Does fun in the workplace mean T-shirts, toys, arcade machines, and such? Of course not. People can be joke around and have fun while wearing suits and have little but papers on their desks. But intentionally curbing employee enthusiasm is financial idiocy.

If you compare recent games of Activision and EA, the difference in effect of management seems clear. EA earned a bad reputation, but they’ve blossomed under John Riccitiello. The majority of their games are high quality, whereas the majority of Activision’s games are cookie-cutter garbage. I was sending emails around to publishers and developers not long ago, trying to set up relationships for interviews and previews, and I decided to pass on Activision because Infinity Ward’s games were about all I’m interested in from them. I’m sure it’s not all due to management, but…

Precisely.

When I’ve worked at a place that was “fun to work at” I, and the rest of my team, would wind up often working late into the evening, just because we were super-excited about what we were doing. We’d do extra projects on the side, for the company, because they were interesting and excited. And we took pride in our work.

With the economy in the toilet, the place I’m at now subscribes to the Kotick management style. Instead of a carrot they use the “You’re lucky you have a job” stick, and most people come to work unhappy, spend a lot of time complaining, and leave at 5 on the dot if they can get away with it. People still do side projects, but for themselves or as a hobby; they’d never ‘give’ those hours to the company. Way too much resentment for that.

As soon as the economy turns around the place I’m working at is going to be a ghost town..everyone is desperate to get out.

I guess we can just be happy we don’t work for Tobold!!