Tales From the Hells of QA..
Hello, journal. How have you been?
Tonight I have to let off some steam, because today was the start of the decision-making reason I am going to be quitting my job shortly.
In the past, my job (which is Quality Assurance for games and some business applications for any who did not know) has made it a policy to be good to its workers, treat them like they are an important resource to the best of its ability, reward them for effort and good work, and protect them from overworking. This includes negotiating to limit or negate mandatory things like excessive work hours, forced weekend work, trimmings in overtime compensation, etc. However these policies were due to the leadership of a management base and protocol that was shuffled (fired or resigned) towards the end of last year and throughout the start of this one, and it has left my company leaner (and meaner) and more desperate to appease customers.
For a high-profile video game project I cannot name here yet (you probably saw it at E3 this year), we are being directed by demand of the customer that we should be doing 12 hour workdays Monday through Friday, and at least 8 hour workdays on Saturday and Sunday. A 76 hour workweek with no off days except for Independence Day for at least the next month. Effective yesterday, the new schedule ramp-up from our normal and consistent 40 hour week went into effect, but the first day (due to being a last-minute announcement made that very Monday that the idly-mentioned OT would start immediately) was to be optional. Those of us who wished to go home fr one last time on our normal exit time would be allowed to. On my dayshift team, 10 people out of 15 decided to take that offer and went home after 8 hours of work.
This morning, 30 minutes into the workday, we were called into a meeting as a group to be berated over our shameless insensitivity to the needs of the project by taking an "early" leave from work the previous day. Yeah, we were offered the option to leave...but the assistant manager (who used to be a tester among some of us) did not expect so many of us to take it. On the heels of being told that he is aware that some of us have other obligations like school and other jobs, we were threatened with the possibility of termination and replacement if it turns out we cannot commit to 12 hours a day, or at least 10. Who we are doesn't matter. We were then given the asst. manager's favorite spiel: The 'Welcome to the Industry!' condescension speech, where we were told that he hasn't worked less than 12 to 16 hours in months and months and months and that this is normal for the gaming industry to put our personal lives on hold as sacrifice for the work. That he doesn't want it to be a suicide pact (?!), but he expects a heavy commitment to the project and for us to give him a lot of written-up issues as we are not measuring up.
A week ago, weekend work was made to sound optional. It is now being made to sound mandatory. We now have an even stricter bug submission quota where in the past regime we strictly avoided quotas entirely (and we still did good work). And did I mention that only four of us in this Day Shift team are experienced testers? The other 11 are fresh hires as of mid May, and this is their very first bit of work. One of them is underaged (just turned 17), and this was discovered after she was hired and signed agreements and NDAs. Two of them started this Monday to replace some others. Two promised reward incentives for bug quotas met two weeks ago (a free video game of choice and a group pizza party) are not discussed at all anymore and look to be canceled. And they (we) are all being threatened with termination if we don't measure up to the promises made to the customer. .
The final nail: When this project is over, the people hired to fill as bodies for testing will be put on a indeterminate furlough because there is no contract as big as this to put them on lined up after it. This may also include me, as it has in the past. The new hires have not been told of how this happens, but I have shared my experience with some.
Later in the day, the assistant manager left two hours before all of us. So that he could "work from home".
There was much more, but for the sake of brevity I will refrain from expounding too much.
I'll try the challenge, and this company will pay me my meager barely-self-supporting wage for the time I give to it. And then I will quit. The writing was on the wall when three of the founding supports for the old regime at my company all left within the same week before Christmas, and all went to the same job elsewhere together. Their departure is a big reason for the elevation of the current asst. manager, who excels at brown-nosing and schmoozing. Morale is pretty low among workers and they may adapt. Some may burn out. If I don't before it's over, then I'll have more money by the time I tender my resignation after 3 and a half years with the company. Considering I make on comparison the same amount as a McDonald's worker (and after two annual .24 cent raises), overtime on that low amount is not much to wow at. Mayhaps I'll finally get the confidence to land something better, like I had before.
Those of you I normally see each evening or every other evening, I'm afraid I'll be more absent because of this. My nights are going to just be to rest, find some minor time to work more on art and prepare for the next work day. My weekends will be gutted; I'll be too tired by the time I get home at 7 in the evening and with no day of rest before the cycle kicks up again, and unless I can demand Saturdays off, I will not be able to do anything I usually do then or see the people I usually do. Extensions on the duration of this crunch are likely, because the project still has a lot of problems. I guess I will just have to see. I don't even know if I've got what it takes to keep on this. I'm just exceedingly disappointed and angry at the moment.
But one thing I do know is that I have come to the final portion of this job that asks a lot of its workers while giving little matching compensation and no respect in return.
Going to curl up with my art tablet. Jyaane.
Tonight I have to let off some steam, because today was the start of the decision-making reason I am going to be quitting my job shortly.
In the past, my job (which is Quality Assurance for games and some business applications for any who did not know) has made it a policy to be good to its workers, treat them like they are an important resource to the best of its ability, reward them for effort and good work, and protect them from overworking. This includes negotiating to limit or negate mandatory things like excessive work hours, forced weekend work, trimmings in overtime compensation, etc. However these policies were due to the leadership of a management base and protocol that was shuffled (fired or resigned) towards the end of last year and throughout the start of this one, and it has left my company leaner (and meaner) and more desperate to appease customers.
For a high-profile video game project I cannot name here yet (you probably saw it at E3 this year), we are being directed by demand of the customer that we should be doing 12 hour workdays Monday through Friday, and at least 8 hour workdays on Saturday and Sunday. A 76 hour workweek with no off days except for Independence Day for at least the next month. Effective yesterday, the new schedule ramp-up from our normal and consistent 40 hour week went into effect, but the first day (due to being a last-minute announcement made that very Monday that the idly-mentioned OT would start immediately) was to be optional. Those of us who wished to go home fr one last time on our normal exit time would be allowed to. On my dayshift team, 10 people out of 15 decided to take that offer and went home after 8 hours of work.
This morning, 30 minutes into the workday, we were called into a meeting as a group to be berated over our shameless insensitivity to the needs of the project by taking an "early" leave from work the previous day. Yeah, we were offered the option to leave...but the assistant manager (who used to be a tester among some of us) did not expect so many of us to take it. On the heels of being told that he is aware that some of us have other obligations like school and other jobs, we were threatened with the possibility of termination and replacement if it turns out we cannot commit to 12 hours a day, or at least 10. Who we are doesn't matter. We were then given the asst. manager's favorite spiel: The 'Welcome to the Industry!' condescension speech, where we were told that he hasn't worked less than 12 to 16 hours in months and months and months and that this is normal for the gaming industry to put our personal lives on hold as sacrifice for the work. That he doesn't want it to be a suicide pact (?!), but he expects a heavy commitment to the project and for us to give him a lot of written-up issues as we are not measuring up.
A week ago, weekend work was made to sound optional. It is now being made to sound mandatory. We now have an even stricter bug submission quota where in the past regime we strictly avoided quotas entirely (and we still did good work). And did I mention that only four of us in this Day Shift team are experienced testers? The other 11 are fresh hires as of mid May, and this is their very first bit of work. One of them is underaged (just turned 17), and this was discovered after she was hired and signed agreements and NDAs. Two of them started this Monday to replace some others. Two promised reward incentives for bug quotas met two weeks ago (a free video game of choice and a group pizza party) are not discussed at all anymore and look to be canceled. And they (we) are all being threatened with termination if we don't measure up to the promises made to the customer. .
The final nail: When this project is over, the people hired to fill as bodies for testing will be put on a indeterminate furlough because there is no contract as big as this to put them on lined up after it. This may also include me, as it has in the past. The new hires have not been told of how this happens, but I have shared my experience with some.
Later in the day, the assistant manager left two hours before all of us. So that he could "work from home".
There was much more, but for the sake of brevity I will refrain from expounding too much.
I'll try the challenge, and this company will pay me my meager barely-self-supporting wage for the time I give to it. And then I will quit. The writing was on the wall when three of the founding supports for the old regime at my company all left within the same week before Christmas, and all went to the same job elsewhere together. Their departure is a big reason for the elevation of the current asst. manager, who excels at brown-nosing and schmoozing. Morale is pretty low among workers and they may adapt. Some may burn out. If I don't before it's over, then I'll have more money by the time I tender my resignation after 3 and a half years with the company. Considering I make on comparison the same amount as a McDonald's worker (and after two annual .24 cent raises), overtime on that low amount is not much to wow at. Mayhaps I'll finally get the confidence to land something better, like I had before.
Those of you I normally see each evening or every other evening, I'm afraid I'll be more absent because of this. My nights are going to just be to rest, find some minor time to work more on art and prepare for the next work day. My weekends will be gutted; I'll be too tired by the time I get home at 7 in the evening and with no day of rest before the cycle kicks up again, and unless I can demand Saturdays off, I will not be able to do anything I usually do then or see the people I usually do. Extensions on the duration of this crunch are likely, because the project still has a lot of problems. I guess I will just have to see. I don't even know if I've got what it takes to keep on this. I'm just exceedingly disappointed and angry at the moment.
But one thing I do know is that I have come to the final portion of this job that asks a lot of its workers while giving little matching compensation and no respect in return.
Going to curl up with my art tablet. Jyaane.