I’m not sure how we got here, but I’ve seen various posts on social media this past week where laid off employees or the disgruntled unemployed put their “higher ups” on blast.

While not professionally involved, I do follow the gaming industry quite closely, and the recent opinion storm is revolving around the Bioware restructuring and layoffs.

If you don’t want to give IGN a click-through and ad revenue, see below:

(tl;dr: Dragon Age: The Veilguard didn’t sell enough copies. Bioware had to fire people)

Here’s a video game publisher that quoted the original IGN article:

A business exists to make money.

If a business fails to make money, it can no longer operate as a business.

Emotions run high when layoffs happen, and it’s completely understandable. I will always empathize with someone that suddenly loses the income stream that they rely on.

What’s confusing is the emotional outrage and opinion pieces towards these studios, acting as though the header text in bold above, is somehow a new revelation.

Thomas Mahler, CEO and Director of Moon Game Studios, offered his thoughts on the topic that I think summarizes everything perfectly:

He continued:

“They hired these folks initially cause they thought they could make a game that appeals to a large audience so that they make them a bunch of money. What happened here is that they didn't hold up their end of the bargain, yet people like this gentleman then blame the companies for not keeping people on their payroll.”

This is the truth. This is how and why companies operate.

“If you're given a chance and you blow it, the reasonable outcome is that you're not given another chance because you didn't prove that you're worth it and nobody is doing anyone any favors by encouraging people who are entitled.”

Companies frequently have multiple “chances”.

• Car company launches a new model that doesn’t resonate with the market.

  • “Ok. -$500M. Back to the drawing board.
    

• Airline company keeps delaying passengers and not issuing refunds

  • “Ok. We’ve lost 12% of our customer base this year. We need to change.”

Game development studios are not immune to these situations.

If you spend 6 years developing a game…

…and it costs you $100M dollars…

…and you sell $5M in total from sales…

…how is that company able to continue to operate at the same size and speed?

In this case, maybe the job just wasn't the right one for them? You'd be doing them a huge disservice if you'd keep them around in order to repeat failure yet again.

People need to be able to find opportunities that are right for them. While it sounds counter-productive, getting fired might just be the best thing that'll ever happen to you because it puts you onto a new track in life.

So let me be clear: You are not entitled to the job that you have. You have to prove that you're worth the money you're being paid and that you have the companies best interest in mind.

Your company doesn’t really care about you.

Sure, they’ll offer benefits to you and pay for your travel and take you out to eat.

But these things all rely on how profitable the business is.

You are an asset to the company that you work for. They care about to the extent that you result in a net positive for the business.

It’s really unfortunate to see comments like this (@lilrizk). This argument is a complete waste of time, and this person is positioning themselves to be further and further under the boot of a profit-driven environment.

Those people (“plenty of artists that make fantastic games”) should’ve held their management accountable.

If you can't approach your manager with real concerns or fear that you’ll get fired if you use your brain, the company has a rotten core.

Once you understand this, you can operate in a corporate or business environment with much more confidence.

Once you understand this, you can see the rotten core, and be honest with yourself, and work within that rotten core while searching and establishing a backup plan. The list goes on.

Once you understand the fact that a business exists to make money, you can almost perfectly predict layoffs and restructurings with ease.

The truth is that most industry layoffs are easily predictable by only a handful of employees that regularly pay attention to the company’s climate and prepare themselves accordingly.

What to do if your company doesn’t care about you.

(A.K.A every company)

1. Be a 10x employee. Do everything under the sun to make the company you work for more profitable. If you only do what’s bulleted out under your job description, you’re at risk of being laid off. If you’re constantly learning new skills, working to get a better understanding of the company and how it can improve, you can decrease your risk of being laid off. 10x employees have unique leverage within a company, where firing them becomes a massive risk.
   

2. Understand where you stand. You don’t have to be a genius to understand if you’re underperforming or overperforming at a job. Pull your boss aside, setup a time to speak, and ask them how you’re performing. You don’t need to wait for your annual review. If you get the sense that your higher ups aren’t particularly satisfied with how you’re performing, refer to bullet point #1.
   

3. Always have options. If you get laid off tomorrow, what will you do? How will you pay the bills? Do you have the interest of other companies? Does anyone outside of your company even know that you exist? If you’ve coasted through your job, without any backup plan or resemblance of a network, I highly suggest you start increasing your in-person and online presence so that you’re on more radars. Create content, share it, post on LinkedIn, submit applications and get interviews.

Attacking your employers, blaming companies for acting like companies, arguing with the facts is a waste of time and energy.

Few understand this.

My hope is that many more will. Soon.

Talk soon,

JP