Brexit and games
interpolator
So it's official.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/30/uk-games-companies-leaving-brexit-vote-eu-workers
the study cited by that article http://ukie.org.uk/brexit
I'm curious about story from those with boots on the ground. what have you all heard or not heard so far?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/30/uk-games-companies-leaving-brexit-vote-eu-workers
the study cited by that article http://ukie.org.uk/brexit
I'm curious about story from those with boots on the ground. what have you all heard or not heard so far?
Replies
As for Brexit. I really don't know what the future holds. We were given assurances after the vote that our studio is commited to remaining in the UK and the skills found in the UK are very highly valued. I know that hiring has been a bit of an issue, but it always has been up North. Trying to get people to move away from London is near impossible. And people have an impression that "The North" is this cool dark grey always raining slumland. Which it isnt... Add to that, trying to hire people to come to a country that is in "uncertain times" is going to be near impossible.
However, the survey asks. "Are you considering"... In uncertain times I'm quite suprised the number isn't higher, considering... If I owned a company I'd be considering a lot of things.
That said. And without wanting to get all political n that. Brexit can kiss my arse!
@RyanB thats mostly because Canada was offering a tax break to the industry. The UK almost got a tax break as well but the banking crash hit and put a stop to it. Anyway, Canada is a lovely country. I even looked at moving their myself. People leaving was nothing to do with the EU.
when i last worked over there, the percentage of fellow workers from the EU among staff seemed indeed universally very significant so difficulties in attracting people from the continent must be becoming quite the headache for companies. i know from now on if i personally wanted to deal with visa and paperwork and customs, i'd look across the atlantic first, sorry chaps!
here's to hoping it'll all lead to increasing opportunities on the continent though. preferably somewhere with good weather!
Here's hoping that this will at least spur on an improvement with current game art education in the UK. It's not particularly amazing right now. We need something like the Gnomon school.
Now thinking about taking a job in the UK with the Brexit coming up this things won't be as easy and pretty much unsecure in the future. Since we are not married most probably we would have a hard time to follow the other one in the future because of visa issues. Without any information how EU-citizens will be treated once the Brexit is through, you can hardly make any long term plans there. That makes for me any job in the UK a second class solution and only really interesting if I can't get a job elsewhere. Also before going through all the visa-stuff just to get a job in the UK I probably would rather push for a job in Canada, since there are some of the best hubs for our industry. Overall UK has lost a lot of appeal for me and I guess that will be the same for many other artists from the EU.
Bankers are already leaving London in big numbers in favor of Frankfurt and Paris. Its going to be interesting to see how our industry reacts.
we have EU nationals in our UK studio but we're just waiting to see what the fuck will happen because even the government doesn't have a clue.
Also I guarantee smaller companies will be less likely to hire from abroad now that the government charges them £1000 a year for every non UK employee.
All this said I don't see the company relocating. That would just increase the headaches. Brexit is fucking shite.
Talk about shoot yourself in the foot (repeatedly).
It seems like the EU is quite keen to put Theresa May in her place, so I'm hoping that will at least force her to water down a lot of the crazy ideas the far-right over here are demanding. I would like to think that in 5 or 10 years time we can undo all this bullshit and return to the EU.
Please excuse me while I start battering my keyboard.
The Brexit isn't good for the EU, but by far worse for the UK and if the union shows some guts and little compromise towards the UK it can even gain some momentum after going through some repairs/reforms using the Brexit as a warning.
For the next 2 - 4 years, until the dust settles, I can't imagine how the UK will attract foreign senior staff, unless they're extremely high paid. Just like in China, you will need a plan B if for some reason your visa doesn't get extended or when a populist government decides your taxes buy you less benefits than you'd get if you were a local. That's just not a good situation to bring your wife and kid along, and certainly no basis to eventually settle down.
I doubt it. It's more likely that the UK will break up, for the first time in my life people are actually seriously considering Northern Ireland leaving the UK to rejoin Ireland; Scotland's indepence looks incredibly likely as well. So really I much more imagine that Europe will be taking a lesson from the UK that leaving and break up are a bad thing.
It's all very sad really.
The reduced rate of intake from other European countries combined with the brain drain will likely result in shortages of skilled people - while this might be good for new graduates and their employment prospects, you can't really build a game with just juniors and interns, not in the short term, anyway.
I love working at ECG but a disastrous Brexit would very likely make me look for employment elsewhere. It's a bit sad really
Shame! We have a nice balanced weather, hot summers, cold winters and beaches all around.
The great advantage is cost of living , altho our bureocracy is a fucking nightmare ( for me to fund my company i had to fill more shit than i needed to buy my house )
If it comes to that.. I'd appreciate leaving on my own terms though.
And they do not seem like this, as that is something that has been threatened to happen.
However, that doesn't mean that they won't try to get rid of the non-nationals with a visa system, point system, lots of paper works etc. There's a myriad of ways to make it difficult for someone to stay in a country, even if they aren't 'kicked-out' per se.
Having a £1,000 fine for companies hiring non-nationals is one way of doing it. Since it isn't against the non-nationalists, but rather the companies employing them, it is not seen as something 'kicking' foreigners out, but in reality it has the same effect.
If the UK would make it harder for people from the EU to get a job, by fining the companies, then the EU nationals will seek job elsewhere and the UK would have managed to effectively pushed people out, without making the EU send them back the UK citizens living elsewhere (because the UK is still abiding by free movement.... just making it that bit harder to get a job, by no fault of the worker)
I've been in this country for almost 7 years. I've worked, paid taxes, held flats etc to my name. However 5,5 of those years were in higher education. According to the people I talked to about getting a residency here, education years were not counted. And hence I have only been here less than 2 years according to them. And so I have not really any 'valid' reasons to be here, because any UK citizen would be able to do my job just as well.
A lot of the people I have worked with here, from the EU, have tried to file for residency as soon as they heard Brexit might happen. Those that did before the vote were delayed until after the vote, and still are in a limbo, or have gotten a denial. I'm still waiting to hear back if my friend have gotten a residency even though he has set up two companies here that are going strong, and he's been here for over 10 years now. But he still has not gotten a response even though he applied way ahead of the Brexit vote
It is more the fact that, even if both sides want it, they are holding off to share the future of the people, and that in itself is making the very ground unstable for those of us who are not nationals in the UK. Because it is an uncertainty.
Even if both sides are considering guaranteeing that people can stay, the fact that they don't say yes or no to it, is creating a situation where you cannot be certain of anything.
It is also creating quite a bit of an atmosphere at workplaces. I've come across friendly banter of 'so when are you leaving the country?' to genuine comments about that us foreigners are a pest to the country and should get out. I never had that problem before, and lots of it is just taking a turn for the worse.
:O yeah this would explain why a lot of people were getting denied straight after!
Yes, very shady. But it goes hand in hand with the £1,000 fine for employers to employ EU nationals as well. It looks like it could be a very effective way to keep people out of the market. Because as you say, there might be a multitude of reasons to not apply again.
That is lovely to hear! The company I worked for when the vote happened were almost totally made up of EU nationals, and were more likely to make us ...expendable.. and try to hire locally at the offices in other countries, or to get UK citizens in.
Sadly it was more taken as 'banter' and ... well. anyway, I hope it is better now.
I have friends who has gotten rude notes because they are Polish, telling them to take their stuff and leave already, among other things. Thankfully I haven't gotten much of that vibe from where I work now, as we are a very international team, and we are all in the same boat pretty much. So there's a better support for the people here. Although I still doubt I'd have the phone skills necessary to get a good footage of it xD