After firing of Ythisens + other CM's, Job Listings posted for Exact Positions

[WraithKingOstarion]

https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/openings/orRXbfwa

now i am well aware that this is business as usual for a lot of corporate businesses, as one tactic is to let go of current staff and hire somebody newer with less experience/qualifications so you can pay them less than the staff you just let go

i'm not whining about it, but find it funny though given the amount of criticism that went Activision-Blizzard's way when the firings first happened. has enough time passed for this to kind of fly under the radar for Blizzard? or do you think the waves of hate and disdain (like what was seen when this first happened) is going to return?

[Askyl]

https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/openings/orRXbfwa

now i am well aware that this is business as usual for a lot of corporate businesses, as one tactic is to let go of current staff and hire somebody newer with less experience/qualifications so you can pay them less than the staff you just let go

i'm not whining about it, but find it funny though given the amount of criticism that went Activision-Blizzard's way when the firings first happened. has enough time passed for this to kind of fly under the radar for Blizzard? or do you think the waves of hate and disdain (like what was seen when this first happened) is going to return?

Oh hi I don't understand anything being said, and I just like you don't know the reason behind him being fired. So I guess I'll stop thinking and jump on your Blizzard hate bandwagon because that makes me cool!

Or just let them hire someone to fill an empty slot after they let an employee go.

[Temp name]

They let them go a year ago..

What you should've been mad about was them posting the job offerings a few months after, while many of the people let go were still looking for jobs

[Byucknah The Red]

Oh hi I don't understand anything being said, and I just like you don't know the reason behind him being fired. So I guess I'll stop thinking and jump on your Blizzard hate bandwagon because that makes me cool!

Or just let them hire someone to fill an empty slot after they let an employee go.

Ythisens was not fired, lets get that straight right here and right now. He, and many others, were laid off. ~800 from acti-blizz with ~200 being from Blizzard specifically. Those positions being CM, CS, TS, GM, QA, and other positions though nothing from the dev teams.

As for the reasoning, as TC said, its business as usual and the cuts were made to save expenses with a heavy cost to moral. Its not even like the layoffs were a big secret, the whole thing was widely covered when it happened. There is no guessing or speculation needed, Ythisens was just one of the unfortunate cut, that is all.

And its a true shame because out of all the CM's I know he was by far one of the most passionate about the game and the forums.

[WraithKingOstarion]

Oh hi I don't understand anything being said, and I just like you don't know the reason behind him being fired. So I guess I'll stop thinking and jump on your Blizzard hate bandwagon because that makes me cool!

Or just let them hire someone to fill an empty slot after they let an employee go.

thanks for sharing ... i think?

They let them go a year ago..

What you should've been mad about was them posting the job offerings a few months after, while many of the people let go were still looking for jobs

i didn't say in the original post i was mad about anything, lol


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funny enough, both of you who i quoted seem to be the ones mad at something

[Puzzlin]

Ythisens was not fired, lets get that straight right here and right now. He, and many others, were laid off. ~800 from acti-blizz with ~200 being from Blizzard specifically. Those positions being CM, CS, TS, GM, QA, and other positions though nothing from the dev teams.

As for the reasoning, as TC said, its business as usual and the cuts were made to save expenses with a heavy cost to moral. Its not even like the layoffs were a big secret, the whole thing was widely covered when it happened. There is no guessing or speculation needed, Ythisens was just one of the unfortunate cut, that is all.

And its a true shame because out of all the CM's I know he was by far one of the most passionate about the game and the forums.

He's also toxic in game and on the forums. Very unprofessional and arrogant. He deserved to be let go doesn't matter how they did it.

[Byucknah The Red]

He's also toxic in game and on the forums. Very unprofessional and arrogant. He deserved to be let go doesn't matter how they did it.

If by "toxic" and "unprofessional" you mean he called people out on their bullcrap/lies and didn't take crap from anyone, then sure. He was one of the friendliest, passionate, and most engaging CM's on the forums, end of story.

[FelPlague]

https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/openings/orRXbfwa

now i am well aware that this is business as usual for a lot of corporate businesses, as one tactic is to let go of current staff and hire somebody newer with less experience/qualifications so you can pay them less than the staff you just let go

i'm not whining about it, but find it funny though given the amount of criticism that went Activision-Blizzard's way when the firings first happened. has enough time passed for this to kind of fly under the radar for Blizzard? or do you think the waves of hate and disdain (like what was seen when this first happened) is going to return?

Or they fired people, people cried and complained, and they listened and are hiring back more people to accommodate?

Eh who cares. This is nothing. Only about 200 of these people were actually blizzard. And it's far better then the 600 purged by Mike back in 2012.

[Wallmaker Yahzarah]

People are going to criticize [insert NA company name]/[NA behavior] regardless of whatever it is. Even if [insert non-NA company] is doing the same. OR! Better yet, not even doing/allowing for the opportunities at all.

[thesmall001]

Hire people. Provide annual pay rises like most people expect and should feel entitled to, at least in line with inflation. Decide profits could be larger if you didn't have all these pay inflated people. Sack them. Wait until the profits call is past. Suffer the loss to consumer expectations and product quality during this time. Re-hire less valuable (skilled, trained) staff at lower rates and begin the process again.

This is unethical but it's also just how capitalism works. As always, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. Read books.

[Puzzlin]

If by "toxic" and "unprofessional" you mean he called people out on their bullcrap/lies and didn't take crap from anyone, then sure. He was one of the friendliest, passionate, and most engaging CM's on the forums, end of story.

Incorrect. I don't think calling people out for bull crap and lies is the same as calling an entire raid retards when they fail at the chosen (which i already had and was helping him obtain). That was the worst thing he said that night but he was pretty toxic through the whole thing. This was especially irritating when he was one of the first to fail. but sure he was a great guy.

Also, as much as his white knights like to pretend he was always right he was wrong quite a bit with his snarky replies. Sometimes it was warranted but there are much better ways to express yourself than the way he did. Especially when you are representative of a company. He'd always retort with "i'm not in customer service so it's ok for me to be a jackass"

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

Caden's firing is the one to lament.
The rest we never interfaced with, I never spoke with myself, and I wasn't even sure what their responsibilities were.
Sadly, the company had a LOT of bloat. A lot of people who were just kind of there every day but didn't do things ever day.

Caden was not one of those people.
He was constantly in forward facing positions interacting with influencers and being a notable presence on the forums, discords, and reddit.

He was the perfect fit for that position, and they messed up big time letting him go.

The people who are there are more than capable, but they are older more veteran employees who aren't as naturally likely to delve into the modern miasma that is twitter and reddit.

Still, its not like any of these people design the game.
Even with the best examples, its still hard to quantify their absence.

[Methodd]

Were these people even good at their jobs before they got sacked? Had anyone considered they were let go because of performance related reasons? Reading that job description tells me that there is more to this than just posting on forums a few times a week. There's a lot more to this than what anyone here can see from our standpoint.

Blizzard is still a poorly managed company and the product quality as of the past few years shows it, but there is probably more to this whole thing.

[bloodwulf]

Major corporations are always looking to cut costs. If he was in a higher pay range then some of his counterparts he was eligible for a cut. Is it fair, no, is it nice, no. Is it capitalism, Yes. Bottomline is Activision-Blizzard is a company whose primary goal is to make money and more money each year. This is not a good or bad statement, this is a fact of life. Companies will "trim fat" if they miss goals, and cutting people out of positions where they make a significant more amount of money than a new hire is one of the easiest things they can do.

[Mad_Murdock]

https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/openings/orRXbfwa

now i am well aware that this is business as usual for a lot of corporate businesses, as one tactic is to let go of current staff and hire somebody newer with less experience/qualifications so you can pay them less than the staff you just let go

15 or so years ago the IT company I worked for, straight up told us, they were going to outsource all they could to India and they were letting go of senior people (or as they like to say "allowing them to pursue other opportunities" and hiring straight out of college kids to replace them. After about 3 years, they reversed course because it wasn't working out as expected. That is how the game works.

A company makes a decision that they think is best. If it is a truly terrible decision the company might end of bankrupt or a shell of it's former self or it sees it's mistakes and makes corrections.

[GreenJesus]

To be fair, Blizzard does have a lot of bloat. They even have a librarian for the blizzard library... lol.. The problem is a lot of blizzard employees are practically homeless.

[Wallmaker Yahzarah]

That librarian probably contributes more to the company than a forum moderator lol A moderator that sold people the idea that they also help develop a game.

[Shakana]

To be fair, Blizzard does have a lot of bloat. They even have a librarian for the blizzard library... lol.. The problem is a lot of blizzard employees are practically homeless.

Why? Because they need to go out of their countries etc to work with them? (legit curious, not asking in a bad manner)
P.s.- I also wanted once to work for them, since i'm a programmer and i grew up with them, but then i saw i had to go to other countries if i wanted that, and i dropped it.

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Also, OP i didn't know Ythisens were fired, but i don't think the guy is bad as people are saying. I used to be on secret finding all the time, he used to be there with us and he would sometimes talk with the community and ye he sometime memed but he was a nice guy. He was very carin actually sometimes, he would speak to us, and even made us being trolled by the "waist of time" secret. I can say he was a community manager not only on blizzard forums, but even on discord - secret finding he was serving blizzard. Anyway....

I just noticed today because of your post and now the video of bellular (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYuaRhdNGCI) that he got fired. I'm in shock, when was this? I really didn't know.

(Nevermind i found out when, so maybe he wasn't working for blizzard anymore when he was on secret finding? cause waist of time was at aug 2019 - he was fired at feb 2019 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgYR3EJeRpg)

[Laerrus]

Incorrect. I don't think calling people out for bull crap and lies is the same as calling an entire raid retards when they fail at the chosen (which i already had and was helping him obtain). That was the worst thing he said that night but he was pretty toxic through the whole thing. This was especially irritating when he was one of the first to fail. but sure he was a great guy.

Also, as much as his white knights like to pretend he was always right he was wrong quite a bit with his snarky replies. Sometimes it was warranted but there are much better ways to express yourself than the way he did. Especially when you are representative of a company. He'd always retort with "i'm not in customer service so it's ok for me to be a jackass"

I don't believe you.

Signed, Some Random Asshole.

[bullseyed]

https://careers.blizzard.com/en-us/openings/orRXbfwa

now i am well aware that this is business as usual for a lot of corporate businesses, as one tactic is to let go of current staff and hire somebody newer with less experience/qualifications so you can pay them less than the staff you just let go

i'm not whining about it, but find it funny though given the amount of criticism that went Activision-Blizzard's way when the firings first happened. has enough time passed for this to kind of fly under the radar for Blizzard? or do you think the waves of hate and disdain (like what was seen when this first happened) is going to return?

You have 50 CMs. You only need 40 CMs. You lay off 10 CMs.

1 year later, 2 of the 40 CMs quit, you now have 2 job openings for CMs. The 10 laid off CMs might even be on the top of your list to hire.


What is complicated here?

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If by "toxic" and "unprofessional" you mean he called people out on their bullcrap/lies and didn't take crap from anyone, then sure. He was one of the friendliest, passionate, and most engaging CM's on the forums, end of story.

Unfit for customer service industry.