Thought You Should See This

August 9, 2012

"People willing to play the politics game were given ‘rockstar’ status, quarterly bonuses and promotions. Project direction and goals shifted daily, innovation of any kind was difficult - we were constantly forced to hew our game closer to the Farmville/Cityville playbook. Six weeks before shipping the studio was flown out to San Francisco to launch our game - 12 hour days seven days a week, free of the distraction of friends, wives and girlfriends. I watched alcoholism and substance abuse skyrocket, relationships crumble (including my own), people slept on office couches, two developers got divorced, one nervous breakdown. They attempted to smooth this over with more stock, free food and t-shirts. Free food doesn’t do you much good when you’ve lost fifteen pounds from not eating."

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Ugh, this is awfully sad, the story of one anonymous Zynga engineer’s time at the company, answering the Quora question “How do Zynga employees feel about the company’s summer 2012 stock price drop?” It’s easy for outsiders to not feel too much sadness for people prepared to devote their life to trying to make a quick buck, but I found the description of the toxic atmosphere more disheartening than anything else. These are the companies that magazines like to laud to the heavens for doing things differently and striving to build businesses appropriate for our connected age. It’s sad to peek behind the curtain and realize they have just as little idea as everyone else. I hope this guy/girl got out of there and is able to figure out a way to make money and a life without having to endure awful-sounding abuse.

[Story via Michael Gartenberg]

10:07am | URL: https://tmblr.co/ZLv7dxR3g5gE
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(Notes: 12)