Why Blizzard Employees Are Quitting The Company | Asmongold Reacts 

15 years ago Blizzard was a dream job. Not so much these days. Amazing how a reputation built up over decades can be destroyed in 5 years.

I love when blizzard went on twitter to blame players for their lawsuit, i'll never forget it. That was priceless. 😂

I used to work in an AT&T call center for 5 years. I worked my way up to being a case manager for the business accounts. There's no amount of compensation that would equal the office drama, unnecessary meetings, pointless questions, and conversations. The stress of going to work is more tiring than the work itself, to be honest. I left during the pandemic and started teaching English to Japanese people from home. My salary is just a quarter of what I used to earn, but I'm definitely happier in life. I have more time for sleep. I have more time for my wife. I have more time for myself.

Asmon's demonstration of an office worker was just too accurate for my first job. The only exception is I was never going to get a bonus in the first place 🤣

When I worked in CS for them, just before I quit, they were going to put me on a performance review due to my customer satisfaction scores. The reason it was so low is because I was constantly telling people no to refunds, due to policies. Literally all the tickets I got were only for this reason, so of course the customer would be pissed lol, and they just didn't understand.

Some cities give tax breaks to these large companies in exchange to get them to have their headquarters in their city. In exchange, it's the cities that are pressuring the large companies to force employees back into the office, because they were expecting certain business and trickle down expenses that they could collect taxes on in return.

I work hybrid and Amon's reaction is on point. When I work from home I save money, time and feel rested. When I go to the office I waste money, feel like shit and go home with a headache.

From what I have heard from friends that work there it seems like many were told that it would be a permanent option to work off site. So some people moved to cheaper parts of the country. I would probably be quite angry if they told me to sell the house and come back.

Breaking news: Terrible company treats employees terribly, upset public continues to buy their games.

Companies do this on purpose sometimes. They want to cut staff but doesn't want to pay severance. They end work from home, make you come in, and if you don't like it, you can choose to leave. Since you chose to leave, company doesn't have to pay you any severance package. Tech is doing this right now.

Was on a work from home setup from 2020-2022-ish and working in the tech field. The pandemic thought us that remote work is extremely possible especially to those jobs that can be done online. As an introvert myself, I really enjoyed the work from home setup back then, I know it sounds selfish and cruel to others but the thing is there are people like me who can do the job without the need to go to the office and socialize with other people. Sure, socializing is good but it becomes overwhelming to me at some point. Now we have a new boss and he requires us to work on site five days a week. Pretty funny for a tech organization not to embrace tech itself and stick with the old ways for reasons he cannot explain. Waking up so early in the morning to prepare to travel to and from work eats up like 4 hours a day of my life which is pretty much a big deal to me because time nowadays feels so short.

fans - "if it aint broke dont fix it" blizz - "if it isnt fixed'nt, dont break'nt it"

As someone who works for a banking firm and has to work in office 3 days a week, I can assure you that the only reason that companies are making people go back in office is because they want to make use of their million dollar corporate buildings lol it’s honestly as simple as that

I agree with this. Working from home isn't really about being lazy or something, it just saves time and money. That's it!

I’ve been watching you for years and never commented, but I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for pointing out that people who want to remain remote are not necessarily lazy. I work at Microsoft as a software engineer. I got hired fully remote, was promised by my manager that I’d get to remain that way, and bought a house in a different state. The fact that there’s constantly rumors of the rug getting pulled out from under me when the company demands RTO is bad enough. The icing on the shit sundae is when people online who know absolutely dick about who I am or what I’m doing insist that my job must be easy and that I must be just lazy because I’m remote and don’t want to RTO. That couldn’t be farther from the truth, and I hope the people saying that were humbled when Asmongold clarified the reality of the situation because he’s totally right.

I like that you threw in the "mandatory meeting that should have been an email" line. That is one major problem at my job. 95% of our meeting are mandatory, in person meetings, that most of the area's employees have to drive at least an hour to. For us its 2-4 hour drives, just one way for a total of 4-8 hours on the road. Every one of these could been done through email or Teams. I always amazes me that these companies have all this evidence that show how much more quality you can get out of happy workers, yet they ignore that so they can watch over and micromanage you. All the while still trying to push their archiac, morale boosting policies like "thanks for the hardwork, here is a pat on the back, or a pizza, or a shirt."

You can't get away with treating your staff badly these days. Especially talented staff. They will just walk. Somebody at the top needs to realize that or be fired themselves.

Riot is facing the same issues Blizzard does with their return to office at some points, plenty of people left Riot, in fact in past year Riot had significant decrease in output of content and quality. Main issue I see is that any time they hired someone for remote work, changing that to partial remote might make the job way less attractive. Like while having some days from office might make sense, having to move places/uproot your family to achieve that will probably be a "no" as long as somebody else offers similar job.

I'm a developer (frontend primarily) and I work from home 3 days a week and come to office at least 2. However, I am flexible depending on the meetings we are having, as well as worktime. And it has been going great so far. People underestimate how effective Teams meetings can be and yes... Working from home beats working in an open office every day of the week. The peace and quiet you have at home is amazing, especially when you have to concentrate on complex parts. Apart from the pay, being able to work from home is probably the greatest boon of having an office job.

I agree I think it is an issue because employees realised that they can do the work at their homes just as well, and there are probably other companies that are willing to allow them to do just that. As you explained even if it is a slightly lower pay, they save money on travel and other expenses.

Another huge thing is the headquarters for blizzard is located in an insanely expensive area. If you need to move to the area the average house price in Irvine is 1.4 Million dollars. This is to work for the below average industry wages blizzard offers and if you could afford a mortgage on a home you are taking also taking a gamble since blizzard will fire you even if the company makes record profit.

“People who aren’t happy don’t do good work” factssss

EA must be feeling good that they’re not the only punching bag in the industry now.

I used to dream about working at blizzard, and now that I could join, I won't even dare to get close to this company 😂

I've been remote for two years and you wont catch me back in the office. The time saved, stress from driving, wear on vehicle, saving car insurance, eating from home, being able to clock out and fix dinner from scratch, do laundry or clean or take a walk on lunch break, etc. Let alone not have to buy office clothing, parking, forced meetings, and office politics. I am one of the top performers with getting a raise now every 6 months with a promotion after a year on and glad for what I've gotten. Everyone else I work with on the team I'm on pushes just as well from home.

Commute and prep time for going to an office need to be factored into your overall hours, so those 3 hours a day would mean you're working 55 hours/week, so if you make $100K salary as a dev, work from home means you make $48 vs in-office $35/hour wages

I'd been doing the work from home thing for years before COVID made it commonplace and my employer(s) never had an issue with me because I always treated it like I was supposed to - as a 9-5 job. I was never late to start, would often work through my scheduled lunch break, and would often work back late/on weekends/on public holidays. Plus I was home when the kids got back from school. Wanting to work from home is not being lazy. It's actually quite the opposite.

Our company has had 60% remote employee base prior to covid and post covid work from home is the new norm. Work from home saves me 15+ hours of travel time each week. I am more productive and have a better work/life balance. I am able to sleep more and heck if I want to nap on my lunch break vs eating I can. I can immediately turn off my work at 5pm and spend more time with family. With advances in technology in the last 3 years work from home is going to become more and more accepted I think. The people who have issues with this are probably stuck in the "old mindset" wear they want to see people in the office to micro manage them. Employers need to trust their employee. If work is being done no issues. If work is not being done then that employee would be put on a PIP and made to work in office or terminated. Anyway I hope more companies will implement a WFH policy going forward.

Blizzard try not to be a horrible company (IMPOSSIBLE CHALLENGE)

"Don't rock the boat" - Very good point.. Some CEOs and "Leaders" of a company are just bored with their life that they try to rock the boat all the time... Creates so much unnecessary stress to their employees..

I worked as a data analyst for, among other things, workforce management in a service provider company with call centre employees. I saw the numbers for workforce shrinkage (sick, late, break time, time spent in non-work time, etc). It dropped from an average of 12% down to 5%. If you went to a company and told them they could get 7% more work out of their staff, you'd be a hero. Once the upfront cost of setting up the infrastructure for "work from home" is done (which was likely mandated by covid policies), it's objectively beneficial to the company to have employees allowed to work from home.

The 8-hour workday was designed around the idea of people spending 8 hours at work, 8 hours of personal time, and 8 hours of sleep each day. If you have to physically go to an office, that 8 hours of personal time becomes 3-4 hours, the rest of the time is spent getting ready and commuting. Working from home has made me feel more in control of my life and my time. I will never go back to an office.

For someone that doesn't work a 9-5, asmongold pretty much nailed the WFH vs going into the office dichotomy.

Having had jobs both working from home, and jobs where I needed to commute to work, I can say hands down working from home is better. From me being able to save my money and time, to actually having an easier time concentrating on my assignments, and higher productivity because I have less distractions at home than I would via the office where there's coworkers interrupting, manager wants an emergency mandatory meeting due to 1 or 2 people not doing as they're supposed to when quite literally the rest of us are...it's just better overall. I got to spend more time with my family, save more money, do MORE work, and no time was wasted to do anything else like commuting, putting on fancy clothes, getting gas, eating out all the time paying for meals versus just my groceries at home...it makes a HUGE positive difference for the WORKER to work from home, and in many cases due to their performance the companies benefit from it too. Like Asmon said, happy workers, good work. I mean a lot of companies don't care about how we feel or what works for us, but they SHOULD because everyone would benefit from it more.

As someone who works in a field where I have to go in for work, I'll never get upset at someone for wanting to work from home, that shit sounds like a banger. I've worked at places where I've had to drive 40 miles a day and had almost no desire to get up in the morning. I currently work 1.5 miles from where I live, it takes me 5 minutes to get home after I'm done for the day and I couldn't be happier. I do the same exact thing as I did before. Blizz typically doesn't pay enough for people to live around the corner in Irvine. Not having a commute or a small one makes a shit job "okay" and a good job "great".

I'm 14 minutes in this video and Asmon has only watched the like the first 2 minutes of the Nixxiom video. By that logic, Asmon can create 7 additional minutes of content for every 1 minute he watches a video. what an absolute unit

Basically same thing happened to me. I got a job at 343i and I was exclusively remote. I wasn't even in Washington but then they let me go after a month because they wanted people to be in the office more for im assuming a new studio policy. 2 days before thanksgiving too... it was right when all the layoffs happened and since I was so new they just let me go with no notice at all. same day I was told I was let go.

My company switched to full work from home during the pandemic. They recently tried to pull people back to the office for 3 days a week and we lost A LOT of workers. That policy quickly went back to full WFH lol

Back in the days, I wanted to work for Blizzard. Their games were my favorite, I would have done anything for it: Leaving my country, learning everything humanly possible to become the best in my field, learning a third language, whatever. Nowadays, I'm glad that didn't happen.

The pet feeding analogy was golden, loved it.

Imagine there is an alternate universe where Asmongold is the C.E.O of Blizzard.

If you're not in the office, you can't get accused of micro-aggressions or harassment if you accidentally smile at a co-worker.

"You know what is even less of a problem... ? You having a problem with it !" Thank you, Asmon... That was pure gold !!! :-D

OK, I rarely say anything but I know for a fact that if you want to fail any group environment all you have to do is try and make rules to make everyone happy and you will fail 100% of the time.

The other thing about working from home you dont mention is that it is harder to timemanage employees, dont know if blizzard does this method but it is more structured by tasks and deadlines... for instance if your given a task and they say should take 2 days to complete, if your at the office and finish early you start on next task however if your home and finish early you might clock out early that what we did at my old company with remote employees

I know one thing for certain, and it's that Activision ALWAYS finds a stupid hill to die on

There have been some studies on this, and what most find is that the more senior people are unaffected by being either at the office or at home, but that its the new hires who suffer at home. With it taking longer for them to come up to speed and be productive, which makes sense to me.

I have enjoyed some of your stuff over the years I find myself once and a while coming to check on your content. Enjoy your outlook dude honest stuff can tell it’s genuine. Keep doing you cheers

The departure spiral is a real thing, those who have options leave first, that adds more workload to the rest who will gradually burn out and leave. Eventually its just the least skilled people left who don't have the skills to do the work anyway.

Asmon is 100% right about losing time for going to work. My current job I work 12 hour shifts and is a half hour commute. But i have to leave 1 to 1.5 hours early because traffic. Add that to the sleep i barely get and i have less than 2 hours a day to myself.

Problem now is very simple. Remote work devastated the offices. I work for MSFT. Luckily, I was able to get a remote position and have been remote since. But about 3 times a year they force me back to the office. The offices are dead. Everytime I go back, no one is there. Sometimes, even my director who SCHEDULED THE TEAM MEETING isnt there. And every time I literally think "Why would a company want to pay for my ticket to come into the office for a meeting, when the management doesnt even attend said meeting?". Also, a company can hire remotely and literraly get the best GLOBAL talent. Of course some jobs require on site, I think everyone gets that. But at a software company...there is really very little reason to demand it.

Working from home is the only way ill ever work, its amazing, depends on the job ofc but ill NEVER do it any other way.

Its nice to see Nixxiom on the Gold. Like the good ole days.

what makes this worse is that HQ blizzard is located in one the most beautiful cities. You get the cry to work with trimed bushes and lush palm tress

"when you want to go to work." That's where you're wrong, I never wanted to go to work.

As someone who has been working from home since the sh(t hit the fan in 2020 - I appreciate every day that I get to do this. I am here for my child when he gets home from school, I am able to go for a 10 minute walk around the block if I need to stretch my legs or something. My stress level is way down. I get to use my own sh9tter. And because I am home, I dont mind hoping online to do a little bit of work at night if needed, or waking up super early for something for work. It's in my own home so to me it doesnt feel like a big deal. While I dont see myself ever going back to work in an office full time...I can also say that being home every day can also weigh on you though. I think it would be nice to go into an office twice a week and see people, go out for lunch, whatever. So I think a hybrid environment is a fair compromise between companies and employees but hybrid is NOT having to go in four days a week and only getting one day from home.

Everybody hates blizzard and wow

People that think working from home is being lazy have been propagandized so much they literally believe it.

The remote worker issue comes from managers being poor at tracking stats that they can bring to directors (who bring it to shareholder meetings) that prove costs, dev time, and the etc. I've been a director for company that was nearly full remote in staff 800 miles away from it's main central office and they have been able to run for YEARS this way just fine. It's an entirely different concept to train and motivate employees that don't have to see you and, frankly, a lot of leads do not have the training for it that match what directors and shareholders are looking for when it comes to business decisions. Higher up execs are also a bit old fashioned, despite mainly working remote themselves, and tend to disregard production and operation timelines as something that can be streamlined more because "remote workers are lazy". This mainly comes from *them* being disconnected in daily operations or from seeing error rate trends, etc. In reality, if they were more hands on, they would understand the cost analysis a bit better but morale for the team isn't something you can really justify to shareholders that want maximum return on millions of dollars of investments. The other major issue could be that VPNs for businesses are VERY expensive and are almost guaranteed to be required for connection for companies like Blizzard, to keep their test environments under proper security. This cost might be something Blizz wants to cut and hence you see the remote work reversal effective as soon as that new quarter happened. It also sucks when the VPN drops or has an outage, as you have to migrate all workers in office anyways and you lose development time for however long it takes for people to commute that day (generally 2 hours). Once VPN contracts expire, they also have used the pandemic as leverage to raise rates and having only new or "new-ish" standings with those companies while being a major tech firm means they are going to hose you for $$$ negotiating those contracts again.

I miss Mike Morhaime era of Blizzard

Sometimes i feel like we should be clocked in the moment we get out the door to start going to work. I wouldnt be spending that time driving, if it wasn’t for my employers needs. But thats me.

It is no joke that the ability to be at work when you wake up and turn on your computer is such a big deal. No drive time, no dealing with people. It is amazing.

Guys, every worker has a job and a routine. If you work from home and the work suddenly slows that’s one thing. But if you CAN do your job from home you should be able to. Working from home brings up a serious conversation about worker’s time and compensation.

SoCal resident here: Breakfast runs closer to $10-15 dollars and it takes approximately 45min (leaving on time) to go 14 miles for me. If you’re going to the drive thru in the morning you’re going to need closer to 20-30min for wait time + eating time.

I have started working in gaming industry during pandemic lockdown again. Best fucking time of my life. I was more productive then in any other job I did before. I was getting plenty of exersise and had time to coock and spend time with my family. Since the company introduced mandatory return to office at leats 3 times a week, after working like this for year and a half my life is hell again. Every aspect of my life has gotten worst. Unlike my home, the office is not a good place for me to focus. I could keep going how nobody benefits from this but I guess most people already get the point. I am already cosidering leaving the industry for fully remote job, even though I'd rather work in gaming.

My wife was sexually harassing me at home. I had to go back to the office.

My company lost a ton of people because of the same issue. They even stated our productivity was up during remote working.

People that do go to work should get paid more

I don't work for Blizz, but I'm in a similar situation. I was hired to work remotely doing work that can be done from anywhere on a computer. IF the company would want me to "go to the office" even once it would be impossible due to 1. me living on the other side of the country 2. It wouldn't be worth moving due to rent and transportation costs + I have a life here. I'd just quit and find another job in my city. Tbh any job, even retail would be more profitable if I have to relocate to where the company's offices are. They'd have to substantially raise my salary to even make me consider wasting my life and even then I'd say no. People who can work remotely tend to be able to find other remote work or freelance.

I was being interviewed in person for a design position within the Overwatch League during it's peak and even was given a tour of the entire campus and met about 6-7 team leads. My favorite part was when I was introduced to the Diablo sector but was only able to stand outside the door where there's this metal diablo head with red eyes that turn green when you swipe your badge in front of it to get in lol. Didn't get the job, I was devastated because I was stuck at ASUS for a few more years and barely getting paid as a graphic designer - then shortly after my interview experience w/ Blizzard mass layoffs happened (ex-girlfriend lost her job along with a few of my other friends who were like 9-10 year vets) and then all the legal stuff began to come to the surface which was the beginning of the end for most. I think about this sometimes and wonder where I'd of been if I did get the job and this was a pivotal moment in time where I began to really trust "the process" even when life feels like absolute dog shit when things don't go the way you want them to.

Working a 40 hour week you see more of your damn co-workers then you are having time with your damn family

So uhh, I decided to check out Asmongold videos forreal about a week ago. Always loved the dudes take on things and personality. And needless to say I subscribed after watching 2 videos, and now I’m freaking hooked. A legit fan! This platform needs to elevated, dude is crucial to our generation and culture. Gotta protect this guy at all costs.

Asmon: "I dont think its comfortable working from home" Also Asmon: cave dweller that never leaves his home.

The company that I work in, in Finland, has a policy, that every employee can decide, whether to work in the office or at home. The only exception is if you need to take part in a mandatory meeting or somesuch that requires your presence, and this is rare. Remote working hasn't been bad, in fact the company has been raking due to this policy. I can only imagine how stupid Blizzard's higher ups are.

man i would never do at home or office work... field and physical work will always be my go to. currently im a garbage man. wake up at 4am 4:15 we on the garbage truck haulin ass till around 8am we get dropped off in front of our house then i have a WHOLE ASS day to do waht i want work out, play video games, read a book and most importantly: i have the time to go for a hike or long walk whenever i feel like. Time pressure doesnt exist.

Blizzard is dead. Blizzard is no more. It's corpse has been raised by Activision, like a skeleton raised by a necromancer, but it's only an illusion.

I'm late because you made me drive 2 hours to reach your ****ing office.

On the working from home thing. I left the military and have been working from home for 4 years and the quality of life difference is immense. For me the biggest thing was that I can live anywhere I want. Going from fully remote to even coming in once a week is a big difference because of that.

If you were contacted or hired to work remotely, your union should be able to defend you. Only a a Mr. Manager thinks “Well if you only want to work from home, you’re lazy!” No that’s bs. Most managers in any corporation are monsters. They fought their way up and you will pay for it now and because they abuse they deal with will become your fault because their boss will make it your fault and they will get punished for their team members numbers and behaviour. FACTS!

I love how you touch me with these great videos, and I don't mind.

His take on wfh vs going into the office is spot on.

I am a software engineer, based in Bulgaria, I have been working remotely for the past 4+ years.. every client I've worked for has been happy with what I've delivered, communication has never been an issue, you have messaging, you have video calls, emails, you name it.. I think if a team is not really a team, being together in the same office won't help.. I am currently going to an office which me and my friend made, but my commute time is 20 mins and I am mainly going there because it's more fun when you are with a friend, also I can always stay at home indefinitely

that last scene where the orc is throwing an axe.. what cinematic is that from?

In theory working from home is great and in practice alot of people create ways to pretend they are working while playing video games. If u as a company recognize ur employees don't do the same amount of work u want them back in office.

Work from home is here to stay. Those companies that refuse to adapt will lose to their competition.

The day schedule that asmon described as a remote worker is exactly what I do 😂

The idea that somebody working remotely is lazy, is dumb as hell. It takes discipline not just for actually doing your work, but also interacting with co-workers and being way more pro-active in that regard, as you physically are not in the same space. Remote workers are great. You do not have to pay rent for their office space, they are usually a lot happier and therefor way more willing to work, they have more time to actually work, they will optimize their own workflows and usually end up working more than they have to, just because it is fun or "time flies" or whatever. Having workers come in just because of "management" is stupid - learn how to manage projects first.

only asmon can make a 7 minute video worth watching for 30 minutes.

Forst

I dont think those are just "hearsays" when the rumors of sexual harassment at blizzard were heard of since 2014. 4chan was talking and memed about awful wages and work conditions at blizzard for a long time, and guess what, they all came out to be true

exactly - I am working at Home Office for about 3 years now.... and this is exactly as it looks. Even though I have my office much nearer, it is still huge time saving.

Blizzard went Get woke go broke... so woke staff leaving will mean talented staf can come back

Those employees complaining at blizzard are a bunch of whiny babies if you don't like the job get a new one

3:35 If you ever think workers are "just being lazy" make sure you check why the company they work/worked for wants you to think that...

I used to work at Blizzard, but now almost all my friends who were there have also left, some for small indie studios, even. Good change of pace.

Let me add to asmon’s point about working home, first of all you can just turn on computer at 8:59am, no need to sit down and wait 10 minutes, but also there’s even more to unpack about this: 1. Because more people are working at home it means less people in traffic, EVERYBODY benefits from this. 2. Less gas price issues, less rush, less accident or road rage. 3. Companies can worry less about employees coming late or not coming at all EVERYBODY benefits from this: the worker, the company, the clients, the people not relevant to company. EVERYONE. It’s like the next step for humanity.

the office wirker thing was spot on , but would be like -23 for breakfast in cali lol

It's hilarious. "We have this huge expensive campus that nobody is using, I know - we'll force people to use and lose our best people instead of lowering it's profile!" If the offer for remote forever was made it can't be revoked. You're fucked up if you force that on people.

When I was a kid in middle school I wanted nothing more than to work at Blizzard as an adult. I learned game design, dabbled with game engines thinking I was the next Todd Howard. Now I see Blizz seggually assaults their employees and forces them into some sketchy situations. Glad I dodged a bullet.

regarding the work comp comment, no that would not be considered a workers comp case because it did not arise during the course and scope of the employment. The reason the person was going down the stairs was not related to the job.