Blizzard Cleans House by Letting Go of 600 Employees

Page 4 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Wither right or wrong employees are viewed as assets to a company, and not as people. When Blizzard looked at the return on investment for these employees they were no longer getting enough return on these people to justify keeping those employees. It's cold, it's harsh, it's business and there is no room for human emotion in business. Likely Blizzard automated whatever it was these employees did and they were no longer needed. If you're looking for loyalty from your employer then your as big a smuck as people who are loyal to their employer. Your employer is owned a certain amount of profit from your work, you are owed a salary for your efforts. If you're employer is no longer paying you enough or you're no longer happy with what you do, then move on and change because your employer will do the same to you.

Corporations are not evil but they exist solely to create revenue. Cutting 600 jobs will increase Blizzard's revenue, its not heartless its merely the nature of the beast. Layoffs suck, layoffs in a down economy can really spin your life out of control, but until you give up its not the end of the world.
 
[citation][nom]isdav59[/nom]you are absolutely correct in your statement,that is the way employers think,it wasn't always that way.what ever happen to loyalty.you expects it in your employees,in fact demand it..yes business are not a charity.but i cant understand is the mentality of companies who thinks more for less.its never good enough.be thankful for the workers who helped you get to your billion dollar company.oh yeah then toss them away like trash.i wouldn't care to work for you[/citation]

By your logic, everyone should pay for child care whether they need it or not. It will help the workers keep their jobs. Just like you will not pay for a service you are not using, a business should not be expected to pay for employees they are not using. I wish I had the money you have to be able to throw around to unnecessary services.
 
[citation][nom]demonhorde665[/nom] I love how quick you guys make hypocrits out of yourselfs. one minute you folks will be bitching about how the RIAA and the MPAA are a bunch of dirty corrupt buisness suits , and then the next minute you'll defend a company like blizzard for doing near the same ammount of BS.you can talk about running a company all you want but FACE THE FACTS, as employees of ANY company you name , it is considered good ettiquette to give the company a two week notice prior to leaving your job , HOWEVER , companies never do nor they expected to ever give layed off employees a two week notice so they can have time to find another job .. NOW that is f--ed up no matter what sticker you slap on it[/citation]

Hahaha. Really. Blizzard is doing the same thing as the RIAA and MPAA? Wow. The reason why employers cannot give that kind of notice for a layoff is because there is a good chance those layed off employees would get upset, and would have the oppurunity to do a lot of damage, not to mention they will not want to be there anymore and would be worth less then before they were layed off. I have had companies give me two weeks to find another job. It was very appreciated, but not in any way expected, nor should it be.
 
Does a company have to wait until it's in the red to cut jobs or can it anticipate what's coming and try to stay in the black and look out for those who've invested their money (the stock holders) in their stock?

Or is that evil corporate greed too?

Just asking..
 
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm squarely in the middle class and my 401k, and I would bet your's as well, is built on stocks of companies like Blizzards. There is balance sure, but they need to watch their bottom line and REMAIN profitable. That's the whole point of a business isn't it?

To make money? Let's not kid ourselves.
 


Currencys that are tied to real hard commodities instead of being coerced by a government that says it's worth X, Y, and Z leads to a much, much healthier economy. I'm not saying go back to bartering; that's simply too inefficient to effectively work well in our world as it is today. Yes, if you boil it down it's a game of what's the most confident "thing" today. But our confidence is currently, as in today, a perpetually expanding debt-based monetary system. Our system requires near infinite expansion of both production and credit/debt in order to function. As common sense would say; this is impossible.
 
[citation][nom]isdav59[/nom]we are the slaves of the monetary system.i stand corrected.[/citation]
sounds like you need a life coach and a shrink to work on your self esteem and bargaining skills and fundamental lessons on life, and supply and demand.
sounds like you were laid off recently, if so my sympathies, how ever do you treat the things you own any better? did you repair your car when it died? what about your home is it in it's prime also, can everything you own still keep up with the performance needs of today as opposed to when it was built to yester-years standards of need? if you think of them as employees, it makes you no better does it?
should we still be employing all the people in the factories and on the battle front lines and factories from ww1 and ww2 doing the same jobs that are no longer needed since those wars are over?
try looking at how many software companies have 20-30 years of existence under their belt, and look at all the ones who don't even make it more than 5.
do you think congress should bail all of the failed defunct companies out at tax payers(your expense)?
or do you think communism is the answer?
besides it sounds more like blizzard finally got the authorization to fire all the people activision hired to oversee their newest aquisition, and that's a good thing!
 
There are probably a lot of GM's let go here. They've been adding more and more features to eliminate the need for GM's over the years, along with a large decline in subscribers = less GM's needed.
 
[citation][nom]tomc100[/nom]So when is the federal government going to start firing people since their salaries, benefits, and pensions come from the private sector. Also, what exactly do federal employees do except regulate, ie. push paper? The government produces absolutely nothing yet continues to grow while the private sector has to make sacrifices.[/citation]
The government isn't there to "produce" it's there to GOVERN....
 
So what? I would bet that most of the employees would have left to work somewhere else if they had been offered a better position. So Blizzard wants to cut the costs of keeping these workers on staff. Loyalty is not the issue. The workers had jobs and now they do not, they are no different than the many thousands who have had the same experience. Welcome to working in the world today. Perhaps the fired workers should say thank you for the opportunity to work as long as they have, acquire experience and reputation in their field.
 
[citation][nom]lamorpa[/nom]You write as if any currency has some actual value. It's all a trading and confidence game. Do you think it would be any better if it was gold bullion? You can't eat it or keep warm with it. It may be more abstracted, but it's all the same. Besides, even if we traded beef and blankets, you can't take it with you. Life is finite and not very long.[/citation]
Money is CURRENCY it has no vaule at all not even a bit however if money was still based on the gold and silver standard instead of FIAT well Computers and electronics use Gold and Silver so there is intrisic vaule there but still at the end of the day you are right you cannot eat gold, silver, currency, etc
 
You can eat gold if you want, it is used in some fancy dishes or desserts. It won't stop your hunger but you can ...
 
Wait a minute, how come there's been no mention of the fact that employees can leave their companies to go work at another company for more pay and benefits anytime they want? This is what my friend did, he jumped ship twice to land better paying jobs. One time the CFO called him personally to beg him not to leave but he refused saying that the company wasn't growing fast enough and there were better opportunities at his soon-to-be new employer. People leave their companies for more money all the time, but you have to have skillz in order to do that.

How does a company show its appreciation for its workers? They pay them. Period. Do you thank McDonalds every time you buy a Big Mac? Do you thank AMD or Intel every time you buy a CPU? No, the money you give them is thanks enough for both of you.

Imagine if Intel or any company had the attitude you people have. If they sent you an e-mail saying, hey, you've been using our processor for 3 years now and not once did you write to thank us for all the hard work we did in developing that chip and manufacturing it. Well here's a phone number, we demand you call to thank us and show us your appreciation!

That would be ridiculous. No, $$$$ speaks louder than words and is the ultimate thank you.
 
To India, China, Singapore and other 1$ per hour countries. Prepare to be outsourced.

This is easy to fight; simply have the government put up massive import duties on everything. That will make domestic products much more attractive because you can't just buy chinese for cheaper. It will also revive the manufacturing industries. It will also help insulate from global shocks and panics because interdependencies have been reduced.
 
How does a company show its appreciation for its workers? They pay them. Period.

Then they sack them because they don't see them as being people, just resources to use, while share holders cream off the profits. The profits, incidentally, that were generated by deceit: the conning the of the poor public into paying MORE THAN A SERVICE ACTUALLY COSTS. The whole thing is completely dishonest.
 
I am not worried that the company dropped some dead weight. The corporations sole purpose is to generate a profit within the scope of the law. It is opportunity cost. I have not been a big fan of the software they make anyhow.

Some of the other people like to woffle on and talk plainly cr+p. How we can't make a difference. That is just malarkey. How the corporations function is decided by the regulations we put out there. We the people vote in the congress that decides on this. We need to guard against putting in corrupt Sh+t in the congress. We have to guard against stupidity though from the right wing nuttery especially. The people who run these corporations for the most part have no clue about anything. The key weakness in the USA is that we pay more for our executives then other comparable trading countries. That is why so many businesses fail. Every dollar counts. We are at a dis advantage because our upper management costs more then our competitors and does less and is more stupid.

There are millions of unfilled jobs in America and we need to get people into these jobs. I think that here is where the government can help by investing in Americans to take these jobs. I would like the government via the USPS to setup student loan thing. Not through the Fu+king failed banking institutions we have that are just citadels of crime.

Go OWS.

 
[citation][nom]isdav59[/nom]i am fine with my job my friend, worked here for 12 years,i am at a point where a lot of people like me stayed so long we are trapped,i know it sounds pathetic,but when your making a certain amount of income. one just cant start over. its not just that simple.i bet most older people like me feel the same[/citation]
Is this Carlos!??

Companies are in business to make money... Though, if the desire for proffit was *just enough* above expenses and operating costs, the production of goods could be sustainable here in the US, vs having to be produced in China. I find it difficult to believe that MFG' items in China is significantly cheaper than here in the US - Because of the amount of waste. Junk can be pumped out by the millions, but only several hundred thousand units might actually be used... the rest is either recycled, or is sold to optional sources (reference Alibaba.com, etc).
If a company only needed 100,000 units, and a MFG produced, 100,000 units, the materials consumed would be far less, waste and energy costs decrease, which then reduces the over-all minimum price... etc etc...

Manufacturing in the United States is highly needed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.