Me at 28.

[motodraconis]

People are always saying to me - "You used to work in computer games? How on earth could you bear to leave?"
How on earth indeed.

To be fair, it wasn't always this bad. There were times when I literally couldn't wait to run into work and get cracking on the projects, I'd get up early just to go to work early, and all the team are your bestest mates EVA.
But most of the time, it'd be like this, and you hated it and everyone. Well, not everyone, Team leader and the divas. (There's always at least one sodding diva.)
When it's going well, it's the best job ever, when it's going badly, it's the worst job ever.
Not finished yet - another picture to come - present day.

Large version with extra labels can be found here on flickr.

Comments

[badasstronaut.livejournal.com]

There are 100 hours in a week?

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've no idea how that's supposed to be done really. The team leader genuinely told me we were to work our way up to 100 hour weeks. 15 hour days was what he was after I think, starting at 8am and not leaving till 11pm. It's what he and his wife used to do, turn up with a McDonalds for breakfast every day and never leave till 11pm minimum.

[keris.livejournal.com]

People ask me how I could bear to leave Florida, and it's for similar reasons - 15 hours a day expected if I wanted to succeed in academia! I loved the science (when I was left alone to do it) but couldn't cope with that. I even started going to church every week (I'm more of a once a month person) as I knew that gave me an hour extra in bed on Sunday mornings and noone could complain if I wasn't in before lunchtime! :)

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Good grief! I had no idea US academia had this ethos too - it's particularly rife in games dev. Again, people would keep asking me why I wouldn't consider a dev company in the US. Crazy hours as standard and 2 weeks holiday if you're lucky? They can BOG off!

Bottoms about the academia - I'd rather toyed with the idea of one day doing a sabbatical in the US, but if it's like that, no. (And I don't go to church, so I'd have no escape.)

[keris.livejournal.com]

US academia is very variable - it depends on subject, department, person you work for... I was just very unlucky that I joined a group like this (I don't think it helped with me being the only "single" person there - I didn't have kids to go home to see, and I didn't have a wife to do all the things that also need doing in those 15 hours a day you're not sleeping or getting into/out of bed!)

I'd still be happy to go over again on a sabbatical, as it's a bit different from working there (UK contract!) and there'd be less pressure to do the hours. And even if I went to work there, then I'd be more able to be forceful about hours than when in a new country on my own without a support network for the whole saying no thing!
:)

Bleedin' hell

[jinty]

Yes, dreadful stuff. Lee B-W posted a link a while ago to that post that got quite famous that was made by the games widow whose spouse was working for, is it EA? Anyway. The one where they were going for schedule 'crunches' even when on schedule for all their targets. I can't remember if it was the same post or something else that he linked to where this sort of huge timepressure was also linked to greater and greater inefficiency in working, surprise surprise...

When we worked in the US for a year we had some crunch times, as you do with a project; but generally we found that our american colleagues worked on a rather 'presenteeism' basis, to coin a phrase. That is, showing up and visibly putting in the hours were what they cared about, more than necessarily getting all the tasks done that needed to be done... The non-US lot felt rather superior in terms of actual efficiency I must say, though also we did overall have more experience in doing projects, which helped.

Re: Bleedin' hell

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Ah! Now I've heard that this is the sort of work ethic you get in Japanese dev studios too, (inside info from Chaos Engine) it's more important to be seen in the studio, even if just dicking about.

Bah, it annoyed me, I was under a lot of pressure to work long hours and I did, but I'd refuse point blank to work beyond a certain hour of the night as the work I'd do would be a waste of time. I'd do more and better fresh after a proper nights sleep. (Especially animation, you need a clear head and high levels of concentration for animation, jolt cola won't cut it.)
I'd get bollocked though, for insisting on going home at 9pm (having got in at 8am!)

As for evil Team Leader, he and his wife went to the US where they succeeded in pissing off even their American teams with their demands for ludicrous overworking. They got wonderfully and hilariously slagged off on Fatbabies (a one-time famous games dev forum.)
Ha!

[wuggy.livejournal.com]

This is why I will never sign a contract where I opt out of the EU working time directive!

I've only had to pull silly silly hours (sleeping under my desk kind of silly) twice: once when I needed to recover a lot of data from a very battered storage device ASAP and once when I was working on a project with an USAnian client and late delivery meant rather large financial penalties.

Even doing a "regular" working week, after 8 months or so without a long break I'm a completely burnt out shell of an software engineer, literally getting by on automatic. After a couple of days on those silly stints, I had managed two things: to cement a position as a "great" technical muck-mover ("We're in shit! Call in the man with the shovel!"), and to completely lose any semblance of sanity that I had managed to pretend to have.

I fell your pain.

[wuggy.livejournal.com]

Heh... *feel... 0_o

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I rather prefered my pain felled.

[phantomsophie.livejournal.com]

*snickers*

ah we're so similar in some ways lol

[tea-and-cuddles.livejournal.com]

Tee-hee.. *Laughs quite some bit* :-D

That picture brought me one of the biggest web-induced smiles in a long time, ta! Nicely drawn too.

It's a bit... touches a nerve, you know :-)

For a little while I did 90 hour weeks at Rebellion. That was really stupid of me - 10 years later, I still feel affected by it.

if i'd become a games team leader i might have become the one you're talking about...

These days, I'm not even *awake* for 100 hours a week!

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

Ah, memories eh!