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

[Biomega]

But they aren't being a dictator.
[...]
Their company, their rules.

So you're kind of making my point for me, I guess?

[TheRevenantHero]

So? UNless there was a guarnatee that it would never change, they can change it. Nothing invalid about my point at all. ANd it does justify it as well. The fact that you think you have the right to dictate the rulues to your employer is laughable. Your argument is invalid because it is nothing more than "because I say so". It also proves my point about entitlement.

Do you also support minimum wage being abolished? Do you also oppose paid maternity leave? Do you also oppose universal healthcare?

I'm almost willing to bet money that the answer is yes to all three.

[Nymrohd]

They also hired people with the offer of work from home since then. That alone makes your point invalid. Granted, the whole "It's been this way before!" doesn't justify it in the first place.

I think this is crucial. People were hired in significant numbers between 2020 and now. Those people were hired under a WFH policy. Rescinding this policy and then implying that anyone unhappy about this should quit is not just problematic. These people are entitled to a severance check because the employer willfully altered the terms of employment.

[Lolites]

It's funny how many people don't understand what entitlement means. Entitlement literally has the word title in it

and funeral have word "fun" in it...
entitlement is the feeling that you have the right to do or have what you want without having to work for it or deserve it, just because of who you are...
doesnt have to do anything with "title" or wealth at all, its basicaly way of thinking you are better or more important than others, some people have it bcs of high IQ, some bcs of the way they have been raised, or many other reasons... some even without any

(btw thats not my opinion, thats literaly definition of the word https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic...sh/entitlement)

[TheRevenantHero]

and funeral have word "fun" in it...
entitlement is the feeling that you have the right to do or have what you want without having to work for it or deserve it, just because of who you are...
doesnt have to do anything with "title" or wealth at all, its basicaly way of thinking you are better or more important than others, some people have it bcs of high IQ, some bcs of the way they have been raised, or many other reasons... some even without any

(btw thats not my opinion, thats literaly definition of the word https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dic...sh/entitlement)

By that logic, the employees should be the ones making the schedules since they're the ones doing actual work. Everyone in corporate at Blizzard thinks they are more important than people under them despite doing a fraction of the work.

[Biomega]

I think this is crucial. People were hired in significant numbers between 2020 and now. Those people were hired under a WFH policy. Rescinding this policy and then implying that anyone unhappy about this should quit is not just problematic. These people are entitled to a severance check because the employer willfully altered the terms of employment.

Probably depends on their contract. They may well have included a clause stipulating that while they're being hired in a WFH situation this may be altered in the future at their discretion. In fact I'd be surprised if they didn't have SOME language in there addressing this.

But I also don't think that's the issue, really. The issue is the general attitude towards 1. WFH setups in general; and 2. the idea that corporations need to be run like kingdoms where the management commands and the workers obey and don't talk back. Both are a problem. WFH in a widespread implementation is a very new way to work, but it's colored by the intuitive assumption of many managers that as soon as you take your eyes off a worker, they'll start slacking off. Whether or not that's broadly true will probably take time to figure out, but what seems pretty much definitely true is that it's not ALWAYS the case - simply by virtue of there being examples where WFH has increased productivity. That doesn't mean WFH can always increase productivity either, though. It just means that at least in some cases, it is the better way to work. Why and whether or not that could be reverted by changing the workplace, those remain open questions.

And sure, Blizzard has the RIGHT to demand people go back to the office; but this isn't a debate about the legality of things (edge cases like people on specific WFH contracts aside, if those exist). It's about whether or not it's a good idea to cultivate a corporate climate in which you remain inflexible and unrelenting on WFH issues, and in which your response to criticism is "don't like it? there's exits on every floor". Of course a corporation is a hierarchical organization with structures in place to maximize efficiency and productivity, but the existence of a hierarchy does not mean you make every decision a top-down Word of God pronouncement that is to be followed without question or objection. That's not good for anyone. And even if you DO end up deciding that this is the policy that's best for the company, you should phrase it better than here's the door don't let it hit you on the way out.

You know what's traditionally been the biggest booster to productivity, especially in creative industries? Happy and content employees. People who love coming to work every day. People who feel like they have a voice, and space to bring in ideas. You treat people like they're fungible fry cooks on a punch clock, your product will reflect that.

[Nymrohd]

By that logic, the employees should be the ones making the schedules since they're the ones doing actual work. Everyone in corporate at Blizzard thinks they are more important than people under them despite doing a fraction of the work.

Fraction of the work is an overstatement. Plenty of management positions do not really add value to the product. It's why admin always gets the shaft when an external consultant does ABC on a business. Heck you can have positions that COST value to the company by overcomplicating processes downward.

[MoanaLisa]

Styop with this. People were commutiing BEFORE the pandemic at the same pay. They made it work. They aren't going make any "moves" in aterms of "face of the company" because he didn't say anything wrong. A few lazy and entitle people in their 20's whining about it doesn't mean they have to make a change.

Blizzard has every right to do this, true enough. A lot has changed in two years and despite some wishful thinking the pandemic isn't over, stuff is more expensive and resetting the clock to January of 2020 is going to be more difficult than people think.

"We've always done it this way" is one of the very worst corporate logics to apply to any situation, especially in light of changed conditions. I fully agree that more than a few may put Blizzard on their resume and move on at the first opportunity and good for them. Personally I think that Blizzard is hurting itself with this but that's nothing really new either.

I wouldn't doubt that on the upper floors of Blizzard HQ someone or a group of someones are thinking that "Damn it, we have this nice mostly empty building and it needs to have people in it." That's also a bad rationale for arbitrarily resetting the system. As a general rule going back to office protocols that haven't been used in over two years rarely works. All of this, however, is just treading water while waiting for the Microsoft deal to close although I'll presume that given Ybarra's close former relationship with Microsoft he's well aware of the broad outlines of what will be required from the new boss.

[kamuimac]

Wow what an attitude/view towards people and employees. Look companies need workers more than the other way around. You best believe I'd go work for wal-mart before I let a company control my life (not saying wal-mart doesn't control pull just a random company).

The world has changed and I hope this bites blizz in the ass. The quality people that want to be remote will find remote work or hybrid models at least. Then blizz can settle for who they can get/desperate people. I get my career field is different (Cyber Sec) and there are like 500k open roles currently so I have options but damn I couldn't imagine thinking like this anymore.

its a simple supply and demand. if for every junior position you have like 20-30 people then you dont really need workers.

pls stop pretending that those kind of jobs require a rocket science level of experience and knwoledge. most of those could be done by smart 15 year olds.

have you ever worked in corporate enviroment ? i know people in departments under me who have like 5-10 years corporate experience - senior specialist titles and all they do is literaly read emails and input some data into SAP/d365, fill in excels and print to pdf reports from system , or check something in system/shared folders maybe sometimes make manual for new employees when we expand and answer stupid calls from like managers/other senior employess because they cannot manage to tick 3 things in system properly . all that while cashing like 5-8k euro a month.

yes it requires some prior knowledge about financial process and taxes all aroudn the world + being very diligent with numbers but come on a lot of those jobs are really ...well ... basic. its just a scale of the operation that matters and creates those jobs.

there is a reason why he didnt speak about developers only cs/qa people. developers are not easy to be replaced - cs / bss ? those could be replaced instantly

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzard has every right to do this, true enough. A lot has changed in two years and despite some wishful thinking the pandemic isn't over, stuff is more expensive and resetting the clock to January of 2020 is going to be more difficult than people think.

"We've always done it this way" is one of the very worst corporate logics to apply to any situation, especially in light of changed conditions. I fully agree that more than a few may put Blizzard on their resume and move on at the first opportunity and good for them. Personally I think that Blizzard is hurting itself with this but that's nothing really new either.

I wouldn't doubt that on the upper floors of Blizzard HQ someone or a group of someones are thinking that "Damn it, we have this nice mostly empty building and it needs to have people in it." That's also a bad rationale for arbitrarily resetting the system. As a general rule going back to office protocols that haven't been used in over two years rarely works. All of this, however, is just treading water while waiting for the Microsoft deal to close although I'll presume that given Ybarra's close former relationship with Microsoft he's well aware of the broad outlines of what will be required from the new boss.

i honestly wonder if it doesnt have something to do that a lot of people working from home started to think they can outsmart companies and started to do like 2nd job or 1/2 of 2nd job during their work. after all who can really control them - all that requires is to work on 2nd computer and who will check it . espceially if its position where you dont have to sit in call que all day long.

[cuafpr]

its a simple supply and demand. if for every junior position you have like 20-30 people then you dont really need workers.

pls stop pretending that those kind of jobs require a rocket science level of experience and knwoledge. most of those could be done by smart 15 year olds.

have you ever worked in corporate enviroment ? i know people in departments under me who have like 5-10 years corporate experience - senior specialist titles and all they do is literaly read emails and input some data into SAP/d365, fill in excels and print to pdf reports from system , or check something in system/shared folders maybe sometimes make manual for new employees when we expand and answer stupid calls from like managers/other senior employess because they cannot manage to tick 3 things in system properly . all that while cashing like 5-8k euro a month.

yes it requires some prior knowledge about financial process and taxes all aroudn the world + being very diligent with numbers but come on a lot of those jobs are really ...well ... basic. its just a scale of the operation that matters and creates those jobs.

there is a reason why he didnt speak about developers only cs/qa people. developers are not easy to be replaced - cs / bss ? those could be replaced instantly

- - - Updated - - -



i honestly wonder if it doesnt have something to do that a lot of people working from home started to think they can outsmart companies and started to do like 2nd job or 1/2 of 2nd job during their work. after all who can really control them - all that requires is to work on 2nd computer and who will check it . espceially if its position where you dont have to sit in call que all day long.

yeah, that's great for Jr. positions what about Mid? seniors? what about the rock stars that have other companies making offers already.. "Train your people well enough that they have opportunities, treat them well enough so they don't take them" that is one of my core leadership philosophies that lead my team with and it works well.

Yes i have worked in the corp world since leaving the USAF in 2012, a matter of fact I left my last company partially cause they were demanding a return to the office, I looked and within a week had a 100% remote/no travel offer with 40k more per year, so I left. I've learned since I left they lost over half of their Cyber Sec team and had to start allowing remote work due to workers leaving and no applicants, or applicants saying no to being in the office. In my current role I've had to build a Cyber team from scratch and every single team member has in their offer/employment contract 100% remote/No travel. It makes recruiting a ton easier and even saves the bean counters money as most are less concerned about salary vs remote work. I'm already laying the seeds to our CIO and Sr. Leaders about the benefits of a 4day work week for the team. It will take a few years but it's on my road map.

So yeah if you just want some Jr rookie that can do the basics you can do whatever, but if you want skilled/dedicated workers you need to provide them a healthy work/life balance and flexibility in their work. Thankfully people are realizing this finally.

Oh, why should I care if someone on my team works 2 or even 3 jobs? If they can do the work I hired them to do and work another job without sacrificing the quality of their work.. more power to them. (also assuming no legal issues due to non-compete, same industry, confidential information of course)

[Ielenia]

So? UNless there was a guarnatee that it would never change, they can change it.

Pulling a Darth Vader's "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further" act is not exactly good for optics, you know?

[TheRevenantHero]

Fraction of the work is an overstatement. Plenty of management positions do not really add value to the product. It's why admin always gets the shaft when an external consultant does ABC on a business. Heck you can have positions that COST value to the company by overcomplicating processes downward.

Oh I know that. Which is why I have absolutely no idea why people keep defending them.

[dreaderus]

[QUOTE=cuafpr;54051924]this.. so much this.

I wonder how some folks in this thread are going to re-act to studies showing a 4-day week/8hr-day is doing wonders for companies and employees.[/QUO


I think "Middle managers" and execs can't sell off or lease their space so this is where we are at.

Right now for some folks transporting now to what is a "Flex" model (u dont even have a perm desk) presents challenges that make it even more painful to go into the office.

[Relapses]

The number of boost groups in game have definitely trashed the game overall. The only people who say otherwise are people who run boosted groups.

What does that have to do with what you quoted?

[Manhands]

"Ok guys, I'm gonna level with you. We have a lot of people who wanna work here because they think it'd be cool to work on video games, and a dedicated customer base that keeps buying our regularly scheduled expansions. We think we can make more money by just paying you all shit and continuing to pump out mediocre expansions, because we can always find more people who think it's cool to work on video games to shove into the meat grinder. If you don't like it, well, that's on you."

Yep. You nailed it. Couple comments for no one in particular:

I worked in the film industry for a while, and my boss directly told me this. "Working with movies is fun, and that enjoyment is part of your compensation."

But there are two huge factors why this is actually a bad business philosophy. The first is that people who are great at what they do are 5-10x more productive than the average employee (https://www.construx.com/blog/the-or...ying-research/ and many other sources linked). If you don't pay well, you don't get these high performers, and your quality suffers. As quality drops, the company tries to enforce more processes to increase quality which ironically destroys the quality of life of everyone. As quality of life drops for employees, you lose even your *mediocre* performers and it escalates. Meanwhile, the second big impact to business is happening: Your brand is tanking. Previous employees are shit-talking your company and the quality of your actual products sucks.

And thus we have Blizzard in a nutshell right now.

[Cyi]

Do you also support minimum wage being abolished? Do you also oppose paid maternity leave? Do you also oppose universal healthcare?

I'm almost willing to bet money that the answer is yes to all three.

No,No,Yes.

Plus your comment about “they do all the work” without recognizing the “work” wouldn’t be there to do without the company is classic. I get it now, you are a socialist. You should have lead with that and I would have saved myself the time.

[TheRevenantHero]

No,No,Yes.

Plus your comment about “they do all the work” without recognizing the “work” wouldn’t be there to do without the company is classic. I get it now, you are a socialist. You should have lead with that and I would have saved myself the time.

"Anyone who points out how exceptionally shitty and predatory the USA's brand of capitalism is must be a socialist." Jesus fucking christ, dude.

[Jester Joe]

So? UNless there was a guarnatee that it would never change, they can change it. Nothing invalid about my point at all. ANd it does justify it as well. The fact that you think you have the right to dictate the rulues to your employer is laughable. Your argument is invalid because it is nothing more than "because I say so". It also proves my point about entitlement.

You're just straight up sticking your head in the sand and refusing to hear anything that contradicts what you state now.

There's a reason employers don't just suddenly shift policies, because screwing over your staff is considered a bad thing to do. Your idea that they CAN do it doesn't mean they SHOULD. And hiring someone for a position (Work from Home) absolutely means they should honor those terms.

[TheRevenantHero]

You're just straight up sticking your head in the sand and refusing to hear anything that contradicts what you state now.

There's a reason employers don't just suddenly shift policies, because screwing over your staff is considered a bad thing to do. Your idea that they CAN do it doesn't mean they SHOULD. And hiring someone for a position (Work from Home) absolutely means they should honor those terms.

I think those employees should also read their contracts to see if there is a modification clause in it because if the're not, they should all sue ActiBlizz.

[rrayy]

You're just straight up sticking your head in the sand and refusing to hear anything that contradicts what you state now.

There's a reason employers don't just suddenly shift policies, because screwing over your staff is considered a bad thing to do. Your idea that they CAN do it doesn't mean they SHOULD. And hiring someone for a position (Work from Home) absolutely means they should honor those terms.

Thwy were only offered because of the pandemic. And I guarnatee you that was mentioned. You are a fool if you thought being offered to work at home during the pandemic was always going to stay that way. ANd how do you know that they never said it couild change or that you eventually be coming to the office after the pandemic is over?

Nothig contradicts me because it is only justifications of entitlement and/or laziness. I absolutely laugh at people who think having to commute to work is anti-worker and think Blizzard is evil for wanting it's employees at the office. That is comical.