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Been thinking about this.
My contract says that I should work 8 hours, 5 days a week.
I’m regularly in the office more than this. The reason is because I tend to work by deadlines rather than set hours. Because of this I don’t work an 8 hour day like in a bank say, where you’re expected to work and work for 8 hours and then go home and at the end of the week, you’ll have 40 hours work done. I think that programming is sporadic thing where you have times where you work really well and then bad periods where you just can’t concentrate properly.
Working to a deadline may mean working more or less than 40 hours but at least you have a goal to work for rather than a set number of hours. Think thats one of the appeals for me with games…you have goals and deadlines to work for.
Is this the common feeling and one thats encouraged by Irish games companies…giving staff the freedom to work to their own schedule, meeting requisite company deadlines?If i make sense…..
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My experience with software companies in general has been that flexi-time works well. While it might suit an individual to work to their own pattern, it may not be the most appropriate pattern for a team. Flexi-time ensures that people are in the office for ‘core’ hours where the necessary meetings etc can be arranged while the remainder can be worked up at the discretion of the employee. Of course this works to varying degrees depending on how pedantic an employer might be about core hours and how proactive individuals are at keeping the core hours. I think in any creative pursuit, however, it is important to recognise and acknowledge that work goes in cycles driven by deadlines and therefore manic hours in the run up to a deadline should be balanced with time off in the lull. If it’s all manic, you will burn out. If it’s all lull, well you are probably unemployed and just haven’t noticed!
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In any good design, 80% of the work should be spent on the design/planning phase and 20% of the time actually coding/developing. While most game developers do tend to work long hours, and partake of the stereotypical image of working late into the night, that may not be particularly beneficial. It is important that the entire team work at the very least a number of crossover hours every day so that people can communicate, have meetings, and make design decisions as a team rather then letting everything getting out of sync.
Peter Molyneaux is renowned for his late night, but lets face it – every one of their products is delayed repeatedly. They are lucky to have the financial clout to be able to release a game when THEY want, most studios dont have this option and should have a certain set of core working hours where the entire team works together.
Dave
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I agree with the idea of flexi time and i think it does make peoples lives easy as with alot of people commuting along way some on public transport it makes there lives simpler and less stressful.
If you want to beat traffic and be sitting at you desk by 8 and get away at 3:30 then that is good. If you want to put in extra hours till 8pm then so be it.
As long as the work is done and done well and goals are met.
I am a big believe in design. And after every project i do, i believe in design more. Soon i will even try giving design ago ;-)
Brian
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I hope i didn’t give the wrong impression of flexi, meaning FLEXI!
I believe in being flexible…not having a set sign in time, but its company policy to be in at a reasonable time say between 9 and 10.30 and being in work til 5-6 as standard but having the flexibility to deviate from this should you have the need, ie, a plumber coming to the house between 9-1 doesn’t mean you need to take a half day in order to be sure you’re there when they come.
And also not flexible like bed-room coding programming, where you jsut get on with the work and have it done when you’re ready. Strict deadlines, definitely weekly, probably daily to ensure project planning works.
As for the entire being in the office, I think one thing that may happen from what I’ve heard/read, is that meetings happen regularly for entire/part of teams draining precious hours when many of the people really don’t need to be there. They could be out on the floor developing and getting the highlights from the meeting, those that actually affect them.Most companies have decreased that crunch time when working LONG hours happen down to about 1 or 2 months now I think. Although this may vary a lot. This is where a good project planner is essential.
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Up here at Torc we work to the flexi-time model and it works very well, especially for us Dubs who have to travel down to make the Shindigs of a Friday!
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Luckily, everywhere I’ve worked there has been a relaxed stance to working hours.
Its a given due to the nature of the business that there is unnatural hours and conditions, but the upswing is lunchtime gaming, relaxed atmosphere etc. My girlfriend works in a ‘traditional’ work environment and she hates it, and it has nothing to do with her colleagues.
However, I’ve never been in a non-game company so I could be talking out of me arse.
Interestingly, in my present company, I have to sign-in in the morning, at lunch – in\out, and finally then at the end of the day.
My opinion is that its give and take; if your staff have been doing crushing deadlines you better not say one word to them if they come in 10 minutes late during non-crunch time.
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