Cloud Imperium Games, the developer of Star Citizen, has mandated its developers to work seven days a week to meet deadlines for Citizencon on October 19th.

Chain them to the chairs, and crack the whips, because we need more ships. What’s Chris Robert’s annual retirement fund conference without new ships to show off to our adoring bazinga audience who’s ready to throw money at us? Exactly. Get to work, losers. so-true

The company mandate states:

All staff are to be in the office on Friday, October 4th and Friday, October 11th (typically a work-at-home day)

All staff are to be in the office on Saturday, October 5th, and Saturday, October 12th (for these days, the company will provide breakfast and lunch, with staff receiving company TOIL (time off in lieu) which can be stored and used for time off at a later date)

All staff are to work on Sunday, October 6th, and Sunday, October 13th (this can be a work-at-home day, but the company “encourages” people to be in the office. For these days and for those in the office, the company will provide breakfast and lunch, with staff receiving company TOIL, which can be stored and used for time off at a later date)

Another internal email sent to Insider Gaming in July 2024 reveals that Cloud Imperium Games “pre-approved” 12 hours of ‘SQ42 TOIL’ per week for developers to meet Citizencon deadlines. The catch? The TOIL will only be made available after Squadron 42 ships, and employees must still be employed with the company by the time the game ships, or the TOIL “will be forfeited.”

And then I said to my wife: “Let’s tie our already fucked up TOIL system to meeting deadlines, because we never seem to meet them anyway.” trollface

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    2 months ago

    Working Time Regulations guarantee employees additional weekly rest periods. These can be either 24 consecutive uninterrupted hours for each 7-day period or 48 uninterrupted hours for each 14-day period.

    This is literally breaking UK law.

    You can get this changed but it can only be changed via an elected employee representative in a collective workforce agreement which I sincerely doubt they have.

    At an individual level you can opt out of the maximum working hours component which stipulates nobody can work more than 48hours per week on average (over a 17 week period). But you can not opt out of the rest of the Working Time Regulations on an individual basis. Your employer can’t force you to sign this either or punish you for refusing to opt out.

    Any employees at this company who have worked there for more than 2 years are entitled to take this to workplace tribunal, which they would win. Once the new laws come in this will apply to all employees of any amount of time worked at the company because they’re removing the 2 year requirement to take employer’s to tribunal as it’s used to abuse newer employees.

    • Munrock ☭@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      it can only be changed via an elected employee representative in a collective workforce agreement which I sincerely doubt they have.

      “But we’re all one big family at [insert corporation]! You wouldn’t hold out on your family, would ya, sport? 🥺”

    • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      Churn. they seek new markets and young stupid people. Which is why the game changed from a Privateer/Freelancer on steroids to a mid 2010s open world rust shooter.