HELP!! BAD ART LEAD!!??
Hey guys, I'm new here, I had to rant about this I wasn't sure if I should do it with anyone at work so here goes... and apologies this will be long.
I am at my WITS END.
I'm a mid level artist been working maybe about 3 years in the industry, Now I'm incredibly efficient, I love systems, I love organization, I love writing shit down and finding the most efficient, cost effective way in getting things done, and when I was in my second art job I was working under a Producer, who was actually doubling as an art lead, and he ended up getting fired because the CEO (it was a very small company) thought I was doing such a great job it didn't make sense keeping the other. This ended up sucking for me by the way but long story short, I decided I wouldn't be my usual overachieving self at my next job. Fast forward my present company I like it, good environment, takes good care of the employees, but SHIT LEAD.
Now look, I'm pretty intuitive, I can tell when someone's bullshitting their way through a job and this seems to be exactly what's going on now.
We have what seems to be a relic leading the team, a very defensive and insecure one who only hires interns and juniors to work with him I guess so seniors don't call him out or show him up.
We've actually had two really great art directors come work with us before that left in less than 3 months, who were ten times better than this guy, I'm talking actual respectable, bona fide, art directors that could put their pencil where their mouth was. We lost them, because they felt undervalued.
Lemme try to get to the point, besides those two who left my job in less than 3 months, I've only worked under a "real" Art director once before, he kind of doubled as a lead and art director,it was a small company but I can guarantee
you've heard of it. Between what I've learned from him and from managing my own projects as a freelancer in the past I feel like I don't ever need to see an actual job description to know what a lead really should be doing especially if
there's no art direction on the team besides him.
Right now I'm going nuts . I feel like I'm too inexperienced to say he's not a good lead, but at the same time I seriously don't think he's doing what he's supposed to be doing.
The inefficiencies and the half assed jobs are just driving me crazy.
I just really need to ask you guys, am I the one who is projecting what I THINK a lead should be doing on this guy or should I just chill out and realize he's actually doing what he's supposed to be doing? At this point I really have no idea if he's as bad as I THINK he is.
He's got a lengthy resume, but I've never EVER seen his work, at least not work someone else hasn't already completed 80% of, I'm not sure if he was even actually in the positions he claims he was in at those companies... or maybe he had the luxury of doing what he does now at this job, which is basically farming out all the work, starting something half-assing it and then dumping it on people like me.
Can someone please tell me if I have the wrong impression of what a lead artist does?
Here's what I think An Art Lead SHOULD do(and what he doesn't do):
-Initially define the look and feel of a game
-Create a streamlined, pipeline for executing art from concept to in game delivery
-Set up organized systems for delivery of artwork and naming conventions
-Have the ability to work with files anyone working underneath them touches...
-Maintain consistency of artwork
-Document clearly and concisely goal, context and timeline for deliverables
-Assign based on strengths
-Assess and evaluate art team members (see how they're doing, is "A" bored of modeling fiolage over and over? is "B" feeling like they have strengths being overlooked in modeling fiolage that could be tried out next assignment so they could get off modeling humans?etc etc.)
-Have a good idea of art creation timelines for planning outside the art team
-Inform and Consult artists about prospective interviewees
I mean, some of them just seem like no-brainers, to me an art lead's or ANY management job is basically to well, MANAGE and make things "easy" for the rest of the team, by easy I mean mitigate risk, make sure there is very small margin of error. I don't think the art team should be worrying about anything management related at all, most of their time should be channeled into creativity and making the art, they shouldn't have to worry about chasing down dates, setting up filing systems or any of that shit.
A lead in my opinion needs to do everything he can to considerably decrease the potential of a time wasting FUCK UP without micro-managing, and my lead does the complete OPPOSITE. In fact he increases the possibility of a fuck
up with every minute he sits in the office. He plans things so badly and half asses things so much (I SWEAR I have NEVER seen this guy complete something to the end, he starts something gets halfway through it and just says eh... can you take this over i cant think of anything else or something along those lines) he simply creates more work out of what seems to be pure laziness.
Here's what an art lead in my opinion SHOULDN'T do and exactly what mine DOES.
-Not understand the the artistic context, goals, or time line of something he assigns to a member of the art team.
When you ask your lead to explain something and he says uhhhh I dunno and this happens about 80% of the time... something is WRONG. When you ask your art lead how many of A needs to be created in how much time and he tells you, he's not sure, that you should go talk to someone on the design team and ask...something is WRONG. It leads to miscommunication! Nothing is documented, art lead has no control or proper understanding of what's going on, at no point can he confidently take over the project if you are suddenly out sick or whoever you "talked to in design" is suddenly out sick too because he doesn't understand the assignment he gave someone on his own team in the first place!
-Can't draw or model
Ok not everyone ca draw, ok everyone isn't a modeller... but how does someone lead a team where they can't even give practical input to juniors or make changes to their work? How can someone who can't do any of these things gain respect from their team members??? Of course I wasn't surprised we lost TWO good art directors in less than 3 months, their own freaking peer didn't know the basics of 3D Max, how do you work with a peer you don't respect!
It's like a manager at McDonalds not being able to work the fries, so he sits
there and let's them burn because no ones around to take them out.
And this is just in MY case but would YOU respect an artist who's work you've never seen but everytime he says he concepted something he can't find the file, didn't save it or lost it? Where's the credibility?
And how does someone like this polish things and maintain consistency on things put into the game? THEY DON'T
What they end up doing instead is wasting ENORMOUS chunks of everyone's time and irritating the crap out of outsourced talent who keep getting
files back to make trivial changes. Why? Because an artist who has no traditional background and can't model or refuses to learn new software can't take over something someone under them is working on so they end up asking for tweaks over and over and over again that will never be "right" because HE is unable to do them himself.
-Writes nothing down or scribbles it on a sticky note
Documents NOTHING! Bringing a new freelancer in every couple weeks? Well, be ready to explain the same crap over and over, oh and I mean YOU will do it, because HE won't, he's too busy being lead, so you take the time out of creating and do it!
Again, your art lead has not documented how to do A or B, and everytime YOU try to document it he reminds you it's not a priority and you should be working on something else.
So people end up confused, distracted answering questions that would have easily been figured out if it had been documented and trying to decipher hyroglyphs from some random sticky note somewhere on a wall.
-Has no idea how long things take, setting dates without any consultation
He goes into a meeting, schedules a date and THEN comes out and asks the team the same shit he asked us 2 months ago... how long does it take you to do A, how about B... then realizes he undershot the date... yet again.
But we already told you this stuff, you already know our timeline, but then again you don't write anything down do you?
Refuses to learn anything new, and doesn't TRY
Stubborn as fuck, refuses to upgrade from windows XP, refuses to learn a new program, keeps making the same repetitive asinine mistakes.
Oh Did you send me a file with the email titled BLUE CAVE 4 times now? Can you send that again? I'm too busy being lead to take a few secs to "SEARCH"
I never mentioned this before but.... get on it.
Hey I know you never interviewed anyone before, but here's a resume, this guy's coming in you need to go interview him, oh he's gonna be here in 30 minutes by the way.
You don't know what position he's even here for, who he is, what room you're even supposed to be in? You'll figure it out, I had this info for a week now but though I'd give you a heads up now cause I was too busy being lead.
-Inefficient hiring
Do you think a bad lead conistently hires juniors and interns when he knows he is constantly outsourcing art at a premium price a senior could do for cheaper if he's trying to cover his incompetent tracks?
Because this seems to be a case, and as we keep churning through interns and juniors and having files be extremely unorganized because these interns and juniors usually have no leadership to guide them... well.... it's costing a lot of money and wasting a lot of time., since we then have to go in and fix and organize everything the interns have fucked up.
-Lack of systems...
We're working in dropbox right now (and this is actually recent) dropbox... seriously? Where other random people have deleted folders, overwritted stuff and just plain fucked up.
We're not ameteur at all here, this is how experienced teams do things, right? Yea sure :poly117:
So, am I wrong? Do I have a completely different idea of what a lead does? Am I overreaching here? Because I'm seriously about to start looking for a new jo...
I am at my WITS END.
I'm a mid level artist been working maybe about 3 years in the industry, Now I'm incredibly efficient, I love systems, I love organization, I love writing shit down and finding the most efficient, cost effective way in getting things done, and when I was in my second art job I was working under a Producer, who was actually doubling as an art lead, and he ended up getting fired because the CEO (it was a very small company) thought I was doing such a great job it didn't make sense keeping the other. This ended up sucking for me by the way but long story short, I decided I wouldn't be my usual overachieving self at my next job. Fast forward my present company I like it, good environment, takes good care of the employees, but SHIT LEAD.
Now look, I'm pretty intuitive, I can tell when someone's bullshitting their way through a job and this seems to be exactly what's going on now.
We have what seems to be a relic leading the team, a very defensive and insecure one who only hires interns and juniors to work with him I guess so seniors don't call him out or show him up.
We've actually had two really great art directors come work with us before that left in less than 3 months, who were ten times better than this guy, I'm talking actual respectable, bona fide, art directors that could put their pencil where their mouth was. We lost them, because they felt undervalued.
Lemme try to get to the point, besides those two who left my job in less than 3 months, I've only worked under a "real" Art director once before, he kind of doubled as a lead and art director,it was a small company but I can guarantee
you've heard of it. Between what I've learned from him and from managing my own projects as a freelancer in the past I feel like I don't ever need to see an actual job description to know what a lead really should be doing especially if
there's no art direction on the team besides him.
Right now I'm going nuts . I feel like I'm too inexperienced to say he's not a good lead, but at the same time I seriously don't think he's doing what he's supposed to be doing.
The inefficiencies and the half assed jobs are just driving me crazy.
I just really need to ask you guys, am I the one who is projecting what I THINK a lead should be doing on this guy or should I just chill out and realize he's actually doing what he's supposed to be doing? At this point I really have no idea if he's as bad as I THINK he is.
He's got a lengthy resume, but I've never EVER seen his work, at least not work someone else hasn't already completed 80% of, I'm not sure if he was even actually in the positions he claims he was in at those companies... or maybe he had the luxury of doing what he does now at this job, which is basically farming out all the work, starting something half-assing it and then dumping it on people like me.
Can someone please tell me if I have the wrong impression of what a lead artist does?
Here's what I think An Art Lead SHOULD do(and what he doesn't do):
-Initially define the look and feel of a game
-Create a streamlined, pipeline for executing art from concept to in game delivery
-Set up organized systems for delivery of artwork and naming conventions
-Have the ability to work with files anyone working underneath them touches...
-Maintain consistency of artwork
-Document clearly and concisely goal, context and timeline for deliverables
-Assign based on strengths
-Assess and evaluate art team members (see how they're doing, is "A" bored of modeling fiolage over and over? is "B" feeling like they have strengths being overlooked in modeling fiolage that could be tried out next assignment so they could get off modeling humans?etc etc.)
-Have a good idea of art creation timelines for planning outside the art team
-Inform and Consult artists about prospective interviewees
I mean, some of them just seem like no-brainers, to me an art lead's or ANY management job is basically to well, MANAGE and make things "easy" for the rest of the team, by easy I mean mitigate risk, make sure there is very small margin of error. I don't think the art team should be worrying about anything management related at all, most of their time should be channeled into creativity and making the art, they shouldn't have to worry about chasing down dates, setting up filing systems or any of that shit.
A lead in my opinion needs to do everything he can to considerably decrease the potential of a time wasting FUCK UP without micro-managing, and my lead does the complete OPPOSITE. In fact he increases the possibility of a fuck
up with every minute he sits in the office. He plans things so badly and half asses things so much (I SWEAR I have NEVER seen this guy complete something to the end, he starts something gets halfway through it and just says eh... can you take this over i cant think of anything else or something along those lines) he simply creates more work out of what seems to be pure laziness.
Here's what an art lead in my opinion SHOULDN'T do and exactly what mine DOES.
-Not understand the the artistic context, goals, or time line of something he assigns to a member of the art team.
When you ask your lead to explain something and he says uhhhh I dunno and this happens about 80% of the time... something is WRONG. When you ask your art lead how many of A needs to be created in how much time and he tells you, he's not sure, that you should go talk to someone on the design team and ask...something is WRONG. It leads to miscommunication! Nothing is documented, art lead has no control or proper understanding of what's going on, at no point can he confidently take over the project if you are suddenly out sick or whoever you "talked to in design" is suddenly out sick too because he doesn't understand the assignment he gave someone on his own team in the first place!
-Can't draw or model
Ok not everyone ca draw, ok everyone isn't a modeller... but how does someone lead a team where they can't even give practical input to juniors or make changes to their work? How can someone who can't do any of these things gain respect from their team members??? Of course I wasn't surprised we lost TWO good art directors in less than 3 months, their own freaking peer didn't know the basics of 3D Max, how do you work with a peer you don't respect!
It's like a manager at McDonalds not being able to work the fries, so he sits
there and let's them burn because no ones around to take them out.
And this is just in MY case but would YOU respect an artist who's work you've never seen but everytime he says he concepted something he can't find the file, didn't save it or lost it? Where's the credibility?
And how does someone like this polish things and maintain consistency on things put into the game? THEY DON'T
What they end up doing instead is wasting ENORMOUS chunks of everyone's time and irritating the crap out of outsourced talent who keep getting
files back to make trivial changes. Why? Because an artist who has no traditional background and can't model or refuses to learn new software can't take over something someone under them is working on so they end up asking for tweaks over and over and over again that will never be "right" because HE is unable to do them himself.
-Writes nothing down or scribbles it on a sticky note
Documents NOTHING! Bringing a new freelancer in every couple weeks? Well, be ready to explain the same crap over and over, oh and I mean YOU will do it, because HE won't, he's too busy being lead, so you take the time out of creating and do it!
Again, your art lead has not documented how to do A or B, and everytime YOU try to document it he reminds you it's not a priority and you should be working on something else.
So people end up confused, distracted answering questions that would have easily been figured out if it had been documented and trying to decipher hyroglyphs from some random sticky note somewhere on a wall.
-Has no idea how long things take, setting dates without any consultation
He goes into a meeting, schedules a date and THEN comes out and asks the team the same shit he asked us 2 months ago... how long does it take you to do A, how about B... then realizes he undershot the date... yet again.
But we already told you this stuff, you already know our timeline, but then again you don't write anything down do you?
Refuses to learn anything new, and doesn't TRY
Stubborn as fuck, refuses to upgrade from windows XP, refuses to learn a new program, keeps making the same repetitive asinine mistakes.
Oh Did you send me a file with the email titled BLUE CAVE 4 times now? Can you send that again? I'm too busy being lead to take a few secs to "SEARCH"
I never mentioned this before but.... get on it.
Hey I know you never interviewed anyone before, but here's a resume, this guy's coming in you need to go interview him, oh he's gonna be here in 30 minutes by the way.
You don't know what position he's even here for, who he is, what room you're even supposed to be in? You'll figure it out, I had this info for a week now but though I'd give you a heads up now cause I was too busy being lead.
-Inefficient hiring
Do you think a bad lead conistently hires juniors and interns when he knows he is constantly outsourcing art at a premium price a senior could do for cheaper if he's trying to cover his incompetent tracks?
Because this seems to be a case, and as we keep churning through interns and juniors and having files be extremely unorganized because these interns and juniors usually have no leadership to guide them... well.... it's costing a lot of money and wasting a lot of time., since we then have to go in and fix and organize everything the interns have fucked up.
-Lack of systems...
We're working in dropbox right now (and this is actually recent) dropbox... seriously? Where other random people have deleted folders, overwritted stuff and just plain fucked up.
We're not ameteur at all here, this is how experienced teams do things, right? Yea sure :poly117:
So, am I wrong? Do I have a completely different idea of what a lead does? Am I overreaching here? Because I'm seriously about to start looking for a new jo...
Replies
If you think there are ways things can be done better, than talk with him about it and try to make it happen. Don't tell him he needs to do things, just discuss what you think you could both do to make things work more efficiently. Do this in a positive manner. Don't talk about how things aren't working. Talk about how they could be even better.
However, it's definitely a mistake to just jump in and try to change everything to suit how you think things should be done. People don't like that.
Yea you're right about how small the industry is I'm trying to be very careful, that's why I haven't talked to anyone at work about it, even other artists on the team.
But, at this point I'm just really frustrated, I figured I'd try posting here, I haven't listed the company name, but I'm really going crazy!!
I need someone to tell me if this is normal!! There's a lot more I could talk about but I really don't know... and I'm so annoyed that I feel like it's coming out in one big clump of incoherent babble. '
Man I've tried that! I guess that's why I'm so frustrated
At my last job I tried this too, the guy ended up getting fired that was over me. I don't want that to be the situation here.
I've actually been here for a little more than a year, so it's not like I'm suddenly coming out of nowhere and changing things, I came in saw things were being done inefficiently and tried to change things little by little - but it's not working, he doesn't stick with things he's kind of short sighted and does things like it's a fad then quickly reverts back, not sure what to do or if I should even be doing anything at this point...
Another big problem is he gets defensive, when I try to suggest things or he talks around it like well I don't think we need that right now... stubborn guy, not sure how to deal.
A year before release and the game had no discernible art style,horrendously flawed technically in terms of performance,an art budget that wasted tons of money on outsourced art work which at the time 100% unusable because of some common sense guidelines which were never communicated to the company in China. The game looked like shit and was a good candidate for canning by the publisher. One artist described the game as a "bucket of random and shitty objects"
Through out all this most of the artists spoke up individually about problems and inefficiencies and nothing was done about it. Needless to say the Art department had the morale of a group of misprision being marched off to be shot.
What finally did happen is that some of the seniors gathered all of the artists and we met outside of work during non work hours and discussed the the problem. The consensus
was that AD and LA through their inexperience and incompetence were going to run the game into the ground. If control was not wrested from them the game was going to be cancelled.
So the artists had quite an extraordinary meeting which the organizers presented upper management the facts about the utter disaster the art department was and how the
AD and LA caused this.Management hates those sorts of meetings because game companies are like ships in the navy, you have your captain and all of his subordinates and often mutinies are not welcomed
Ive been at the situations various times,too many in fact but here are your options. By what you described,the LA is the type that will be vindictive,petty and it could get messy.In the end you might not even work there. Since you are at your wits end tolerating this situation no longer seems sensible.
1.Secretly plan your escape. Update the portfolio, start looking for work elsewhere.
2. Talk to upper management and bring up the issue. I dont know the social and professional dynamic in office. If management is fair and will give you a fair chance to discuss your issues it might be worth pursuing. If you decide to go this or any of the other routes be prepared,think of your grievances as a court case.Be well prepared to make your case and have examples of the problems you can actually show.
But if upper management is a group of friends, cliques,etc and the LA is part of it could lead to blowback towards you for blowing a whistle.
3. talk to the other artists about it,see if they agree then go to management with your grievances. Just like my second piece of advice be prepared. Sadly in the game industry, people are more prone to not speak out and fear for their jobs and sadly it leads to many situations like the one you are currently in.
if option 2 or 3 realistically do not offer any prospect of success then go with option one and save yourself the stress. Im sorry you are in this position,it sucks and it can be stressful but sadly there are times you need to stand up for yourself or at the least draw some boundaries to what you will tolerate in a job.
Hope it all works out in the end for you mate.
As for what Joseph said, the last part, as long as you keep it vague and without details. like names, location,project or anything like that you should be fine.
But at the end of the day I highly recommend getting the feedback from people in the same position as yourself. If they feel the same way get together and discuss the issue and find out some core problems. Then communicate that to your lead or someone above him. If nothing changes... leave. If you find out no one feels the same way as yourself, it might be worth looking over everything again or simply moving on with the understanding that the studio isn't the right fit for yourself.
Look for a new job, see what you can find before you start to try and make a change at work. You don't want to be in a situation where you'll end up with nothing.
In the end, if the team isn't happy , they should complain to someone higher up that can actually do something about it.
I think its a bit unfair to say he is being a bit too negative about the situation. It very well may be the case but the personality of this lead needs to be also a factor taken into consideration. We had an artist fired at my last job for giving honest and constructive advice. Where you might see it as trying to improve the game the lead might see it as an affront to his position and seek to quash anyone who might make him look bad.
If this guy is a Lead, a relic in his position and has been the cause of 2 ADs quitting,im inclined to think this Lead as some sort of pull within the company
Yeah sorry if I came across a little critical towards Eric, it wasn't my intention to make it sound like he was the problem. I can completely understand his situation and agree with everything people have said. I just wanted to try and make the point that he has being letting the negative situation build and build into possible resentment. When or if he does decide to communicate that he will need to take a step back and cool off.
The shit situation would still exist for others. If it costs the same amount effort to talk with the company and try to fix the problem as it costs to find a new job and transfer to it... you should attempt to fix the problem. This won't just help you, but the other artists, the company, your lead, and the whole of the games industry.
Like said before, check with your fellow artists. If nobody else feels it's remotely a problem - you just might be in the wrong company. However, if other artists also feel something is awry, think of what can be done to solve the situation. And by solve I don't mean things like having X or Y fired, because that's nasty to ask for, but ways you can cooperate better.
Then, after you've thought up and discussed potential solutions, talk to the higher ranks in the company. This could be the lead artist himself, but it could be upper management as well. Go with what feels best.
This!
Way I see it, there's only two resolutions, you either look for a job somewhere else (aparently others there did the same, for a reason) or try and contact a manager or a producer directly, pull him/her into a meeting room and show this person your concerns.
The worst lead is will always think that he/she have reason in all, and that all things are being done good.
Anyways, if you don't feel confortable working in a company, the best is to look after a better place to work in. But don't worry a lot, this is the "bread of all days", and leads can be changed with the support of the entire team.
it's absolutely acceptable to raise concerns about a management style which affects the workflow, and output of an entire team. all you need to do is express the fact that this person is slowing down the production of your team through their management style.
This! Just make sure you do it very professionally. Don't go in acting like a child, calling the AD names and stuff. You have to be professional and tell them why you think things are wrong, and have solutions! Say you`re willing to take on more responsibility or something like that. Talk about how you want the game to succeed. Dont just come across as a complainer.
Your experience is actually pretty uncanny to the one I had. Every single characteristic is shared between these talentless, dishonest and scummy wasters that know they are in a job they don't deserve with supposed years of experience (what they did during these years, who knows).
My recommendation to you is to fulfill your duties/contract, then get out of there. I could bore you with my story, but it's pretty long and much the same as yours. How it ended though was I woke up 3 AM one morning coughing up blood. I was diagnosed with a bleeding ulcer, caused by stress. If those things burst, they tend to be pretty fatal. It's not worth risking your health over, just as it wasn't worth me risking mine just because I had a talentless shitheel for a lead. He ain't worth it, mang. I know you have a sense of responsibility and duty to the project that he doesn't. You may even really like the project, as I did. But it's best to get yourself out of that situation.
Snip it in the bud or prepare to abandon ship
It seems like you might be fusing a few jobs together and want this person to be a lot of things.
Technically minded but highly artistic, able to schedule and manage people but also getting a lot of work done. Those people are pretty rare and normally you hire people who have strengths in one of those areas...
I work at a really small company and we have 3 people to do the jobs you describe.
Producer: Does the overall scheduling and managing of assets, also known as cat herder.
Creative Director/Art Director: Doesn't have a clue what a schedule is but knows the overall artistic vision of the game and can critique a ketchup stain on a wet napkin to be the next eye candy piece in the game. Often seen wandering around with a cup of coffee, telling empty cubes to keep up the good work until he is sat down in front of something artistic and then focuses like a laser beam.
Art Lead: That crusty fucker who ham handily manages people and phrases out tasks. They have been around a really long time and know the pipeline really well. This is the go to guy when the in house tool does that "unexpected thing". He can't fix the actual tool, but he knows who could, but he isn't going to bother that guy because he knows he's busy carrying the company around on his shoulders. More importantly he knows what you did that messed it up and can show you the work around.
He can also slam out work like nobody's business if he wasn't constantly helping other people not make stupid mistakes.
Personally I think you should settle down and not be so self centered and think that your way is the only way and the only way is to get super anal about every last detail and demand nano-second accounting. You sound like you would be a tiring boss to work for, who micro manages. You would probably burn out a lot of artists who need a certain amount of creative freedom to remain sane and productive.
I do agree that your lead does exhibit enough bad traits that something probably does need to be done. But based on this rant I think you might be a little too amped up to be the guy to address them rationally... Hopefully you where just venting and you'll be calmer addressing the issues...
Keep in mind that different does not always mean bad. A hands off management style is not a bad style, sometimes it is easier to work under so long as you have the right people who can manage themselves, stay on task and get their work done.
One reason he/she doesn't micro manage you could be that you might seem pretty capable of doing it yourself? You might seem so tightly wound that if they said something minor you might snap...
It kind of seems like you might be coming from a:
"punch the time clock, evil boss tracks your breaks with a stop watch and you secretly like it because you never slip"
Or that you are the type of person who needs a big evil something to slay to feel content and might end up chasing windmills? I see this quite a bit with newbies they feel like they have zero dominance so then they try to assert their dominance by stepping on the first rung of the ladder. Normally when you stick a knife between your leads shoulder blades all the other artists take notice and watch you carefully... You'll feel the icy stares and wonder why everyone keeps you at arms distance and no one turns their back on you for very long.
It kind of seems like you are now working in a slightly more relaxed place:
"get your stuff done by the deadline, work whatever you need to get it done"
About the only hiring Jr's thing.
For a small company it could be hard to find Sr level talent that will work on small titles for Jr wages. When we've hired a few people often we end up taking our #2 or #3 pick because they were snatched up by some place else with better wages and IP. So it might not be that he chooses lesser talent but gets stuck with it. But if he is purposely picking bad candidates over better ones that is a major character flaw, but you might not want to bring it up because you are speculating and unless you are part of the hiring process and know for a fact that is what is happening, you should focus on other things that are more concrete.
And now this has eaten my entire posting budget for the week... so I need to run =P
1) you can't talk to anyone about this until you don't take this personal and you feel offended, because if you do it'll turn ugly really bad, and trust me, no one likes a big drama at the office since they are a waste of time. So relax, give him the benefit of the doubt and try to see what it is that he does right. See both sides of coin, and if you need to vent off tell someone you are close to. But secretly planning to overthrow the evil empire will only work in fiction or in movies. We have to be rational and approach the whole deal with objectiveness and solutions. To every single bad thing he does write down ideas of what could improve and why. How would that affect the team.
2) Leads are very busy people. Being one myself its always a juggle to find the time like vig said to create as much work as you can while being bombarded with other tasks from other people that need your attention as well. I for one come in at 6.30 in the morning so that i can have time for myself to do art, and just focus on art. Then the rest of the day i don't feel overwhelmed by other people seeking my attention. But that is just me. I believe that good planning trumps over work and a lot of mistakes.... but i think one misconception is that Leads or Art directors are not there to pick up the slack. They can often help out, but all the artists should be responsible for their own work. It's a shame to hear that your lead doesn't plan ahead to finish his work.
3) Sometimes approaching that person after you are calm can bring the best results. People are not always evil, sometimes things like this can be eye openers for them as well as for you. Maybe there are things that he doesn't see and you can help him become a better lead. At the end of the day everyone in the team should have the mindset that you need to help each other make ONE game. So everyone is working towards the same goal and that should be reflected by how people work.
I wrote some notes on the IGDA leadership and post it here a while ago and got ignored. So maybe you'll find it useful. If not just a glimpse of what to improve. http://brau3d.blogspot.com/2011/11/igda-leadership-forum-session-notes.html
This come from a lot of successful people that are leads in their work, like Blizzard or what not.
Anyways... be patient and don't start a riot. Those are my 2 cents.
First of all it seems pretty ironic that you aren't telling anyone at your work but you are telling the game industry in Polycount. That aside, try to talk to him. Address your concerns and try to suggest solutions. All in a professional manner. See how that goes first. My 2 cents.
This. And if he shows no interest in supporting his subordinates and working in a professional manner, then he's just there to fill a seat and collect a check. Take the matter to his boss, or directly to HR. It's their job to make sure that the employees are in an environment that they want to work at. This is why you and everyone else was hired, right?
Think of it this way. You are doing all you can to make sure you are doing a good job, and to keep your job. But your livelihood at this company is dependent on everyone else at the company doing the same. If they aren't doing their best, or trying to, then they need to have their roles re-evaluated.
If nobody there seems interested in improving the working conditions, then staying there is only going to stress you out more. It's just better to walk away now, than to hang around and wait for the ship to sink.
Mainly it's more like "There are a few things I'd like to discuss about (enter concern here) and maybe it's because I've been so involved with my own work, but could you take a moment to tell me why such and such is progressing in that manner?"
"Have you talked to your art lead about this?"
-and hence you have the trap.
I think the best thing you could do is approach HR or management and tell them you and your colleagues have some serious concerns with their current work environment. Then HR would hopefully take an annonymous servey, or private 1to1 sessions to document the staffs concerns. If others feel like you, this will be reflected in their findings and hopefully action will be taken.
...well some of the time, really it depends on if that said manager is working FOR the company, or is just blagging a wage
im not sure i would want to work in a company that views the chain of command in such a rigid way as you discribe, that doesn't breed creativity...it can mean titles go gold on time though
Your choice is to go to work for a studio that matches your goals, or adapt.
I don't think this guy is bitching about not getting what characters he wants to work on etc. He's complaining about the general incompetence and lack of ability of his Lead. Least that's how I read it.
Complaining about it to their superior usually does nothing.
Honestly, your best bet is to move on. If he has continued to mess up and he is still there, that's because someone above him sees the situation as fine. And the problem goes up the chain further than him.
That's a fight that may not be worth the trouble.
In my case the guy must have lied to get the job. He said he had over a decade working with one of the biggest names in gaming; that would have had to be true, I assume they checked, but he was probably in IT or something, definitely not an art dept. He knew computers and systems pretty well.
But anyway. Yeah. What's in the past is in the past. Tea time for me.
Leads are also often juggling much that is not visible from a production position, which makes it is easy to make presumptions about incompetence and become emotional without seeing the full picture.
If however he really is as incompetent as your initial post makes out and you must/want to stick around then absolutely step up. Make the documentation that is sorely missing, plan your own work impeccably, assist new recruits and file all of the correspondence. Air any concerns you have with HR and when your review rolls around say your goal is to work towards promotion.
What I do think is important to keep in mind in a situation like this is, these are peoples careers and livelihoods, its not not something to trifle with or approached lightly.
Christ thats quite a view you have there on nature of a company. I must say i am inclined to disagree with your view about every job for the rest of your life intended to make your BOSS look like a genius. Its funny i sorta thought your goal in whatever job you have is to make a product of the highest quality,not make the BOSS look like a genius. That lofty title the BOSS earns perhaps if he has run a well oiled machine that takes a concept,plans and executes it within the constraints of what a company its size can accomplish.
I cant disagree with you when you say a company has the right to run itself in a disorganized and dysfunctional manner. Nor does a company have to make sure the work environment is functioning and tolerable. The real question is why would you want to run your studio like that? The goal is to make money and crappy/dysfunctional don't make much money and dont last very much long. This shut up and do as your told work environment you are so keen of often's ignores the yelling of "Iceberg!" which eventually hits the ship and causes it to sink.
To use your analogy on companies as a sports team, i would also say that you may be a team member but it is the coaches job to inspire/lead your team to victory. If the coach cant do that then maybe there's a problem. In sports GMs also fire the coaches when they underperform i might add
Your castigating the OP because you think he isn't being a team player because he is s upset and would like to see positive changes. Nothing wrong with that.
At the company i worked at where team members actually spoke up about serious problems, surprisingly management listened and made some rather tough but well needed changes. What happened in the end? The quality of the games art went up,team morale went way up,game was not canned by the publisher. That "insubordinate" and "untrustworthy" act by members of the team helped make the company and the game better.
I'm glad to see the variety of discussions in the thread, a couple of people are wondering why I didn't talk to someone at work about it instead of coming here on this forum where a lot of artists in the industry hang out.
Well, first off I wanted to get as many different opinions as I could so that I could have a more pragmatic outlook on this situation, hearing the diverse feedback actually helped calm me down to the point that I can really sit back and think about what my next move should be.
Second, I say I'm not as experienced as a lot of guys in here but I'm not green either, I'm well aware of office politics and even though I respect my team members I'm pretty selective about the kinds of things I choose to talk to them about, sometimes "friends" can surprise you when it comes to the workplace, I'd rather be careful instead of being that "negative guy" or feeling responsible for breaking team confidence.
I'm just keeping my ears open to see if anyone may give off any indication of frustration but until I see that I don't feel "safe" in being the one to bring up something that could possibly cause more damage than good.
Jo, this is pretty much exactly what seems to have taken place. I guess it's not really their fault that they're unable to execute (yes "they", the lead isn't the only art leadership problem, but I work directly with him so he effects me most) or keep up with things now, because what they were required to do in the infancy of the studio probably drastically changed.
What basically happened was the company started acquiring a bunch of studios and they got the IP along with it so our studio for example never created any of the games that were being worked on at the time in house, the art team before I got there never went through the process of creating anything. The whole DLC shift with Xbox, Steam etc came about and companies started ramping up for this, us included, what I think happened was they needed artists to manage maintaining the existing styles of the acquired IP for DLC packages and what these 3 guys opted to do was basically outsource all the work and have the acquired studios remotely implement them, so they never bothered to really learn the systems or anything.
A little before I got there the company was working on it's IP in house, but they were still using the same practices they were still outsourcing the art. By the time I got there they were pretty tightly lodged in already, it was an Art Director, and two senior artists one of which is now my lead.
I found out that the Art Director was actually friends with the studio lead and that the two senior artists were friends with the Art Director outside of work, they're all buddies and worked together before and it's basically an impenetrable triangle.
Problem is the studio was ramping up on building even more original IP in house and these guys had hired on talent underneath them that they couldn't manage, they didn't know how to set up a pipeline, they didn't know how to manage the assets, they didn't know how to even give feedback because they were simply hiring art houses that did all that for them, they didn't even know what the technical limitations were for things going into their own game, until they were already done! Pretty much exactly the situation you found yourself in.
I think I may end up taking your advice and plan the escape, like I said the environment is ok, the employees are treated well, but it's a very hierarchical style, and to be honest I don't feel comfortable talking to anyone in management about it at all, or going over any of these guy's heads.
Exactly how I feel. The laziness, the lack of passion, the jaded attitude, I get it, he's been in the industry for a while, probably dealt with bullshit and now he doesn't feel like he owes anyone anything, except it's causing stress on people like me who have to constantly be fixing his fuck ups.
I don't know if in this case him being jaded, but I'm convinced he just does NOT have the skillset to be in any position over junior level.
It may just be a case of pure incompetence and him lying his way through the industry there ARE people who do that; or it could be him learning techniques that were used back in 1993, I have every respect for the older persons of the industry but the refusal to learn anything new to better manage and deal with your team is just completely unacceptable to me.
After reading the two paragraphs you had right above this, this is what I'd plan to do (escape). The amount of people who have their jobs because of friends is astonishing. For them that's how they'll probably make it through life for a long while, doing business with their buddies.
No sense in trying to change that or encroach on it, might as well flock towards people more similar to your own mentality. I guess it's possible you may already have been labeled with a "this guy may eventually have to go" kind of flag. The amount this stuff seems to have been bothering you, it was probably enough to leak out onto your sleeves at least a little bit here and there?
And this here isn't mean to be a jab, but I'm also wondering if the details provided in this thread wouldn't be enough for anyone else at your company to figure out, if they so happened upon it. I hope Eric isn't your actual name and I hope you lied about some of the details. I'm not saying your gripes are without legitimacy, or that you should not try to find someone outside of your company to discuss them with. I'm just saying be careful with the venom. Complaining can be looked upon as just that, and you never know who's reading.
Yea, I figured I might be overshooting what an art lead should do, that's why I was looking for a little clarification, so if what you're saying is right it would definitely be an issue like someone else pointed out in the thread of him being sandwiched between multiple levels of leadership where it's easy for him to look like the one who's always fucking up.
And if that's the case then we have a serious overall leadership problem at this company, the producer clearly isn't doing his job, the lead designer doesn't know his head from his ass, and the lead programmer fails just as all the rest. I'm not in any position to say they do, but if that's the case it would be just a an over all clusterfuck of incompetence.
Maybe I AM being to hard on him in regards to what I think he should know, but it still is no explanation for his overall mediocrity.
You mention the fact that your lead would constantly be helping other people not make stupid mistakes, this is the exact OPPOSITE of what my lead does, my lead IS responsible for stupid mistakes.
His inability to see his own projects through to the end, his inability to time manage, to give direction, to work with the assets the team creates,to create correct filing, to bother to name assets properly; I mean to me our roles are basically reversed.
And this isn't me being overbearing, I let things slip by, I just have a hard allowing things to slip when it directly slows me down, breaks my concentration and causes me to spend more time doing something that I've already done.
When I think about it, if I removed him from the position the team basically self manages, some people might say, oh that's good, but it's not, because you have a bunch of artists all doing different things and no glue that knows what each artist is doing or HOW they do it, if one of those artists suddenly gets sick no one can take over. That is the kind of situation that has been created here.
The environment isn't that punch the clock kind of thing. It's not really about that. Like I said before though, it's not about my being anal, I'm just saying I think a lead's job is to manage, to make creation 'easy' for the team i.e the team just needs to worry about being creative , not about chasing down dates, hunting down specs, talking to programmers, nothing, just creating beautiful art on whatever parameters a competent lead has set, him having gathered the necessary required information from all those outside the art team already.
We need not be hunting down designers and asking questions, what a ridiculous waste of time.
So it's really not about micro managing at all, if an artist WANTS to go ask a designer something, hey, that's up to him...but that's another element of creativity, it should be up too him if he wants to have some dialogue with a designer not become an actual expected way to work, where the designers telling this artist something different, but now the leads confused because that's not what he thought and some exec is pissed off because it's not to spec etc etc. It causes a complete breakdown of communication. It's not even about style, it's about the fact that the art team is the art team, just manage the art team and let the artists make some art! There shouldn't be a situation where a lead assigns something and has no idea what the guidelines are for the very thing he just assigned... doesn't that seem ridiculous to you?