Job Requirements and Considerations
| April 21st, 2008 by Robert | Word Count: 675 | Reading Time 2:42 | 2,440 views |
Today, in a forum I visit, I ran across an interesting post involving an employee of a game development company and his written comments available via his own online blog. The post tracked down evidence from this employee’s own site, to use as ammunition as to why this particular software company has been portrayed as favoring a certain platform over another. The basis of this story revolves around the game developer Infinity Ward and its Community Relations Manager, Robert Bowling. Infinity Ward (IW) created the game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with the title released in November of last year. It has since sold 9+ million copies covering the xbox360, playstation 3, and pc and garnered the respect of developers around the world to earn Game of the Year honors.
The actual issue at hand rests on the following statements made by Bowling while being employed by IW (and currently still is): “Way to go Sony. First you release a turd of a console, and if that wasn’t a big enough blow to the gaming community, you start picking on small gaming sites because they undermine your ‘marketing control’ in Europe. I had a larger rant about the turdiness of the PS3 planned, but its just not worth it.” Second statement: “There will be absolutely no Playstation product in my game room. That includes PS1, PS2, and ESPECIALLY PS3!! As far as I’m concerning, Sony can eat it. Sorry.” These were quotes from his site during the December 2006 and January 2007 period.
What does this have to do with Job Requirements and Considerations you may ask? Let’s dive in and find out, at least from my point of view! First, Bowling works for a software/game development company. This company develops products for different platforms and they are more than likely given advance monies for the proposed project to fund their development of said game (IW is an established company and thus their product is in great demand). Now, even if that were not the case, the title of Bowling in his employment with IW is Community Relations Manager (Actual title is Director of Communications / Community Manager). Do you think his statements are just a “little” out of line with his job requirements and considerations? Personally, I think he is as far from center as you can get and is actually creating an alienating situation amongst his community regarding his comments. He is far from communicating effectively and he is very far from managing his community.
How many times do you see similar actions from employees, managers, or executives in your world, or paper, or television report? Sadly, it’s not a rare occurrence. People today seem to bypass a lot of their job requirements/responsibilities and let their personal biases infiltrate their work life. Yes, we are human, but we are also responsible for our actions and words. You must divide your personal bias issues from your work responsibilities and work ethically in all senses of the word. I’m not saying you should compromise your values or beliefs or anything of that nature. I am asking that you remember that your opinion does not necessarily match the opinion or thought process of the company you are working for. Employees who are out running their mouths, without the consent of the company, are doing more harm than can be quantified by sales statistics.
What ramifications do you think you would see if you happened to allow your personal biases infiltrate your work life and in turn, pass them on to through your phone conversations, email, or talks with customers? You would probably be fired. People are expected to represent their company and uphold the integrity of the employer. If you have chosen to blatantly undermine it publicly, you are at their mercy and deservedly so. In the end, what I think you can take away from this is to think twice about things you might say that come from a personal opinion or choice. That opinion may not be shared with your employer.
Citation: http://iamfourzerotwo.com/
on April 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm:
This article reminded me of a “winner” mentality that I see a lot in the work environment and in the community in general. It’s the notion that once you are clocked out of work, that you have no responsibility toward that company whatsoever, until your work day begins again. I will never understand that way of thinking. I believe that when you work for a company, you are, in reality, signing on for a 24/7 position. You have to represent that company at all times. An example.. me working for a telecommunications company… now if I went out telling everyone, ON MY OWN TIME, that the company had crap phone service and I wouldn’t get it, would you, the person I’m telling this to, want to go get your service from this company? NO WAY! At the very least, where’s people’s loyalty to their source of bread and butter?? If you can’t respect your employer enough to uphold the company at all times, then I think you should be working elsewhere. One more thing…if people start shooting the “freedom of speech” rights out there.. don’t bother! There’s no such thing!
on April 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm:
I definitely agree. You’re not just an 8 hour or 1/3 employee. If you work for a company, most everyone will associate you with your employer. Whatever you say or do will be taken in a certain context. This is especially true if you are talking about specific products or services the company you work for offers. The people you talk to will believe you because you are an insider. Why wouldn’t they? What if a baseball player said he hated the St. Louis Cardinals, but was employed by the Cardinals? Doesn’t work does it? Nope. You are part of a team whether you like it or not. Some people just think they are the 1 man team.