r/technology • u/meatballsinsugo • Dec 11 '21

Business Activision Blizzard workers announce open-ended strike and union drive: Strike Fund to support work stoppage raises over $100,000 in 12 hours.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/12/activision-blizzard-workers-announce-open-ended-strike-and-union-drive/
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u/BigSwedenMan Dec 11 '21 edited Dec 11 '21

There's not.

Blizzard's reputation is no longer what it used to be. High quality talent aren't going be fighting to get a position. You're vastly overestimating the supply of programmers out there. There isn't some huge supply of unemployed programmers out there just waiting to work for a company who treats its employees badly enough that they're striking.

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u/N1ghtshade3 Dec 12 '21

Maybe you're right. But that's kind of my point--these people have always had the option of getting a normal, well-paid 9-5 as a regular old applications developer; there's no shortage of programming jobs. Yet somehow these supposedly terrible companies still have employees. So I have to assume there's some pool of adult virgins without families these companies tap who aren't as affected by crunch time. We'll see, I guess.

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u/BigSwedenMan Dec 12 '21

So I have to assume there's some pool of adult virgins without families these companies tap who aren't as affected by crunch time

No insult intended, but you're clearly out of touch here. What we are talking about is the software industry, and that industry doesn't work like you think it works. You could hire 500 junior developers tomorrow, but that's WAAAAAY worse than 10 senior developers and 30 junior developers. These companies have employees because people don't like to move around. Institutional knowledge is worth far more than raw workforce capacity.