by some dumb Boomer ideology that boils down to "I CONTROL YOU" micromanaging.

The reckoning is coming. Boomers will need the "lazy" generation to feed them, burp them, and change their Depends. And that generation is going to give them one giant "FUCK YOU!"

[MoanaLisa]

But it was claimed the switch to WFH caused the delays? I'm so confused. It either was an issue, or it wasn't.

There are also studies that show a REDUCTION in productivity, but it's very dependant on the individual situation. A friend who works in IT for the government said their internal investigation showed some teams have increased productivity by up to 40% (yes, FORTY percent) while other teams with different roles saw a drop of close to 25%.

I believe most if not all companies are very selective regarding which departments/teams/individuals were chosen to go full time WFH, at least where I am.

Here's a comparison - my auction success rate is 85%. However, if I auctioned ALL properties, I would be lucky to sell 45-50%. I am very selective about which properties I auction, just like many companies were very selective about who got to / had to work remotely.

It's common sense to understand that changing long-established workflows will cause disruption and delays for a while. That's obvious and I'm not sure I understand why anyone can't see that.

You are correct on how productivity goes after that. Some managers attempted to maintain the same kinds of workflows in what was an obviously different situation and suffered for it. Others adjusted and profited by it. Some situation naturally work well with remote work, others don't.

Everyone here presenting a black-and-white binary "IT DID!!!" - "IT DIDN'T!!!" is just fighting for no good reason. Like most situations it's more complicated than that and what works well over here may not work well over there. And that's without taking management flexibility to adjust to a radically different work environment into account.

[rrayy]

You didn't out anything, that's the issue.

You're pushing your own cognitive bias without supporting it by any facts besides vague claims of "this generation is so lazy!" while you can't even give any actual proof that they are, outside of you feeling like they are..

YOu keep deflecting away. The artice you cited is completely disingenuous as it misrepresents what is actually in the survey's they site. You picked it because it fits your narrative, It was written as if YOU were the one who wrote it, and it is beyond obvious you NEVER actually clicked on the links to the actual surveys. If you had you would realize they don't actually say what the article spun them to say. So, you are being completely disingenuous and you haven't proven anything at all. You just thought I would never bother to actually click the links to the surveys. Now that the article was outed for being disingenuous, you deflect like a maniac and attack me. If you are not going to debate in good faith and be disingenuous, then we are done here.

[Jester Joe]

YOu keep deflecting away. The artice you cited is completely disingenuous as it misrepresents what is actually in the survey's they site. You picked it because it fits your narrative, It was written as if YOU were the one who wrote it, and it is beyond obvious you NEVER actually clicked on the links to the actual surveys. If you had you would realize they don't actually say what the article spun them to say. So, you are being completely disingenuous and you haven't proven anything at all. You just thought I would never bother to actually click the links to the surveys. Now that the article was outed for being disingenuous, you deflect like a maniac and attack me. If you are not going to debate in good faith and be disingenuous, then we are done here.

If your response to being asked to back up your opinion is to lash out and attack everyone else, you're basically admitting you're wrong.

And no, questioning your opinion isn't attacking you.

Also fun fact, just to add why you're going off the rails here, I didn't link a single article. I pointed you to others. So you're not reading posts at the very least.

[TheRevenantHero]

Wow, a company wants people to come to work again. Let’s bring the pitchforks out! Having worked on several full remote software projects, even if individual people each are able to do more work (which, especially for peope with kids is arguable to say the least), the team as a whole is nowhere near as effective as if everyone was sitting in the same room.

There are several studies that prove this comment from you is wrong.

[kamuimac]

They literally harassed people in work offices, were too lazy and drunk to update and create game content so interns and low lvl employees needed to do that. They have drunken crawls in office for fuck sake. Metzen would stumble into office drunk and or high on drugs and make incoherent rambles for hours.

Have you not read the lawsuit?

to be fair you cant blame them working in corporate enviroment for many years is extremly taxing.

there is a reason why so many people leave between 40-50 if they dont get fired - they are just totaly burned out.

when you start to work in corporate and realise you wont make it to head/ c positon by the time you hit 40-45 you gotta have evacuation plan .

[TheRevenantHero]

YOu keep deflecting away. The artice you cited is completely disingenuous as it misrepresents what is actually in the survey's they site. You picked it because it fits your narrative, It was written as if YOU were the one who wrote it, and it is beyond obvious you NEVER actually clicked on the links to the actual surveys. If you had you would realize they don't actually say what the article spun them to say. So, you are being completely disingenuous and you haven't proven anything at all. You just thought I would never bother to actually click the links to the surveys. Now that the article was outed for being disingenuous, you deflect like a maniac and attack me. If you are not going to debate in good faith and be disingenuous, then we are done here.

Dude, the only one refusing to debate in good faith is you. You've been given several different sources that prove you wrong and you're just sticking your fingers in your ears and screaming, "I'M NOT LISTENING!" And you're completely and utterly full of shit in saying that you actually read the articles. Because every comment you've made has been outright wrong. Your comments about the articles is nowhere near accurate but you're still doing mental gymnastics to come to the conclusion that the articles aren't reliable. It's also fucking hilarious that you accuse others of "deflecting like a maniac and attacking you" considering you have done nothing but deflect and attack people since you first started posting ITT.

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to be fair you cant blame them working in corporate enviroment for many years is extremly taxing.

there is a reason why so many people leave between 40-50 if they dont get fired - they are just totaly burned out.

when you start to work in corporate and realise you wont make it to head/ c positon by the time you hit 40-45 you gotta have evacuation plan .

You're really going to justify Blizzard's shitty treatment of employees by saying it was because of burnout? Are you fucking serious?

[Cyi]

Again, productivity increased while people were working from home. So forcing everyone to go back into an office is just a really shitty move. There's absolutely no reason for it. The fact that you're defending toxic employers honestly baffles me.

I am not defending anything other than this is some next level entitlement from the workers. They are choosing to work for the company therefore they are choosing to follow its rules. Seemingly there is more to this than productivity and I am sure there are more metrics than productivity at work here.

I am calling a spade a spade and you are trying to make this into some form of social justice reform topic. People can choose to work where they want and if they want to work from home, go find a place that allows that.

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This more or less goes back to what I said a few pages ago, on where the line between rights and entitlement is. While the number of remote positions has diminished as places have increasingly returned to some semblance of normalcy, there's still a pretty decent number out there, and the real winners will end up being the companies who can just swoop up disgruntled employees from companies requiring their workforces to return to the office. If companies with full-WFH options end up unilaterally outperforming their Office-based counterparts across the board, then we'll see a push for more flexible work options across the board in the coming years.

If WFH had absolutely zero downsides for companies, then they'd have no rational reason to reign it in. Executives aren't just twiddling their 1920s villain-styled mustaches coming up with ways to make the lives of their workers as awful as possible specifically out of spite. There's inevitably some sort of angle that's led them to come to the conclusion that office work is still a boon. It's hardly just Blizzard that's doing it. Several companies are reverting back to requiring at least some office time. US-based Tech talent development companies almost, if not always require any prospective job seekers to be willing to relocate anywhere in the US, which indicates to me that while remote work has become much more popular since Covid hit, there's still a substantial number of companies that haven't permanently adapted it, for better or worse.

I agree with this completely. There has to be a reason for it beyond two linked studies, one published by a clearly workers rights oriented org. At the end of the day the company can choose to enforce what rules it wants so long as it is allowed by law.

[TheRevenantHero]

I am not defending anything other than this is some next level entitlement from the workers. They are choosing to work for the company therefore they are choosing to follow its rules. Seemingly there is more to this than productivity and I am sure there are more metrics than productivity at work here.

I am calling a spade a spade and you are trying to make this into some form of social justice reform topic. People can choose to work where they want and if they want to work from home, go find a place that allows that.

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I agree with this completely. There has to be a reason for it beyond two linked studies, one published by a clearly workers rights oriented org. At the end of the day the company can choose to enforce what rules it wants so long as it is allowed by law.

It's not entitlement at all. I don't understand why people like you defend corporate over the people actually doing all the work. Because getting rid of WFH is nothing but a control move. Management clearly has a superiority complex and that's why they're wanting to force people into the office despite employees able to get more work done and that work is of higher quality.

You're not "calling a spade a spade" because you're objectively wrong. Again, I don't understand why people like you worship management and throw employees not in management under the bus. And if you're going to say that people should get a different job if they want to work from home, then you better not whine about product quality dropping as a result of less people available to work on it.

[rrayy]

You seem like a truly terrible person who is completely out of touch with reality. Please stay away from me.

The world we live in today, is not the same world it was pre-Covid.

LOL I am terrible because I think it is OK for companies who want their employees in the office? Thr terrible person is the one who throws temper tantrums until they get their way. The terrible person is the one who thinks they can do whatever the hell they want and that the employer has no right to tell them what to do.


There is a terrible person here,and it ain't me.

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If your response to being asked to back up your opinion is to lash out and attack everyone else, you're basically admitting you're wrong.

And no, questioning your opinion isn't attacking you.

Also fun fact, just to add why you're going off the rails here, I didn't link a single article. I pointed you to others. So you're not reading posts at the very least.

I lietarlly debunked an article that was posted and told you to read the actual surveys linked in said article? Have you? Obviously not because if you had, you would see it is everything I said it was.

Until you actually read the surveys in the linked article, you are just declaring me wrong and haven't debiunked anything I said. All you are doing is deflecting because you are going to stick to your narrative no matter what.

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I agree with this completely. There has to be a reason for it beyond two linked studies, one published by a clearly workers rights oriented org. At the end of the day the company can choose to enforce what rules it wants so long as it is allowed by law.

Exactly. But you can't tell that to those here who think it is their god given right to tell their employer what the rules are going to be.

[TheRevenantHero]

LOL I am terrible because I think it is OK for companies who want their employees in the office? Thr terrible person is the one who throws temper tantrums until they get their way. The terrible person is the one who thinks they can do whatever the hell they want and that the employer has no right to tell them what to do.


There is a terrible person here,and it ain't me.

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I lietarlly debunked an article that was posted and told you to read the actual surveys linked in said article? Have you? Obviously not because if you had, you would see it is everything I said it was.

Until you actually read the surveys in the linked article, you are just declaring me wrong and haven't debiunked anything I said. All you are doing is deflecting because you are going to stick to your narrative no matter what.

Saying "That article is invalid because I said so." isn't how you fucking debunk things. you haven't posted a single articles that refutes what you've been shown. I read the surveys and I know you're wrong. And again, hilarious that you accuse other people of deflecting and sticking to their narrative no matter what when that is EXACTLY what you're doing. Despite being given facts, you'd rather try and warp reality instead of just admitting you're wrong.

[Cyi]

It's not entitlement at all. I don't understand why people like you defend corporate over the people actually doing all the work. Because getting rid of WFH is nothing but a control move. Management clearly has a superiority complex and that's why they're wanting to force people into the office despite employees able to get more work done and that work is of higher quality.

You're not "calling a spade a spade" because you're objectively wrong. Again, I don't understand why people like you worship management and throw employees not in management under the bus. And if you're going to say that people should get a different job if they want to work from home, then you better not whine about product quality dropping as a result of less people available to work on it.

Because I worship corporations and hate people, in fact I want children to start pulling their weight as well.

In reality I just see this as an entitlement issue, yes I know you are trying to frame it as taking a side, but I really am not. I just think the free market should dictate this and if people are that upset about going into work, I am sure there are companies that agree with your articles and feel letting people stay home is worth it.

In regards to the quality of goods going down, I honestly dont think they have ever been worse than they are now, so who knows how to explain that one. Customer service, tech support, buggy software, crappy phone updates etc.

[TheRevenantHero]

Because I worship corporations and hate people, in fact I want children to start pulling their weight as well.

In reality I just see this as an entitlement issue, yes I know you are trying to frame it as taking a side, but I really am not. I just think the free market should dictate this and if people are that upset about going into work, I am sure there are companies that agree with your articles and feel letting people stay home is worth it.

In regards to the quality of goods going down, I honestly dont think they have ever been worse than they are now, so who knows how to explain that one. Customer service, tech support, buggy software, crappy phone updates etc.

And you're 100% wrong in saying it's entitlement from the employees when the only entitlement is corporate. Productivity went up and turnover rates dropped. Also, the USA isn't a free market. A truly free market doesn't exist. Wanna know why? Because it doesn't fucking work. All you're doing is defending people with control issues.

Blizzard customer service, tech support, and other crappy things has ALWAYS been terrible. It didn't start when people started working from home. Blizzard hasn't made a quality product in quite some time.

[arkanon]

It's common sense to understand that changing long-established workflows will cause disruption and delays for a while. That's obvious and I'm not sure I understand why anyone can't see that.

You are correct on how productivity goes after that. Some managers attempted to maintain the same kinds of workflows in what was an obviously different situation and suffered for it. Others adjusted and profited by it. Some situation naturally work well with remote work, others don't.

Everyone here presenting a black-and-white binary "IT DID!!!" - "IT DIDN'T!!!" is just fighting for no good reason. Like most situations it's more complicated than that and what works well over here may not work well over there. And that's without taking management flexibility to adjust to a radically different work environment into account.

Fully agree with all of that - I wouldn't have a clue what ACTUALLY happened, only what I witnessed and was involved with myself. Even my comment about two separate divisions of the same company, both in IT, saw drastically different results. The programmers did really well and productivity increased substantially across the board. The only exceptions were individual employees who had difficult home situations - living with a bunch of young people, living at home with young children, etc. So even with the large increase across the team overall, there were some who really struggled with it.

The other team were involved in marketing (oversimplified, but close enough) and their productivity dropped. Personally, I believe they suffered without their colleagues nearby to say "hey, is this any good?" A conversation that used to take 30 seconds now took 15 minutes of back and forth.

As I said I find it very strange so many people so far removed from the situation would claim to have definitive insider knowledge of what REALLY happened, which totally contradicts the official word from Blizzard. And so many of those people claiming to know for absolute sure what happened contradict each other.