EA is Evil ? Well we probably know that but....

I can tell you guys that I'm in crunch time right now with no life, working 60 hrs a week, and it's brutal. I've only been doing it for two weeks also.

However, I'm getting overtime, becasue it's State law here in California that any hours over 8 in a workday equals at least time and a half, as well as any hours scheduled over 40 (ala weekends.) Also, any hours worked over 10 in a day or 60 in a week means you get minimum double time and a half.

It's also state law that you have to have at least 4 days off in a month (as in they can't make you work with no days off, however they can group them all togther at the end or something) unless you're like a cop or in the army or something.

Also for a 13 hour day like that (which just happens to be the exact same thing I'm working right now, 9 a.m to 10 p.m ) they have to give you two 1 hour breaks, one for lunch and one for dinner, and at least another hour inbetween, usually in the form of 15 minute breaks 4 times a day. Some states even give you the right to forgo one of these breaks in order to get off an hour earlier in the case you have other responsibilites, like say picking up your kid from school or something.

Federal law isn't as stringent as this, but still it's not what's described in this testimonial. There's no way somebody working what is described above would not be getting overtime or days off.

So, unless this sotry comes from a state where the labor laws are draconian (like say, Texas) it's problably bullshit. Labor is highly regualted, even for non-union industries like game developing. No one can force you to work an 85 hour week without days off, without overtime, without extra compensation.

 

Yeah, similar things apply in Japan. Yet, everyone works gangs of overtime, and don't get any extra benefits from it. You'd think at least one person would've sued their company by now.

 

Watch out in california. That is true if you are hourly but salaried exempt do not follow those rules. State looks at programmers as an artist so the rules are real loose. Working 7 days and over 13 hours a day is ok by states standards. I know the labor board went through our place and helped straighten it out.

 

Yeah, it's different for salaried employees, as in you don't get the same overtime rules and such. However there are usually other benefits that come with having salary vs. hourly; you usually get benefits, stock options, perks, profit sharing plans, paid vacations, job security, etc.

I looked it up, Federal law for salaried non-union employees is pretty harsh, they leave it up to you to negotiate the terms of your employment on a one to one basis, which means you're pretty much at the company's mercy until you get in a good position with some bargaining power. However a company's reputation gets around, and how many qualified people would be lining up to work for a place that really treated thier people like this?

Basically, there's pretty much no way any company out there would force people to work the kind of hours described for long periods of time without some kind of compensation, in the form of overtime or paid/unpaid time off, or something to that effect. At the least this lady is exaggerating.