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Stay Sane Inside Insanity Identifying Toxic Game Development Environments -- Billy Joe Cain 7/30/16
24 year career as: an employee of a publisher, an outside developer, a studio owner, a contractor, a solutions provider, adviser to universities, and vice-chair of Austin IGDA.
Worked on and shipped a lot of projects.
Why Should You Care?
This is your life. Live it well.
Why Should You Care?
Topics
Know Your Enemy: Crunch
•Crunch Definition and Legality
•Crunch Effects on YOU
•Crunch Effects on Productivity
Know Your Enemy: Environmental
•Toxic Examples
•Abusive Managers / Bullying
Resources for Self-Help
Know your Enemy: Crunch
Whoa. This always makes me take a deep breath.
Crunch: My Experience
I had heard about “crunch.” I was prepared for the extra hours. I didn’t have family in town or a steady girlfriend, so it made the extra work that much easier.
Over the years, my friends started wondering where I disappeared to. When I’d finish a project, we'd hang out again until crunch happened on the next project and the pattern repeated itself. Now, I hardly even see those friends.
They got tired of waiting.
Some of you may have experienced this, some of you may be heading into it...
Merriam Webster
A critical moment or period when decisive action is needed.
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crunch%20time
Urban Dictionary
• The interval of time immediately before a project is due, when it becomes apparent that the schedule has slipped and everyone is going to have to work like dogs to try to complete the project in time. Crunch time usually occurs during the period between the next-to-last scheduled milestone
(prior to which everyone was able to delude themselves that the schedule had NOT slipped) and the final deadline for delivery. During crunch time, workers are in crunch mode. Prevalent in the software industry, but used elsewhere as well.
• "We've got three weeks left to complete six weeks worth of work. Looks like we'll be living on take-out for a while."
• "I freakin' hate crunch time.“
Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=crunch+time
Crunch: “Kinda Legal” DefinitionForced or mandatory overtime
“[G]enerally legal, at least under federal law. State laws differ from state to state.”
“If an employee refuses to work overtime when requested to, the employer has the right to penalize the employee. Such punishments may include termination.”
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/forced-overtime.html
Is there “Healthy” Crunch?
Healthy?
– Working extra hours for a short period of time to adjust for the unpredictable nature of technological edginess.
– Ideally the additional effort is rewarded with something of value to the employee (compensatory time off, overtime, bonus, etc.).
Unhealthy?
– Throwing yourself on the pyre to make up for a chronically under-scoped or under-funded project.
– Success is rewarded by more work!
Crunch: Lack of Productivity
“There's a bottom-line reason most industries gave up crunch mode over 75 years ago:
It's the single most expensive way there is to get the work done.”
– Evan Robinsonhttp://legacy.igda.org/why-crunch-modes-doesnt-work-six-lessons
Crunch: Lack of Productivity
“More than a century of studies show that long-term useful worker output is maximized near a five-day, 40-hour workweek.
Productivity drops immediately upon starting overtime and continues to drop until, at approximately eight 60-hour weeks,
the total work done is the same as what would have been done in eight 40-hour weeks.”
– Evan Robinsonhttp://legacy.igda.org/why-crunch-modes-doesnt-work-six-lessons
Crunch and YOU
How does crunch affect you?
• Studies point to many health issues, both physical and mental.
• Oddly enough, this subject has been studied in other industries ad nauseam.
According to the National Institutes of Health, “[C]ontinued overtime work should be recognized as an independent risk factor for the development of sleep disturbances.
Sleep disturbances can have a significant negative effect on an individual's quality of life.
Consequences associated with sleeping disturbances are serious, including:•a higher risk of accidents due to fatigue, •increased risk of all-cause mortality, •cardiovascular diseases, •mental disorders, •increased sickness absence rates, •and substantial medical care costs.”http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2690560/
Crunch: Physical Effects
Overtime work is probably best considered as a form of work-related stress. Chronic work-related stress is associated with a 2- to 4-fold increase in cardiovascular events, particularly when there is little control over the work environment.
[E]xcess risk of coronary heart disease in employees with high decision latitude was smaller than in those with lesser decision latitude.It might be better to be a boss? http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/14/1672.full
Crunch: Physical Effects
Getting six or fewer hours of sleep each night is just like being drunk. Consider that in most states the legal blood alcohol content is .08.
When you’ve been up for 18 hours, studies show that you function as if your blood alcohol content were .07.
After 24 hours without sleep, you’re at 0.1 the same as a drunk driver.
http://www.corrections.com/news/article/23187-mandatory-overtime-sleep-deprivation
Crunch: Physical Effects
[L]ong working hours may be one of the risk factors that have a negative effect on cognitive performance in middle age.
As mild cognitive impairment predicts dementia and mortality, the identification of risk factors for mild cognitive impairment in middle age is important.
Long Working Hours and Cognitive Function | The Whitehall II Studyhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727184/
Crunch: Mental Effects
Crunch and your RELATIONSHIPS
How does “crunch” affect your relationships? Significant other Close friends Family Children
Know Your Enemy: Environmental
There is another enemy out there that is quite possibly worse than crunch.
A toxic development environment.
Do you work in a Toxic Development Environment?
• In the video game industry we have some serious, insidious problems that we don’t really talk about. And I think we should.
• One of those problems is that development environments themselves can be toxic, and affect you just as much (or more) than crunch.
• Maybe you don’t even know any better?
Warning Signs
• There are clear signs that you are in an unhealthy company; crunch is only ONE of the indicators.
• How to fix these? Do the opposite!
Good descriptions of abuse in the workplace:http://counselingoutfitters.com/vistas/vistas05/Vistas05.art62.pdf
What is Toxic? Bullies
• A “bully” could be a peer, an immediate supervisor, the owner of the company, an untenable contract, or a publisher.
• Abuse comes in many forms, verbal, mental and physical.
• This abuse also affects your friends and family.
What is Toxic? Workplace BullyingWhat is bullying? Repeated, health-harming
mistreatment of one or more persons (the targets) by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms:
• Verbal abuse
• Offensive conduct/behaviors (including nonverbal) which are threatening, humiliating or intimidating
• Work interference – sabotage – which prevents work from getting done
http://www.healthyworkplacebill.org/
Workplace Bullying: The Problem
It is a problem that has invaded the life of 37% adult Americans without invitation.
In its more severe forms, it triggers a host of stress-related health complications:
hypertension, auto-immune disorders, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
The person's immediate job and often career are often disrupted.
http://www.healthyworkplacebill.org/
Workplace Bullying: A SolutionThe Healthy Workplace Campaign
• 31 Legislatures (29 States, 2 Territories) since 2003 have introduced the Healthy Workplace Bill
• No laws yet enacted
http://www.healthyworkplacebill.org/
Workplace Bullying: A SolutionWhat the Healthy Workplace Bill Does for
Employers• Precisely defines an "abusive work environment" -- it is a
high standard for misconduct
• Requires proof of health harm by licensed health or mental health professionals
• Protects conscientious employers from vicarious liability risk when internal correction and prevention mechanisms are in effect
• Gives employers the reason to terminate or penalize offenders
http://www.healthyworkplacebill.org/
Workplace Bullying: A SolutionWhat the Healthy Workplace Bill Does for
Workers• Provides an avenue for legal redress for health-
harming cruelty at work
• Allows you to sue the bully as an individual
• Holds the employer accountable
• Seeks restoration of lost wages and benefits
• Compels employers to prevent and correct future instances
http://www.healthyworkplacebill.org/
Toxicity Markers
• Any part of a company or project can be toxic.
• Any of these markers may or may not be toxic, so be careful when you’re doing an assessment of your own environment.
Toxic Budgeting / Finances
• Project was originally budgeted with no input from the team that would be doing the work
• The company is unwilling to write an expense check; instead, they expect everyone to just find a way to get it done. “Why hire movers when everyone has a car?”
• The “company will fail” if everyone doesn’t “pull together”
Toxic Staffing Issues
• Not enough staff to reach project goals
• Not enough experienced staff that know how to avoid “rookie mistakes”
• Too few people wearing too many hats
• Positions are poorly defined with no job descriptions
Toxic Staffing Issues
• “Single” staff members outnumber those with families
• “Single” staff show resentment toward those with families (“I’m working harder!”)
• High annual turnover
• No exit interviews or listening to people leaving the company
• Requiring overtime with no notice; then being upset when employees cannot work said overtime
Toxic Scheduling
• Milestones are vague or completely undefined
• Ship date is “locked” on an arbitrary date. If the date is missed, another arbitrary date is chosen with no regard to reality and what is possible.
• Product demos are unscheduled and are often surprises
• Management has no idea how many hours the team or individuals are working
• No accountability in tasks
Toxic Scheduling
• Effectiveness is irrelevant; management only notices the quantity of hours employees are in the building
• New tasks continually pull key staff away from their main responsibilities
• Vacations are non-existent, i.e. you cannot use your accrued vacation time because the project is “too important.”
• No compensatory time off is given
• Endless overtime, i.e. crunch. Didn’t think we’d leave that out, did you?
Toxic Project Management
• Feature list is vague, unrealistic, or non-existent
• No clear plan to completion
• The rule is “Work Harder” with no clearly defined idea of what that means or what the specific goals are
• Management has no idea “how the sausage is made”
• Continual scope creep
Toxic Project Management
• Design (or anything, really) by committee without anyone that can have a final decision
• Micromanagement
• Never take the time to celebrate any milestones, no matter how large or small
• Employees are told when they doing a bad job; never when they are doing a good job
Toxic Product Support
• Quality Assurance is not hired until the last possible minute (or later, or not at all)
• Customer Service issues are ignored or not planned for in any way during product development
• Lack of community management plan
• Website is unmanned or inaccurate
Toxic Inequities / General Stupidity
• Nepotism / favoritism / sycophants
• Employees are more concerned with people “liking” them than getting the job done
• Management demands respect instead of earning it
• Management habitually leaves before or arrives after the bulk of the employees finish their workday
• A huge gap in automobile value in the parking lot
Toxic Inequities / General Stupidity
• No need to hire a cleaning service when management can just make everyone (besides themselves) clean toilets
• Management expenses lunches / events with sycophants
• Management takes vacations, leave to see their children’s plays, and the like while everyone else is forced to stay in the office
• Management writes vague emails and are upset when you cannot read between the lines or read their minds
What Can You Do?
• Get educated. Resources on following pages.
• Educate others. What may be obvious to you is new information to someone else.
• Change it if you have authority.
• Find a new job.
• Get help personally. There’s nothing wrong with therapy.
Helpful Resources
• Resources exist that allow you to get help for yourself or others that are suffering through crunch and/or are in toxic environments.
Some Books for Inspiration
The Mythical Man Monthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams http://www.google.com/shopping/product/8732329471760615040?hl=en
Some Links for Help
• Mental Health Support Resources http://www.mhatexas.org/mhatexasMAIN/IRGuide4.03.pdf
• Coping with stress checklist http://www.nmha.org/index.cfm?objectid=c7df9899-1372-4d20-c89412d66a4ff88d
• Am I Bipolar Quiz http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/bipolarquiz.htm
• Am I a Workaholic Quiz http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2011/05/living/workaholic.test/index.html
• Is your boss Bullying you? http://undercoverlawyer.hubpages.com/hub/10-Signals-The-Boss-is-Bullying-You
• Toxic Workplace Quiz http://excelle.monster.com/benefits/articles/5573-workplace-checklist-how-toxic-is-yours
More Links for Help
• Discrimination Facts (Texas) http://www.twc.state.tx.us/crd/facts.html
• Unemployment benefits (Texas) http://www.twc.state.tx.us/ui/bnfts/bi-99.pdf
• How to collect back wages. http://www.ehow.com/how_7653930_collect-back-wages.html
• Am I a contractor or an employee? http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_IndependentContractor.htm
• Overtime pay. http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/fairpay/main.htm
Stay Sane Inside Insanity Identifying Toxic Game Development Environments -- Billy Joe Cain 7/30/16
