crunch time stress relief
polycounter lvl 20
so i know a lot of you are in crunch rite now, what do you do to stay sane?
i'm 40 days in without a day off, averaging 10-14 hr work days
i'm 40 days in without a day off, averaging 10-14 hr work days
Replies
I know we have guys here that do workout and then come back, and I'm sure that does wonders to work off some of the stress, and most likely give you a bit of energy boost which is always nice
We are very fortunate to have a "play" space in our studio, and I've become super addicted to ping pong. So that offers opportunities for me and some buddies to go and work off some steam, and I know when we hit crunch again, it'll be my way to clear the head
Still, I try to take it as easy as possible, it's not worth fucking yourself up and getting a stroke over!
see thats what i used to do when i was still in school, but unfortunately since i'm a remote contractor my co-workers are scattered across 3 time zones... That used to make the day worth it, but man this is rough going at it without any team to bounce stuff off of
I also hate eating at the office. I rather have a snack and a nice meal at home later - it makes everything feel less "crunchy". If the meal is nice it also feels more of a reward than the usual crunch food you get at the office that you eat in front of the PC.
Stay away from the computer at home. Have a drink with friends or co-workers and share the pain. Really helps to feel better about it.
Try to eat healthy throughout (studios often cater crap food during crunch - go grab a salad or something instead). Take a 5min break every hour, walk around the office and grab a water or something.
Try to get as much sleep as possible. Forget about having free time to do what you want, just sleep if you can. That rest is going to make the crunch far more tolerable.
Wow? You don't get weekends off?
I guaruntee you'll be much more productive if you take your weekends off.
BTW why are you crunching? If it's because you're ubercharged on the project, have ample buy-in, and want to release the best product ever, then some crunch is cool.
But if management if making you come in, because of their shitty decision making, and being underbudget, then I would seriously consider telling them outright you ARE taking your weekends off. I can't see anywhere in the western world where that could be considered legal.
Germany
Case was that they asked overtime and one guy decided to now show up 1 hour early. He did this 2 times, he got 2 warning. Then it all went to court.
Before making any one sided decisions which could net you warnings and eventually cost you your job, you should consult a lawyer. But it's okay to bring it up with superiors.
This means the following:
1) You can work a maximum of 13 hours per day, since you must have 11 hours resting time between working days.
2) You can work a maximum of six days a week at ten hours per day (you're actually supposed to be able to 48 hour rests between working weeks too).
3) If you've been working normally (say 35 hours a week) prior to two and a half weeks of crunch like this, you're already over your 17 week reference limit.
Edit: I'm not a lawyer so take the above with a pinch of salt.
I'm not in games but in publishing, and every fall we enter crunch. For me it's weird, when things get tough I want to work more, so when I'm crunching I usually come home and jump right into working on 3D things. I'll usually treat myself to a lunch outside of the office too, just to get out and about. And yes, exercise helps!
Always thought it would be frowned upon, I might just be a gentleman tough
And that is just to slow of a movement you as a animator should know that.
just a massive project in a very small time frame with barebone staff unfortunately
come on PC. >\
Hahaha, this!
That could make masturbating quite awkward I would imagine.
THIS :thumbup:
:thumbup:lol.
Beyond that, I usually take periodic 15 minute breaks every few hours to get up and walk around. We also started a little team trivia thing we do mid-day where the losers of the week have to buy beer for everyone.
Finaly making sure I get enough sleep, at least 7 hours. I used to try to sneak by with 6, but ended up less productive at work and kind of grouchy.
more details on the trivia please.