It was recently announced that Rockstar Games has instructed its employees to return to the office completely for a 5-day working week from the beginning of April.
This decision to end hybrid working for productivity and security reasons comes in the wake of several significant leaks of information about GTA 6. Jenn Kolbe, the Head of Publishing, told Bloomberg that there were clear advantages to working in person.
However, this measure has met with considerable resistance from employees, particularly from the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) and some Rockstar employees.
They criticize the order to return to the office as the latest in a series of unfulfilled promises and warn that this decision could lead to a resumption of harmful working practices.
Last year, unionized Rockstar employees had already submitted a petition with 175 signatures calling for the option to work from home to be retained, even under the conditions of a mandatory switch to a three-day office week.
This illustrates how important the flexibility of working from home is for many employees at Rockstar Games. Some employees described the ability to work from home as a “lifeline” that enables them to cope with different life circumstances.
The option of working from home meant that many employees were free to choose their place of residence, even if it was far away from the office. Now Rockstar has suddenly withdrawn this option without considering the far-reaching consequences for those employees who are particularly hard hit by this change:
“After so many broken promises we now fear management may even be paving the way for a return to toxic ‘crunch’ practices. Senior leadership need to rethink their reckless decision making and engage with their staff to find an arrangement that works for everyone.”
Another Rockstar employee said:
“As usual, there has been zero consultation with us: the people who these policy changes most affect. Just one of my concerns is being forced to work late hours in the office to maintain contact with global teams when before we could log on from home to attend late meetings. This will mean missing out on spending time with our families. I am also aware of colleagues who have health issues preventing full time office work who are now left in limbo.”
Speaking on behalf of her colleagues, another employee said:
“We the staff care greatly about the games we make and our passion, skill, and talent should never be taken for granted by studio management. It is together, through collaboration and a healthy work life balance and workplace culture that we continue making some of the most beloved and spectacular games in our industry.”
Although the company has made progress in recent years to gradually eliminate the previously widespread crunch culture, there is now growing concern among many employees that a return to these old practices could be imminent.
In addition, employees emphasize that Rockstar Games has repeatedly failed to keep its promises in the past and ignored employees’ demands for general working conditions:
“Workers across the industry are done with letting executives make reckless and harmful decisions and the Rockstar workers are showing us the start of what’s to come if they’re continually ignored. There’s no better time than now to join our union and push for this to be the healthy and sustainable games industry we know it can be.”
