Only boomers think wasting time going to an office is a good thing.
Note that Ybarra himself has in fact no real choice but to follow what the higher ABK leadership is telling him to say. Whether he personally agrees or not is irrelevant because if he does not follow the line that was decided by his own managers, he will get fired too and ABK will replace him by someone else who will abide by their rules. My point is people should not devilize Ybarra too quickly because he is as much stuck between a rock and a hard place as his employees are on this one. He's doing exactly what they pay him for. The only people truly responsible for this are the ones who make the decisions, not the ones who are stuck in a position where applying said decisions is literally part of their job. On a lighter note, employees can have work from home exceptions for religious reasons? What religion *requires* work from home? Asking because at that point I might as well convert.
I guess the beatings will continue until morale improves.
People need to move on if they are unhappy with their job like other adults do in normal everyday life. There is nothing wrong with having employee's return to the office. I work for an Internet Service Provider and we were working from home for over a year and when time came to return to work we did. I am so tired of all the whining from people. The argument made about the cost of living in Irvine is ridiculous. The fact is to even make that argument one would of had to apply outside of Irvine during the work-at-home policies being in effect. Meaning at the time of their employment they knew full well that it was a temporary situation. Even if they did not apply during that time they were already living outside Irvine and had to commute to the office like all other people working at the time.Lastly about the comments made implying quality assurance and customer service roles, Yes! he is correct they are not long term disciplines in any company. This goes for entry level technical support roles as well, they usually work in a call center and believe me the same amount of people leave or get fired in those roles that are hired as a whole. They certainly are not bad jobs and are needed for any company to succeed but people need to understand they are called entry level jobs for a reason. Of course there are exceptions in those roles, for example some people stay for a very long time in those departments and do well. But the majority either leave the company or move up to higher level departments.
Stack ranking is done by literally 100% of the Fortune 500 companies as well as a countless number of others. It is absolutely done as a cost saving measure to limit raises and bonuses. There will always be 30% of staff on improvement plans that are ineligible for a raise or bonus if they deserve it or not. This is an old practice that must be stopped.
Working at Blizzard is definitely not a dream job anymore, hasn't for years.
The people saying that WFH employees are lazy have no clue that they're actually describing what's normal for the higher-ups in corps like this. Do you actually think that C-Suite employees are going into the office every day even if it's mandated for their other employees? Get real!
TBH the overall living and business environment in California is quite dreadful. If Blizzard wants to be effective in making it's operating costs and employee experience more optimal, it should start relocating to another state.
So much hate in comments. Facts are most companies were forced to turn to remote work from COVID and was never ment to be permeant. If you think otherwise your just being ignorant and self centered. Im sure people will quit over it, its happening everywhere, not just here. Truth of the matter is Blizzard is looking to see who values there job to the point that they want to return to office and have actual human contact (in a world were thats no longer normal). If people dont want to be a human and work with eachother at a job place then they dont need to go back. Its not about Blizzard being “corporate and non understanding” its about regaining the sense of community and interaction. Id love to see Chris Metzen showing up and talking to fellow employees about ideas and stuff. Thats how Blizzard started, with a group of people who hung out and wanted to make a game everyone would enjoy. People should feel glad to return to work. Its there own fault for thinking they can work from home forever. Its not how the world works and now human beings are supposed to live.
Wierd..
"Companies have treated employees as disposable and replaceable for years. No matter how skilled or valuable they can replace you." LMAO welcome to reality buds! Glad some of you kids are waking up? New flash, kids. The world isn't the fluffy warm hugs and pats on the back fantasy some of you were told about growing up. It isn't a cute CGI bunny Telus ad.. The future isn't friendly... Its competitive! Everyone always has been and always will be replaceable at one time or another and that isnt going to change when you work for someone else. If you want a more artistic freelance "do it you own way" kind of deal then go do that. Go work for yourself or start something of your own? The reality is many of these workers wanted/still want to work for blizz because of the job security and benefits they do have, and thats a legitimate honest reason. As long as you perform and do as your asked (within reason) you can collect your checks and reap those rewards you were mentioning. You dont get to be the boss though, so if you work where your told to work and if you have to move for a job... welcome to the world of the rest of the billions of us LOL WAAH WAAH WAAAAAAHH
They are effectively reducing total compensation, forcing higher cost of living office environments, denigrating critical entry-level workers. They are going to lose a lot of good employees if that is management’s path.