Culture and Crunch
polycounter lvl 18
Last night I went to an IGDA lecture by Evan Robinson going over his research and findings from that crunch paper he posted at IGDA a few months back that alot of you loved.
One thing I did find interesting was the discussion of how culture effects the productivity, and thus why in part this promotes crunch to becomes part of the cycle.
So Im wondering. I know for me personally no distractions would allow me to get most of my work done. Would you be willing to give up some of the "layed back" ideas?
Examples (not all companies apply):
The ebay checkings.
Internet surfing.
Company "social" events.
OT chatter in the background.
No real specific lunch and break times.
If say the payoff meant you could do something much closer to resembling 40 hours a week?
One thing I did find interesting was the discussion of how culture effects the productivity, and thus why in part this promotes crunch to becomes part of the cycle.
So Im wondering. I know for me personally no distractions would allow me to get most of my work done. Would you be willing to give up some of the "layed back" ideas?
Examples (not all companies apply):
The ebay checkings.
Internet surfing.
Company "social" events.
OT chatter in the background.
No real specific lunch and break times.
If say the payoff meant you could do something much closer to resembling 40 hours a week?
Replies
I do think core hours are important and should probably be expanded from the usual four or five hour period in the middle of the day, to a straight-out 9-5 or 10-6. I work better when I get in early. Having been nocturnal for thirty years, this surprises me, but it seems that every day that I get in by 10 turns out to be a productive, satisfying day. Unfortunately I have a very hard time keeping that up on my own, and a company policy that forces me to come to work early every day would be helpful even if I grew to resent it.
I haven't always been this good about it, but lately I've been working 40 hour weeks and keeping the websurfing reigned in to those two 15-minute breaks I seem to remember the state of Wyoming guaranteeing when I worked at JC Penney. I doubt that applies to employees of North Carolina companies but it feels reasonable to me, and the little rests stave off mental fatigue.
The Capt. says " The only crunch topic you need is Capt. Crunch " !!
If (as it sort of seems) you're asking to what level do distractions affect crunch time ... well, it's the same as normal work hours. 1 hour spent checking ebay or discussing the world's best biscuit (the Ginger Nut) means 1 hour not moving positively towards your deadline.
But, in crunch, that single hour becomes far more vital, the problem is massively exacerbated - its not just an hour knocked off your own personal working day : rather it could well be an hour lost out of build time, out of test time, out of going home at the hour you promised or else your marriage-gets-anulled-time.
Its not a question of how many hours you personally might end up working, it's a question of "is this game going to ship when we said it would?"
headphones suck, i've never found a pair that are comfortable
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Given the ubiquity of headphones across this hemisphere and onto the next, I'd say it's your ears that suck.
Alot of us in the industry complain about crunch and so on and so forth. But, alot of the things we're allowed to do (OT talk, surf teh web, and stuff) wastes time and contributes to crunch being needed. So, would we rather be doing less crunch but having less of those time-wasting luxuries, or continue doing lots of crunch while keeping those thing?
Me, personally, I don't care too much because for myself, I'm a young single person with not much to do with the day. Plus, each hour of overtime brings me closer to taking a full month of vacation.
Dependencies are important to consider. You waste an hour, you put an extra hour back ... but do it BEFORE you fuck someone else's schedule. I'm not happy working late because someone else realises they have an empty evening and can happily work after hours.
And i've no idea what "overtime" is.
I spent maybe a good 2 hours to today just chatting. Then again I did keep up on my work, so its not that I am slacking, but rather not keeping busy as I proablly should.
I feel bad about it sometimes. I need a change of pace.
Yeah I surf when I feel like it. Work can be mentally draining and you need a periodic distraction. But it's up to you to figure out whether or not you surf for an amount of time that adversely affects getting work done. People find different ways in the office to kill time. There are folks I know that I don't think browse much at all, but instead they're chatting in other peoples cubes all day, or on the phone all day ( there is nothing more annoying than sitting within earshot of someone that does that ) or just generally not around and across the street in Starbucks, or bench pressing in the gym. My point being, internet or no internet, people will find ways to kill company time. Heck If you really despise your employer, spend hours in the toilet. Nothing like taking a crap on company time.
Some places ( e.g ILM ) don't have an internet connection at every workstation. They share a PC sat in the corner If they need the internet. That blows if you ask me.
And no, I would never give up lunch hours ( ?! A very necessary breakup of the day ) in exchange for a 40 hr week.
And yeah, headphones on should ideally be a 'no, go away' signal.
And what about a sign saying "When headphones are on avoid unnecessary disturbances"?
Versus the 40 hour method of 30 minutes is your time for lunch between "X" and "Y". No more, no less.
With web surfing what about in the mandatory 15 minutes breaks?
Danr, would making these rules enforcable help drop some of the "backlog" because of the people who abuse it?
I guess Im saying overall if this helps Danr, that having a implented structure and focus on keeping the worker on task versus the method now of haphazard allowing the culture of the work place to overshadow the ability of the worker to be effecient. Leading in part to the need of crunch.
Having a more authoritarian/structured workplace could be a possible way to reduce this back to a (nearer-as Mr. Robinson showed it a variety of issues), 40 hour week. Would you accept this if it would keep crunch down?
Oh don't worry, as far as lunch goes, we Soooo do ;-) ( and beyond reason ) 2 hrs on a friday is pretty much a given
I don't do the 15 minute set break thing, but I get up and wander around when I feel like it of course. Heck, that's actually most of my job these days anyway. wandering around putting out various fires.....throwing buckets of water onto SouL to wake him up.
No, I wouldn't think anybody really wants a more authoritarian workplace. Besides, mandatory crunch is a myth. You can opt in or out. Honestly, it's up to you. Nobody is chained to their desks. And YES. That includes EA! It might mean the difference between big bonus and small bonus. But wtf. It's only dollar. Not as important as ones time.
Besides, mandatory crunch is a myth. You can opt in or out. Honestly, it's up to you. Nobody is chained to their desks. And YES. That includes EA! It might mean the difference between big bonus and small bonus.
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The way >>>some<<< of the experiences from the audience (and Mr. Robinsons examples from EA) sounded last night it was more the difference of being layed off, fired, quitting, or other such obstacles in ones career. So when is a "choice" no longer a "choice"?
If you are of worth to the co., crunching is a choice. As it is for all employees. Like I said, nobody is chained to a desk. You can get up and go home whenever you want to. Survival of the fittest, dog eat dog, whatever you want to call it. If you're a below average /easily replacable employee, you could crunch and still get laid off at the end of a project. The bottom line is, crunching aint worth it for anyone!
Damn I realized maybe some of what you would like you cant post because you lack the anonymity.
It doesn't make a difference. We have schedules figured out. If we have 3 days on paper to make character model, then we use that 3 days. As responsible, adult, self sufficient and easily distracted and amused individuals we might personally factor into that time several hours of socializing, web browsing, chinwagging, Battlefield, polycount messageboarding, nut scratching, crapping, wanking or whatever. But we're still gonna get the character done in the time that we have alloted for it. So it doesn't really make a difference what the studio environemnt is.
The only thing that will stop 'crunch time' is better project management..
http://www.enginesofmischief.com/talks/Sputnik.pdf
There are company-wide crits--when you join Pixar you get used to putting up everything you draw or render or whatever so that you get used to that culture.
The most important thing is that the article points out that Pixar has been careful to create an environment that can foster creativity -and- productivity. Belying some of the common thought on the subject, you can take something as seemingly fickle as creative/artistic expression and make it work and be productive... they go so far as to say that with less structure in place, not only would employees be less creative, but they'd be less creative as well.
Though I do remember one situation they mentioned at Pixar where one person wanted to work later than the rest, and the manager forced him to go home. As they had seen the quality drop off from previous experience.