Activision Suddenly Fires 190 Employees Despite Record Revenue & $200 Million CEO Pay

[killamch89]

This should come as no surprise to anyone being that Activision has done this in the past while paying their CEOs millions. Just imagine firing 190 employees without warning...What are your thoughts on this?

 

[skyfire]

I have seen that this year there are going to be job loss and not a lot can be done and said as things are used as an excuse of the pandemic. So for some this could be legit but for others it may or may not be legit in long term. 

[m76]

It's enivetable that people whose jobs are made completely redundant by the pandemic are eventually let go.I'm surprised they kept them on for this long. I mean if you were a live events coordinator, and there hasn't been live events in over a year, you don't have to be a genius to see the writing on the wall.

What is the alternative option? Keep people employed as charity cases? If activision feels charitable there are better cases than keeping 200 perfectly abled people on the payroll so they can do nothing.

[Empire]

The CEOs made enough this year alone to never have to take another paycheck ever. Yet they feel the need to fire so many people who helped them make that kind if money to begin with, Talk about scummy!

[The Blackangel]

"I need to fire 200 people so that I can make tens of millions this quarter or I may have to sell one of my 18 yachts!"

Some people really have it awful.

[Shagger]

9 hours ago, m76 said:

It's enivetable that people whose jobs are made completely redundant by the pandemic are eventually let go.I'm surprised they kept them on for this long. I mean if you were a live events coordinator, and there hasn't been live events in over a year, you don't have to be a genius to see the writing on the wall.

What is the alternative option? Keep people employed as charity cases? If activision feels charitable there are better cases than keeping 200 perfectly abled people on the payroll so they can do nothing.

 

In the UK, the government set aside a considerable amount of money to offer to businesses struggling to employ people during the pandemic. That kept me employed for almost 4 months without actually going to work. That's what America should have done as well to keep small, attendance dependant businesses open. But, since it's just "good old fationed American capitolisum" to let these businesses close, get ready to pay a hell of a lot more tax to support those now unemployed Americans on welfare. 

 

On topic, I cannot see how Activision can justify this. Given how big the digital market is for video games these days. I can understand that video games are more difficult to make for developers and may result in games getting delayed because of this, but for the publishers to lay people off like this is a bad look on their already tainted image. And no, @m76, COVID doesn't justify this. You didn't even give an explanation of how a game's publisher would struggle in this situation. Like I said, because of digital sales, they wouldn't. 

Edited March 18, 2021 by Shagger

[Reality vs Adventure]

Whatever happened to trickle down economics??? That's obviously a fibby fairy tale. 

[The Blackangel]

50 minutes ago, Reality vs Adventure said:

Whatever happened to trickle down economics??? That's obviously a fibby fairy tale. 

Those on the bottom get shit on the most.

[m76]

3 hours ago, Shagger said:

 

In topic, I cannot see how Activision can justify this. Given how big the digital market is for video games these days. I can understand that video games are more difficult to make for developers and may result in games getting delayed because of this, but for the publishers to lay people off like this is a bad look on their already tainted image. And no, @m76, COVID doesn't justify this. You didn't even give an explanation of how a game's publisher would struggle in this situation. Like I said, because of digital sales, they wouldn't. 

I don't know what you don't understand. The people who were let go were related to live event organizing, and offline esport events. They were made redundant because there are no live events, it's a miracle they kept them employed with full pay for 12 months. By doing that activision is actually better than most companies.

For example my company cut salaries by as much as 80% when the first lockdown hit, basically putting every employee on administrative leave. Not 12 months later, not 1 month later, literally a few days after lockdown was announced.

I don't know what's the expectation here, to keep people on payroll indefinitely whether they are needed or not?

It sucks that some people were completely displaced by lockdowns, but expecting companies to keep paying people who cannot work out of charity is not realistic. It's not a requirement for companies to have financial trouble in order to let go redundant workers.

Edited March 18, 2021 by m76

[Withywarlock]

It seems that for every good thing in this story like the year's medical coverage and three months' severance pay, something else has to come along and screw it up, like Blizzard having the audacity to sell a World of Warcraft pet for charity purposes when Kotick could pay 0.5% of his bonus to cover the amount Doctors without Borders are asking for, and still not have to worry about running out of money. A pet which will remain on the store even after the charity drive is over, and won't be added to the game people pay a monthly fee for, I should add.

[m76]

I have no sympathy for overpaid executives, but that is not related to a company letting go redundant employees after a year of them being redundant.

if it was up to me, I'd maximize bonuses by making it a rule, that the bonus of the CEO cannot be more than half of the average of the workforce throughout the company.

Meaning if kotik wants to get $200 million out of the company as a bonus, he needs to give every employee a $20.000 bonus at least assuming Activision Blizzard has 10.000 employees.

Edited March 19, 2021 by m76

[skyfire]

Giving bonus for the sake of it does not work in business. That sort of socialism does not work in business. Business works where the top management and the board gets paid more than people below. 

[Reality vs Adventure]

1 hour ago, skyfire said:

Giving bonus for the sake of it does not work in business. That sort of socialism does not work in business. Business works where the top management and the board gets paid more than people below. 

Good companies should offer profit sharing. I think that is what @m76 is saying. I worked for a company that gave $5000 bonuses every Christmas through their profit sharing program. It’s not a hell of a lot, but that’s what companies need more of. That’s not socialism or trickle down; that’s just good investment in your employees regardless of political tax breaks or standard employee benefits or higher min wage. 
 

[killamch89]

On 3/18/2021 at 1:17 PM, Shagger said:

On topic, I cannot see how Activision can justify this. Given how big the digital market is for video games these days. I can understand that video games are more difficult to make for developers and may result in games getting delayed because of this, but for the publishers to lay people off like this is a bad look on their already tainted image. And no, @m76, COVID doesn't justify this. You didn't even give an explanation of how a game's publisher would struggle in this situation. Like I said, because of digital sales, they wouldn't. 

It's funny because if I'm not mistaken, this is the third or fourth year in a row they've done something like this and I always question why they aren't facing any sort of repercussions but they I remember that employees in the gaming industry aren't unionized so they can be easily exploited and tossed aside without any consequences.

 

[skyfire]

Sometimes it feels like how the leaders are getting paid, we are kind of following the new world order too. It seems like 1% getting rich because all of this one sided stuff.