For those who currently work in the gaming industry in the USA, what holidays do you normally take off each year? How many vacation days and sick days are you allowed each year? Steve Pavlina Dexterity Software www.dexterity.com

Perhaps no one in this industry actually gets any time off....


Steve Pavlina
Dexterity Software
www.dexterity.com

Well we always took it whenever we could when I was working in a non-game industry. If things were a little slow we could take vacation but if we were in the middle of a crunch we could not. This also had the advantave that if it was slow and we wanted time off we could take it with no-pay. I doubt the average vacation is much different from other industries. 3-4 weeks a year maybe.

-Rich N

I just received my latest issue of Game Developer magazine last night. The new salary study showed 67% of programmers get no compensation other than salary. Maybe that explains your lack of response

[edited by - LordKronos on June 19, 2002 10:52:04 AM]

quote: Original post by karmicthreat
If things were a little slow

Except I dont think there are quite so many slow periods in the game industry. "Nobody''s plaing games this year...you guys can have a couple of weeks off". When you have games with 30 month schedules compressed into 18 months, and designers who have the next idea lined up before you finish the last project, there isnt a whole lot of break, unless management says "you guys worked really hard on that game and did a great job, so were going to take it easy for a few weeks". Of course that easy time doesnt likely offset the schedule any, it just gets back-loaded.

I think about the only natural break period is "hmmm...our bank balance is a little bit...non-existant. I guess we wont be able to pay you for the next 2 weeks. If you want, you can take an unpaid vaction...take as long as you want "

not to mention 80% of the frequenters to this
forum aren''t even in the industry yet

-eldee
;another space monkey;
[ Forced Evolution Studios ]

I guess I must work for a pretty good company. We get the normal US holidays ( July 4, Memorial, Labor ), although I end up working on about half of them. We also get the day after Thanksgiving, and the day before Christmas through Jan 2 off. Last year I was able to take off that entire period. I get 19 days of PTO a year, but I don''t think anyone in the company takes more than 5.

That''s really lame. I promise that when my company has employees that I will force them to take all of their holidays and time off actually OFF and doing something fun.

After all, even though it''s game programming, it IS still just a job.

My first boss out of college taught me something I''ve always remembered. He said, "Just go on home. No one dies if this isn''t done tonight."

He was right. So I went home.


DavidRM
Samu Games

quote: Original post by Buster
That''s really lame.

I agree. Even if you love where you work, and love what you do, when you are given time, its your time and you should take it. The problem is that when half the staff doesnt take the time off, it kinda makes it look like the people who do take the time are slackers and dont care about the job. At my last job (business apps,not games...not that it matters), I was looked down upon in favor of others who worked a couple of weekends a month, even though I usually got more done any given day. They were looked at as being loyal to the company and team players. I was looked upon as being somewhat selfish and not willing to contribute. Its a kick in the pants.