Ex-Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Chris Deering does not believe recent layoffs across the games industry have been a result of corporate greed. Instead, workers who have lost their jobs should “drive an Uber” or “go to the beach for a year” until employment settles.
Deering was a guest on games writer Simon Parkin’s podcast My Perfect Console, where the pair discussed games industry layoffs.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed,” said Deering. “I always tried to minimise the speed with which we added staff because I always knew there would be a cycle and I didn’t want to end up having the same problems that Sony did in Electronics.”
It’s amazing how incentives at high levels can absolutely twist someone.
Rather than discuss or investigate the situations that lead to these hire/fire cycles, potentially find a better way, they accept it as inevitable and build off of that.
They get to take the lazy route and still have room to internally satisfy their withered conscience that they are somehow “doing good” by making vague attempts to offset the shit situation, rather than trying to eliminate said situation entirely.
Fucking hell why does this explain so much of the bullshit I am dealing with at work right now?
It doesn’t hurt them. Why the hell should they care? Their massive bonuses go through whether Dave gets to give presents to his kids this year or not!
Of course money can buy anything and sometimes for very little.
At some point, companies completely absolved themselves of a large part of their purpose…which is to provide employment.