4 ms·
Undoubtedly it's awful to be denied payment for work you've done in good faith, and the more so the lower your income and safety net. It's happened to me severa
by tomhoward 10y ago
Undoubtedly it's awful to be denied payment for work you've done in good faith, and the more so the lower your income and safety net. It's happened to me several times in my career, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
But as cperciva pointed out, the Crytek case doesn't sound like a case of a "corrupt manager or investor who's buying an Audi on [their employees'] dime". It's a company with a history of both successes and difficulties, struggling to survive in a notoriously risky industry, and facing serious cash-flow problems.
Of course we don't know the details of what's happening at executive level, and we can safely assume there's been some poor management and poor communication to staff.
But we can also assume that the management is sincerely doing everything they can to keep the company afloat, to get their staff paid and to keep them employed well into the future, which is what the staff want too, given that the alternative is to shut down the company immediately and for everyone to be made unemployed.
Conflating this situation with wage theft is quite unfair, at least in the absence of further evidence.
- knucklesandwich 10y agoI don't think there's anything ethical about stringing your employees along for 3 months without pay, regardless of how successful you may have been in the past: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13140938 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13140938
- tomhoward 10y agoThat's a fair enough position to take. But that doesn't necessarily make it morally equivalent to robbery. Morality is a spectrum, and you can only make a judgement call on it when all the details are known, which right now they aren't.
- darklajid 10y agoPreviously it was theft. I'd agree that it is theft unless the employees were informed about the situation a la "We cannot pay wages for a while, would you volunteer to still come in?". Robbery? Now that's a different thing. But theft? Close enough.
- ownagefool 10y agoThe financial management of crytek likely knew they couldn't meet their responsibilities to their employees. If the company let them know, shared the plan to make them whole and asked them to stick around then it's not wage theft, if they lied or hid the situation then it is. Sounds like the latter to me but obviously don't know the details personally.
- crdoconnor 10y ago>But we can also assume that the management is sincerely doing everything they can to keep the company afloat That's the most naive thing I've read all week. If managers/owners want to prove sincerity (and some do), they pay for their wage bill out of pocket or borrow against the value of personal assets to do so. That's how you prove that you believe in what you're doing. Until that point, assuming sincerity is the best way to get completely screwed.
- tomhoward 10y agoIf managers/owners want to prove sincerity (and some do), they pay for their wage bill out of pocket or borrow against the value of personal assets to do so. That's how you prove that you believe in what you're doing. For all we know they're doing or trying to do all those things. I'm not saying they are. I'm just pointing out the fact that we don't know all the details. Staff are perfectly entitled to leave the company and take legal action to recover what they're owed. Equally, the management is entitled to the presumption of innocence regarding criminal or immoral conduct, particularly when all we have to go on right now is a few anecdotal reports.