One tactic used by Newell is to take his employees and their families on an annual trip.[br]
Quite a contrast to accounts of working conditions in certain game studios! Check out the entire article here.
In other words "kids find a role model company like mine and earns tons of money while not doing much". How am I bitter anyways?
Deadlines, stress reward etc. favour efficient completion of monotonous tasks, the lack of them favours creativity and innovation. How creative was Grand Theft Equine?
The last company I was at had me at $16.50 an hour straight out of college with an Associate in Welding Technology. I welded 1/8" stainless steel tubes to a heat exchanger wall. I mean there was thousands of these and it was a big project that for me lasted 4 months. I was laid off at the end of 7 months but I feel they fired me.
Most employees at this shit company hired Cambodians (90%+ of the company and all were temps) and for really bad reasons.
- Some couldn't speak English very well but could grind from 6PM to 6AM.
- Some would work sometimes from 6AM Tues to 10AM Wed! That's right I would come in 6AM, leave at 5PM and they would work all night still till near lunch the next day.
- They paid Cambodians cheap as they were willing to work for a poor wage. The wage would however get much better after 40hours.
- Reliable to come in as they were desperate for money.
- Followed orders well.
- Did anything to get the job done no matter how dangerous to get the job done. My foreman told me once to use a plastic level as a hook to lift a 200lb part.
- Didn't complain.
- One would come at random times to escape immigration police. He was wanted for assault with a deadly weapon and was wanted to be sent back to Cambodia. I don't even know how the company could legally still employ him or would want to but it says a lot about the company.
I was hired as a full time temp (more like permanent temp) and made a lot of friends there. However when I asked when I was going to be hired full time and a raise, I was told "when the stock market gets better" aka never back in November 2008. So I stopped working 6AM to 5PM and stopped working 6AM-12:00PM on Saturdays. I worked normal 40 hour weeks. Soon after I was "laid off".
Personally I would hallucinate while driving and I would play about 2 hours of video games a week and I didn't even have a gf or kids. The paychecks were good, not great but I would constantly ask myself "at what cost" and "was it worth it"?
The job I'm currently at did 6AM to 4PM for about 2-3 months and then we stopped because the company who needed the parts didn't need so many and we became fast at welding them. We now work normal hours of 7:30AM-4PM Mon-Fri. Today was my first day I worked a Sat in months from 7AM-12:00PM. The place is far better on what they have done for me. They even taught me to program a robotic welding arm with another guy. They pay for holidays as well (like this coming Monday) instead of encouraging employees to come in for double-time.
I can get where Gabe Newell is coming from but telling high school students to not bust your butt is just bs. TBH I couldn't even find a job mainly because of the economy, my age, and work history. He does have a point though on an importance to family. It's rare to find a job that are not overtime whores (except banks). Still though something is wrong when their games, while of high quality, come out half a decade. They need to make a East Coast Studio so I can visit them.
*Oh I'm making $15 an hour now (thank you terrible economy) yet I think I may get a raise as March 1st is my first full year.
I deduced that because he is telling his employees to take time off to be with their families. The problem with that though is nothing gets done and you delay things over and over. Why do you think welding jobs are shitty Samon? Actually I wonder what type of job you people have and if you like the place.
I don't know for sure, but I imagine he said that because its kind of a no-shit deal when welders get laid off. Thats a job where there are only a few contracts open in an area, so work dries up quick. Valve creates their own work, so your experience with your welding job doesn't apply to their situation.
Personally if I had been in that classroom, it would be punishment. It would be great that I could skip classes because my teacher loved Valve. Yet it would feel like detention because Gabe is such a boring interviewee with questions on how to make his successful company more successful. Plus he looks like he wants to regurgitate something. Could be burping too.
