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[fish]

ok, get this.

so i make this game, i submit it to IGF, i get two nominations.
it goes without saying that i need to go to GDC.
so i make plans and arangements.
get my plane tickets, book my room.
i prepare docs and art and stuff.
im ready to go.

then i go see my boss and tell him ill be gone all week for GDC and that ill be back next monday. he tells me he'll see if he can free me up but he's not sure he'll be able to. he comes back to me later and tells me there's a milstone coming, that another designer on the project is already going and that he cant free me up. i cant go.

so for a while. i think of my next move.

i go see head of HR, who's always been super friendly and helpful to me.
i explain the whole thing with Fez, how not going to GDC is simply not an option.
she thinks for a while, leans in tells me "as head of HR im really not supposed to tell you this but i think you have to quit".

when i come back to my desk, my boss is waiting for me. he wnats to talk about my raise and bonus. we go in a meeting room.
he tells me im getting a 3% raise which should bring me up to "the average for you level of experience" which was dopwnright insultinbg. ive been criminaly underpaid at this company for a year and half now, and now id only be slighly less so.
and then the bonus: nothing. at all. others are getting 2500$, i get a great big fuck you. so i go "while i have you here, od like to talk about GDC"

i explain my situation and plead with him to reconsider his position.
i ask him to make sure if maybe there's a way i could make up the time before or after GDC. he still says no. milestone, bla ble bla.
so i told him he left me no choice but to quit.

now im putting most of my team in trouble, but theyve left me no choice.
it had to come to this.

I HAD TO QUIT MY JOB TO GO TO GDC.

in 2 weeks, i am a free man.
i quit on the 15th, and the 16th im on a plane to SF.

IT BEGINS.

[Saint]

now im putting most of my team in trouble, but theyve left me no choice.

... I'd say it's your boss putting the team in trouble. Sure, if you're only *just now* saying that you need a week off it's a tad on the late side, but if he can't manage to give you a few days off for GDC he's either a very poor planner or an ass in need of demonstrating his power. Either way he fucked up.

[fish]

i told him i was leaving 2 weeks ago.

[Saint]

i told him i was leaving 2 weeks ago.

Even more so, then.

(Although I guess since you've known about it since early December, you could have told him even earlier ... But still, one month is plenty of time)

[Alex May]

Stick it to the man! Phew that's indie. 

so you gave 4 weeks notice for 1 week's leave, seems totally fair to me. sounds like he's ENVIOUS to me.

[fish]

2 weeks notice.
told him yesterday.
handed in the letter today.

[Alex May]

Ya but the leave would have been in two weeks so that's 4 notice for 1 leave, which is fine.

Anyway i don't see what they gain by letting you walk instead of letting you go to GDC. Seems like a really short-sighted decision by your manager.

[Alec]

this should be in the "i'm so indie" thread.

but are you indie enough to quit IGF?


answer: "why can't i quit you"

[gummikana]

That's officially the most indiest thing anyone has ever done!

Maybe they figured that if Phil goes to GDC he will no doubt end up signing a deal with some publisher (because Fez is so awesome) and getting shit loads of money and then he'll quit anyway. So they only way to keep him in the house, is to sabotage his changes of signing a deal with a publisher.

[fish]

my very paranoid self thought something along those lines for a while, yes.

[Saint]

my very paranoid self thought something along those lines for a while, yes.

That doesn't sound too far-fetched, actually. With most game studios still hiring so they can have the bigger teams required for producing games for this generation's consoles, he'd want to avoid having experienced developers exposed to any recruiters. I know my boss doesn't like it when we get invited to other studios' release parties.

I'm not saying that it's the only reason, but likely part of it.

[Guert]

What do you have planned after the GDC, Fish?

[fish]

i will prolly have to find some random part time job.
which sucks.

cyz i really dont feel like working on a kitchen or whatever.

[Lurk]

Well, when you're quitting a job in games in Montreal right now, you can probably find another one fairly quickly, thanks to obscene government grants (only for the huge already rich companies mind you). I know some people who moved around from one studio to the other just to get a raise (sometimes even boucing back and forth between ubi and EA). But I think it's time small independent studios start forming and get some of that tax money; I've got a programmer friend who's managed to downshift radically (2 days weeks), and who's using his time off to work on a ps3 downloadable game. Another co-worker from long ago got a 50000$ grant to work on a portal thing using torque. There are ways you could use our socialist paradise to finance your own thing. Either way, taste the freedom, that's the best feeling you get when you quit!

[StephenAnthony]

Do what you gotta do, Fish. I hope it works out for you.