[Sidefx-houdini-list] Re: Interviewing Candidates

[zoran arizanovic]

Jerry and Craig , Dave and Louis
you guys made my week not just a day!!!

I think the same and agree completely!
nice to see someone share similar a view on things
regards
zoran


On 6/13/07, CraigLeeHoffman at aol.com <CraigLeeHoffman at aol.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> I figured I should chime in on this since I have lived through much of
> what
> you guys have been discussing.
>
> I was a TD at Disney before they were Unionized  (way back in the PRISMs
> days!..).  We did longer hours  than the Union artists and were salaried
> so we
> didn't get overtime after 40  hours like they did, even though we worked
> side by
> side and did much of the same  work.  We eventually got Unionized (long
> story
> here but we banded together  ourselves to make sure we got treated right
> in
> this deal since they were trying  to give us 50 hour work weeks instead of
> 40
> like everyone else at Disney) and it  was a good thing.  Hours were
> better, we
> got overtime, benefits were good,  etc.  Nothing like the "Unions are
> Evil"
> thing that many people try to get  you to believe.  The main thing is the
> Management was forced to plan  better and schedule more realistically
> instead of just
> dumping tons of work  on folks with little time to do it because they were
> unable to manage things  properly.  That is all the Union really achieves-
> it
> makes management do  their job.
>
> Now on to EA.  When the Disney Studio shut down in  Orlando, I decided I
> didn't have faith in the schizophrenic film world any more  (start a new
> studio,
> make a film, shut it down, repeat) and decided to try Video  Games.  I
> worked
> long hours, but not much worse than I did in film (and not  as bad as what
> I
> have heard at some VFX facilities) and then the EA Spouse
> thing  happened.  The
> lawsuit was real and it had an effect, but other things were  happening
> too.
> EA was losing good people, and they realized that they had  not done a
> good
> job transitioning to larger more complex Next Gen  Projects.  A whole slew
> of
> things have gone into play in the last two  years, and guess what?  Things
> got
> better.  Entry level folks now have  40 hour weeks with paid overtime.  I
> am
> salaried (with bonus) and work  between 40 and 50 hours a week.  There are
> crunches where hours are longer,  but I haven't had one in a while.
>
> Anyway, we have to realize that we are valuable and stop killing ourselves
> because of bad management and planning.  We have the talent and the
> means  to
> get the job done right.  Sure they can outsource to some far away
> land,  but
> that has it's own costs and difficulties.  We need to stick together  and
> support each other.  I know that sounds like "Union Talk", but what
> is  going on
> right now (and has been for a while) in "CG-Land" is pretty much what  got
> Unions
> started in the first place, and nothing is going to change if we keep
> standing idly and quietly by while Studios keep undercutting each other to
> win  bids
> and then kill their folks to get the work done.
>
> That's my 2 cents.
> Craig Hoffman
> Visual Effects Director
> EA Tiburon
>
>
>
> In a message dated 6/12/2007 12:56:08 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> lisa at red3d.com writes:
>
> The VFX  industry needs to pay attention to the lessons learned in the
> game  industry. Making insane hours the norm not only burns out your
> employees at an alarming rate, it also opens you up to lawsuits. See
> what happened to  EA
>
> http://news.com.com/Electronic+Arts+faces+overtime+lawsuit/
> 2100-1043_3-5450316.html
>
> This all came from a blog posting of an EA  spouse
>
> http://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/274.html
>
> -Lisa
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Zoran Arizanovic
http://arizanovic.blogspot.com/