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Northern Ireland26903 Posts
Unions want all sorts of things, they will shift tack depending on the particulars of industries they are in.
Outside of harassment specific grievances, the biggest consistent gripe I hear, by far is crunch periods. Actually these are almost the sole grievances.
One could argue that a union blocking these would improve efficiency in the company, which would benefit both individual workers and the company at large.
With mandated crunch periods on the table, and consistently, consistently leant in to, flabby project management is surely one consequence. Why properly plan projects if at any point you can just flip the crunch switch?
It’s one particular area. You’re using examples from other unions while saying those industries are totally different. It’s not. Not every union is the Teamsters or what have you.
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On February 20 2022 02:44 WombaT wrote:
Outside of harassment specific grievances, the biggest consistent gripe I hear, by far is crunch periods. Actually these are almost the sole grievances.
One could argue that a union blocking these would improve efficiency in the company, which would benefit both individual workers and the company at large.
With mandated crunch periods on the table, and consistently, consistently leant in to, flabby project management is surely one consequence. Why properly plan projects if at any point you can just flip the crunch switch?
It’s one particular area. You’re using examples from other unions while saying those industries are totally different. It’s not. Not every union is the Teamsters or what have you.
Crunch is tough because it is seen as a badge of honour. For example, this year I worked 12 hours on December 31, 12 hours on January 1, and 12 hours on January 2. I'm considered a bad ass for doing that.
Bob Fitch is lauded as a hero of SC1:Brood War because they locked him in a room and he built the game engine after already being in crunch forever. The Halo head guy brags about sleeping under his desk during Halo1 crunch.
After you've been in the industry 5+ years and you've built a reputation you leverage against poor project management. What you do is.. evolve your work around nothing but rescuing projects in peril or projects that have failed multiple times. The pay is outrageously high and the projects are challenging. And , if the project fails, who cares... it failed before any way. 
This is how a street smart software developer deals with poor project management.
and hey, who is kidding who... I'm a pretty bad project manager myself.
On February 20 2022 02:27 NewSunshine wrote:
I mean, if you're just going to be an antagonistic ass every time I try to respond, then I'm going to stop. I've said my piece, you can read and watch, and until then there's no point for me. Cheers.
sry man.. i edited my post. my apologies. However, my point about embedded testers still stands.
Media outlets reported it as "scattered across the company for no reason". ATVI says they are going with testers embedded into the dev workers that are making the stuff they are testing.
Who knows what the truth is. ATVI could be 100% correct. THe media report could be 100% correct. It is impossible to know in this particular case who is correct or what % each side's narrative is true.
Also, please note, that I 100% endorse threatening to unionize as a way to bargain for better working conditions.
I think being an embedded tester is better than being only around other testers with no informal communication with developers. It is possible that this threat to unionize garnered these employees better working conditions. If so, good for them.
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Northern Ireland26903 Posts
I think there’s a difference between a voluntary, passion-driven insane workload, and one that is involuntary.
And the former seems to culturally justify the latter.
I’ll frequently cram 14 hour shifts on my feet in no bother, did a 22 hour once. Had not much else going on may as well cram in some earning.
It’d be a rather different thing if through various planning failures I was mandated to cram in those hours
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On February 20 2022 03:46 WombaT wrote:
It’d be a rather different thing if through various planning failures I was mandated to cram in those hours
That is precisely when one can leverage one's crunch time for the most trust cred and hard cash. My employees and I do it all the time... it is the primary method of growing my biz.
Then we dink around for months answering support questions that are about as tough as this job here....
www.youtube.com
until the next emergency arrives. Then we kick it into gear again. meh.
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Warren buffet also bought a lot of stock in the company after the news broke because they both knew that the company had some sort of value but needed a massive turnaround.
I don't know what you do about blizzard at this point though, Activision is the monster the industry created but blizzard is in a terrible shape right now and needs a root and branch reform to it.
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Written like someone who was geriatric in the 70s, lol.
Shows the contempt these people have for people who are fighting for their rights in the workplace.
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Northern Ireland26903 Posts
I like how there’s a category solely for people with no pressing personal circumstances.
‘Well we can’t find anything wrong with their work ethic or morals, but damnit we have no leverage to turn the screws with. We can’t stand for this!’
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A corporation, especially ActiBlizz, saying that unions "exploit" workers is the most fucked up hypocritical shit, you couldn't make this up
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On February 23 2022 21:17 WombaT wrote:
I like how there’s a category solely for people with no pressing personal circumstances.
‘Well we can’t find anything wrong with their work ethic or morals, but damnit we have no leverage to turn the screws with. We can’t stand for this!’
Im choosing to treat that list like a horoscope, Im not a Virgo, I'm a Whiner-and-Complainer and CoD is in Retrograde, so I should avoid the Footloose-and-Fancy-Free and am drawn to Malingerers
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Don't you go being footloose and fancy-free, otherwise a Union(tm) is gonna come getcha!
They're coming for ya, ya footloose shitbags.
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that is some hot garbage.
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On February 23 2022 19:47 Heartland wrote:Wow, that is nuts.
On February 23 2022 21:17 WombaT wrote:
I like how there’s a category solely for people with no pressing personal circumstances.
‘Well we can’t find anything wrong with their work ethic or morals, but damnit we have no leverage to turn the screws with. We can’t stand for this!’
when i go to the source
https://www.reedsmith.com/files/uploads/Documents/Union_Avoidance_Tips__Strategies__Dos_and_Don_ts.pdf
i get a 404 error. so, ummm , ya. Nice source, Jessica.
Changing gears and onto Warren Buffet...
The Wall Street Journal can slag Bobby Kotick with its bullshit speculation. They can't fuck with Warren Buffet. Great move by the idiots at the WSJ to STFU after fucking the Warren Buffet story into the ground.
https://nypost.com/2022/02/17/warren-buffett-denies-insider-info-on-microsoft-activision-deal-spurred-stock-buy/
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the timing of Berkshire Hathaway’s purchase of the shares, initially asserted they were bought at an average price of roughly $66.53 a share. The outlet later updated its story to note the $77 average price.
Nice to see the WSJ get exposed.
On February 23 2022 22:12 PoulsenB wrote:
A corporation, especially ActiBlizz, saying that unions "exploit" workers is the most fucked up hypocritical shit, you couldn't make this up
On February 23 2022 23:10 Artisreal wrote:
that is some hot garbage.
The overly militant UAW fucked over auto workers in Michigan. The auto assembly jobs ended up a 5 hour drive down the road in Oshawa, Canada under the far more reasonable CAW. OPSEU has fucked over its members and was a big reason why the Lab Techs in OPSEU wanted out.
There are some good unions out there.. and there are some bad unions out there.
Overly idiotic, stupidly militant unions lead to mainstream american humour like this....
www.youtube.com
TL;DR : a unionized engineer refusing to forego his lunch break even with a gun held up to him
The NFLPA is fucking over many of its members. It is so bad that a de-certification process is up for consideration.
Source: https://theundefeated.com/features/all-22-why-decertification-of-the-nflpa-and-other-unions-could-pay-off-big/
Lots of Unions fuck over their members.
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Before you knee jerk on Raynor there if you read that link for a second you will find that the guy says that the NFLPA should change from a Union to a trade association. It raises some good points that would probably be relevant to the USWNT as well. And is from a former NFLPA guy who negotiated for CBA's in the past who says that it would benefit the lower paid players to never have to worry about a lockout or a strike.
Which isn't an argument against Unions as a lot of portions of the CBA are there to allow the league to engage in monopolistic actions which would become illegal if they didn't negotiate with a CBA. The circumstances of professional sports are in no way relevant to people in industries that aren't talent related. Peoples careers in real life don't last 3 to 4 years. Its disgusting to see someone think that its humorous to make jokes about labor rights that people had to die for to become normalized.
Anyone who stands with billionaires over their fellow workers in the class war they wage against us should be ignored. I'm proud to have a lunch break I'm legally allowed to take every day. I'm proud to only have to work 40 hours before they have to pay me more to work. These shouldn't be controversial statements.
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A new lawsuit against Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard by a current employee raises fresh allegations of sexual harassment at the publisher, this time focused on leaders in Blizzard’s IT department. According to the lawsuit, the current employee was repeatedly subjected to unwanted advances, touching, and inappropriate remarks. She says she was retaliated against after reporting it to HR and subsequently passed over for promotions in an attempt to force her out of the company.
Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on March 23, the new lawsuit represents a current employee (referred to as Ms. Doe) who first came forward with these allegations in a press conference last December. It claims that despite public promises by Activision Blizzard to support victims, it has continued to retaliate against the employee in the months since she came forward.
The lawsuit says she was passed over for a promotion weeks later and given no reason why. It also says that in January, the company lied in an email to other employees, saying she had been fired. “Activision Blizzard’s relentless efforts to push her out continued on February 1, 2022, when it hired two new temporary employees to perform the exact duties Ms. Doe performed,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also goes into new detail about the apparent sexual misconduct that took place in Blizzard’s IT department, naming among its defendants three former employees: former chief technology officer Ben Kilgore, former chief information officer Derek Ingalls, and former director of IT, Mark Skorupa. The first two were former Microsoft employees prior to Blizzard. Skorupa is currently a Microsoft employee. Microsoft, which is under scrutiny for its own past handling of sexual harassment cases, is currently moving forward with a $68.7 billion deal to buy Activision Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard, Ingalls, and Skorupa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kilgore could not immediately be reached. Microsoft declined to comment.
The acquisition deal came about when the embattled publisher’s stock price had been falling after months of previous lawsuits and reports alleging years of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at the company. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who is among those accused of failing to address mistreatment, has since apologized to employees, committed to a number of reforms including a new zero tolerance policy for harassment, and entered into a tentative $18 million settlement with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commision.
After the planned acquisition was announced in January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella praised Kotick’s business acumen and said he was grateful for “his leadership and commitment to real change” in the months since the allegations first became public in July 2021. This latest lawsuit’s new allegation of retaliation, however, raises questions about how sweeping and deep some of the company’s reforms have gone.
In the lawsuit, the employee says the sexual harassment began on her very first day at Blizzard, in 2017, when she was taken out to lunch and repeatedly encouraged to take shots of tequila. At one point Skorupa, her boss, “forced his hand on Ms. Doe’s lap.” Other instances allegedly included unwanted hugs by Skorupa and Kilgore, comments about her breasts, and other inappropriate remarks. The lawsuit accuses Ingalls of coercing her to stay late with other male employees and play a Jackbox party game which often revolved around sexual jokes. It also alleges that an executive administrative assistant once propositioned her for sex, and that a senior IT manager tried to kiss her. Both are still currently employed at Blizzard.
According to the lawsuit, none of the named employees intervened to stop the harassment or report it to HR. Instead, it alleges the employee was retaliated against after she first reported the abuse herself, in August 2018, by losing responsibilities and being subsequently denied promotions or relocations out of the department. It alleges that in one instance HR tried to excuse the offending behavior, and in another said it would address the issues, but apparently never did. She claims it wasn’t until she wrote to then-Blizzard president J. Allen Brack in 2019 about the sexual harassment that she was able to secure a position somewhere else in the company, though for less pay.
According to their LinkedIn profiles, Ingalls left Blizzard in August 2019 for a job at Amazon and Skorupa left in December 2019 to return to Microsoft. Kilgore was reportedly terminated in August 2018, after an investigation into multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. The lawsuit alleges that when this happened, several men in leadership at Blizzard posed for a photo, in which they all gave the middle finger, and Ingalls later emailed it to others. “This photo signaled to Ms. Doe that leadership thought Defendant KILGORE’s departure for sexual misconduct was a joke,” the lawsuit claims.
Prior to being hired at Blizzard, Kilgore was a high-profile VP of Xbox program management at Microsoft, where he helped ship the Xbox One. Ingalls worked with him on the launch as a long-time general manager on Xbox Live operations. Skorupa was a program manager on Xbox. After Kilgore was terminated, Ingalls reportedly “joked” in a meeting about how staff shouldn’t sleep with their assistants.
Blizzard’s Microsoft connections persist to this day. Its current president, Mike Ybarra, was VP of Game Pass before joining the Overwatch maker in 2019. “Dinner with Kilgore and Ingalls tonight, should be fun seeing friends,” he tweeted in October 2019. “Funny how roles/jobs drift folks apart.”
In addition to damages for lost wages, humiliation, mental distress, and other harms, the latest Activision Blizzard lawsuit also seeks court orders to compel Activision to institute a rotating HR department to avoid conflicts of interest and to fire CEO Bobby Kotick. Kotick is expected to step down after the Microsoft deal closes, but not before leaving with an estimated $390 million payout as a result of the acquisition.
The law office representing Kotick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source
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Looking like the Activision Microsoft deal might be on thin ice.
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I imagine a world where the uber rich face consequences for their actions, but this world ain't it, lol.
Hey, hopefully Im wrong though and Booby Cockdick gets wrecked by the DOJ.
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EPT
