Gift Card Face Slap

[facefist]

Yall need help. Would you rather they got healthcare, 3 month severance package and no gift card? Would them getting $200 less make u feel better? Wtf is wrong with u.

A lot of people are irrational when it comes to things that include emotions. Even though I have never been fired, I suppose it is one of those times that has a lot of emotions included.

I still agree with you though, but only because I lean more towards rational thinking than emotions. And I am not saying that being emotional is bad, both sides has their pros and cons and we all are different.

[slime]

It's strange to me that this thread is full of posters that assume the OP preferred they got nothing.
Meanwhile I read this more as rich Blizzard could have done a lot more for their ex-employees.
Lemmings.

[Chloe the Maid]

Yall need help. Would you rather they got healthcare, 3 month severance package and no gift card? Would them getting $200 less make u feel better? Wtf is wrong with u.

Nobody is saying it's completely worthless, it is just also completely HUMILIATING.
It's like working in a tissue store and after getting laid off (shat on) the owner gave you a tissue to wipe the shit off your face along with your severance package.
Is it better than getting shat on the face with no tissue to wipe it off? Sure, but it also makes the whole getting shat on the face thing more humiliating when the owner hands you a tissue to wipe it off.
Sometimes less is more, truly.

I find it disingenuous that you just decide to ignore the health are plan for a year +3months severance just to be outraged about the gift card.

If it was only the gift card, sure. But in current situation, hell to the fucking no it ain't.

I find it to be more of a slap in the face to not give it which just means they have to fork out their own money if they want to play future or current blizzard games.

This makes sure that blizzard won't earn money on workers that were laid off for a while.

Step back and think about what the alternative is if they didn't get it and you see that it's a good thing.

Nobody is saying anything about the healthcare or 3 months pay because it is expected. It's only natural.
People are pointing out the gift card because it is humiliating as shit (refer to my post above).
It's just completely humiliating to kick people out then start handing them cards that they can spend on the company that just fired them.
These cards are not worthless, but they sure are humiliating. Couple that with the base humiliation of getting laid off and you'll realize why people are pointing the whole gift card thing out.

[Jamais]

Crux is that Blizzard is pretty much known to underpay a lot of staff, so the system is more intended as a bandaid rather than an actual bonus.

Can you provide a source for this claim?

[Zonnis]

Its amazing the amount of people you got to reply to a troll thread.

[procne]

A lot of people are irrational when it comes to things that include emotions. Even though I have never been fired, I suppose it is one of those times that has a lot of emotions included.

I still agree with you though, but only because I lean more towards rational thinking than emotions. And I am not saying that being emotional is bad, both sides has their pros and cons and we all are different.

I think the issue has been overblown by people not directly involved in the whole situation. I imagine that during layoffs people got the papers and somewhere among them there was a gift card that most of the people didn't pay much attention. They were just concerned with their health insurance, money they got and probably a reference letter to look for a new job. There probably was a talk from some higher up that unfortunatelly currently company cannot find anything for those people to do and so has to lay them off, that they will give them good references and help finding new job. Most likely not even mentioning the gift card.

But then someone on the net noticed it, jumped into "evil corporation throwing out poor workers like trash with evil laughter" bandwagon and now we have this thread

[Kralljin]

Can you provide a source for this claim?

https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2020/...ely-underpaid/

First hit on googling "Blizzard underpaid", so if you don't like that specific source, try out the plethora of other option that google presents.

[Mysterymask]

Nobody is saying anything about the healthcare or 3 months pay because it is expected. It's only natural.
People are pointing out the gift card because it is humiliating as shit (refer to my post above).
It's just completely humiliating to kick people out then start handing them cards that they can spend on the company that just fired them.
These cards are not worthless, but they sure are humiliating. Couple that with the base humiliation of getting laid off and you'll realize why people are pointing the whole gift card thing out.

Actually for a lot of places (in america at least) no its not...half the time you get 3 months of health care and a letter of recommendation and thats it

[McNeil]

When I get a gift card I just try to exchange it with someone for real money who would be interested in using it. Maybe give these ex-employees at least the possibility to exchange it with the company, keeping this gift card for just Activision Blizzard products makes them look like pricks.

[huth]

https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2020/...ely-underpaid/

First hit on googling "Blizzard underpaid", so if you don't like that specific source, try out the plethora if other option that google presents.

That article can't even wrap their minds around the fact that Activision-Blizzard, Activision and Blizzard are three seperate entities and which of them owns which. I'm not putting much stock in them not completely misconstruing the situation.

It seems that everybody complaining about this also assumes that there's bad blood between the ex-employees and Blizzard. Given that this was neither unexpected nor particularly sudden, i rather doubt that.

[SirFinlot]

- We have to let you go. Your medical expenses will be covered for a time. Also you will get 3 moth severance package.
- Well, thanks for that.
- Oh, and also we shall give you 200$ coupon for free Blizzard stuff. To keep you hooked into the games. So you remember who was your daddy. You know, for when you finally get back on your feet, find another better payed job, we could milk you. Instead of doing that worthless job you where doing and taking our money, you will simply pay us more in the future! We really hope you will not exchange this coupon for real cash with anyone.

[Kralljin]

That article can't even wrap their minds around the fact that Activision-Blizzard, Activision and Blizzard are three seperate entities and which of them owns which. I'm not putting much stock in them not completely misconstruing the situation.

https://www.wowhead.com/news/bloombe...derpaid-317223
https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comment...are_underpaid/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...=technology-vp

Feel free to nitpick those as well while you're at it.

[Chloe the Maid]

Actually for a lot of places (in america at least) no its not...half the time you get 3 months of health care and a letter of recommendation and thats it

An employee with less than five years of employment with the employer must receive a severance payment equal to two months of salary, plus an additional one week of salary for each year of employment. An employee with more than five years but less than fifteen years of employment must receive a severance payment equal to three months of salary, plus an additional two weeks of salary for each year of employment. An employee with more than fifteen years of service must receive a severance payment equal to six months of salary, plus an additional three weeks of salary for each year of employment.[7]

That kind of severance package IS the norm for multi-billion companies or any company worth its salt.

Its amazing the amount of people you got to reply to a troll thread.

It's amazing how you think any thread that you don't like or agree with is a troll thread.

[ellieg]

Nobody is saying it's completely worthless, it is just also completely HUMILIATING.
It's like working in a tissue store and after getting laid off (shat on) the owner gave you a tissue to wipe the shit off your face along with your severance package.
Is it better than getting shat on the face with no tissue to wipe it off? Sure, but it also makes the whole getting shat on the face thing more humiliating when the owner hands you a tissue to wipe it off.
Sometimes less is more, truly.



Nobody is saying anything about the healthcare or 3 months pay because it is expected. It's only natural.
People are pointing out the gift card because it is humiliating as shit (refer to my post above).
It's just completely humiliating to kick people out then start handing them cards that they can spend on the company that just fired them.
These cards are not worthless, but they sure are humiliating. Couple that with the base humiliation of getting laid off and you'll realize why people are pointing the whole gift card thing out.

Bro, most of them probably play some blizz game. And I'm assuming they get it for free if actively employed there. You know what would really be some "shit on your face"? Getting fired and then having to pay that company to keep playing the game you've been playing. At least this way they can continue playing without paying blizz, with hwakthcare for a year, and 3 months pay to look for another job.

I bet without googling u can't name 3 other companies that would offer similar or better deals for getting laid off.

And wtf are you smoking where 3 months pay for being fired is natural? Def not here in America lol

[huth]

Feel free to nitpick those as well while you're at it.

If you can't even get the basic relationships of the companies right, don't expect me to take you serious when you talk about them.

You're not doing yourself any favours with those three links, either. Maybe you should have checked them before just posting the first google results you come across.

[Xzeco]

Although not purely about wow, clearly the "e-sport" division of Blizzard includes both the Arena Comp and M+ comps, so I think this is the right place for this.

Does anyone else feel like the $200 gift card is a HUGE slap in the face? I wont comment on the severance package itself, as that is a whole other can of worms, but the gift card in particular seems like a massive middle finger from Blizzard.

"Yeah, this isn't working out, we are letting you go. HOWEVER, we are giving you a $200 gift card...............which can only be spent on OUR products.....so.....if we could just have that $200 back, that would be great."

How would you feel if your position was made redundant, and the company who just let you go offered you a gift card that was only redeemable with said company?

To me, it screams "we are horribly out of touch"

If i'm brutally honest I read this and thought to myself this post "screams "we are horribly out of touch"

Blizzard is a company at the end of the day to make ends meet / hit targets sometimes people will be let go, this is nothing out of the norm.

Here in the UK you are entitled to a minimum amount of money when made redundance due to regulatory requirements however as a company they can offer whatever they want. I'd go out on a limb and say most people working at Bliz are fans to begin with and a $200 on top of a severance package is just a extra thanks for working with us.

It's like some people expect Bliz to pay off peoples morgages and student loans...

[Kumorii]

Nobody is saying anything about the healthcare or 3 months pay because it is expected. It's only natural.
People are pointing out the gift card because it is humiliating as shit (refer to my post above).
It's just completely humiliating to kick people out then start handing them cards that they can spend on the company that just fired them.
These cards are not worthless, but they sure are humiliating. Couple that with the base humiliation of getting laid off and you'll realize why people are pointing the whole gift card thing out.

Guess we differ. I personally find it more ridiculous to have employees that has been fired spend money on the company rather than getting that stuff for free.

[Kralljin]

If you can't even get the basic relationships of the companies right, don't expect me to take you serious when you talk about them.

You're not doing yourself any favours with those three links, either. Maybe you should have checked them before just posting the first google results you come across.

In other words, you're just going to ignore what has been reported based entirely on a technicality, but it's good to know where you stand on this matter.

And probably are now too lazy to look over the other ones or because they don't have the same minor error, so you ignore them because there is nothing to nitpick.

[Lochton]

https://dailyutahchronicle.com/2020/...ely-underpaid/

First hit on googling "Blizzard underpaid", so if you don't like that specific source, try out the plethora of other option that google presents.

Honestly. The majority of employees in the US are grossly underpaid.

[Azgarde]

I work for an international company and they laid off around 75 engineers due to Covid and lack of work earlier last year. They gave everyone a 2 weeks worth of pay.

Blizzard is giving them 3 months + a year of medical insurance + a 200$ gift card. Pretty good deal imo.

Why are we complaining already ?