Why I Lost My Job

LegacyUser

I hope this is in the right section!

In May 2011 I started working for a startup Games Development company, around 18 months after they got started themselves. I was super eager to get into the industry, had been for years, and quit a full-time, decent paying job to follow my dream career. I gladly agreed to work for basically nothing and go on the dole until they were in a position to actually pay me. Around July this turned into one day's pay at minimum wage, but I actually worked as often as I felt I could the rest of the time on a voluntary basis. Since this was my dream job, I worked 30-50 hour weeks all the way up until I was dismissed. When I started with them I wasn't asked to sign a contract but I was asked to sign NDAs regarding the tools, software and hardware they used in their products.

In early September after working since the beginning of May on one product as a Programmer, I began work on a new product. I was Lead Programmer and my understanding was the CEO and an artist were the Designers. Working with them I implemented parts of the agreed upon design. In the middle of Septmeber the CEO went on surprise paternity leave. Between then and the middle of October the further designing of the product fell to myself and the artist. It wasn't clear at that point that I was now responsible for this product and I had had no previous experience of this kind of work in my position thus far. In middle to late October, the CEO was back from leave and the Company Directors reviewed the product and determined it's quality was below company standards. A meeting was held and myself and the artist were charged with redesigning and salvaging the product. From then until mid to late November regular updates were given to the Company Directors on the progress of the redesign and certain aspects were worked on by the CEO and the CTO themselves. On December 5th as I was preparing to submit the product for QA approval, prior to Performance Evaluations initiated at my request, I was advised by the Lead Artist that the forthcoming Evaluation would not go well for me due to certain personal issues, the majority of which I had not up to that point been made aware of.

On December 6th my Evaluation showed that there were certain issues with my quality of work, my attitude and my interactions with others, none of which had ever been brought to my attention and I did not up to that point receive a single formal written warning. I was advised that I could avail of a review period until January 26th 2012 during which time I should work towards finishing the product and addressing performance issues. Up to January 4th I did so, working towards a final product deadline of January 6th. On December 19th, at my request for feedback on my progress, the CEO said "from what I've seen, you're going in the right direction." On January 2nd I sent an email requesting formal written documentation regarding the issues mentioned on December 6th and requested a regular formal performance review process from the relevant supervisor. On returning to work after Christmas on January 4th I was ushered into a brief meeting where I was advised that my review period was over, as my progress was not sufficient and also my January 2nd email proved that I wasn't a good fit for the company, and was handed a notice of dismissal effective from January 4th. I was then asked to leave the office.

The notice of dismissal spoke specifically of me having been given a formal warning on 3 separate occasions, which never happened. Apparently, "this product is terrible" consists of a formal warning. My utter shock and surprise at my dismissal during that short meeting was met with the comment from the CEO "what the hell do you think 'this product is s**t' means?"

3DataModem

Get an employment lawyer. Tell them full story. They'll give you an opinion.

( Note : welfare fraud is a crime (claiming dole while working), but you probably know this. )

the_syco

3DataModem wrote: »

Note : welfare fraud is a crime

OP: were you getting any form of payment, gifts, or benefit in kind?

happyfounder

from your situation ,the best thing you should do is to find a lawyer to protect yourself

Lanaier

Sounds like the company is already established, but a mistake many indy game devs make is not signing contracts.

A common phase heard is : "hey you don't need that crap man, we're doing this cause we love games" etc, which is when you should start running.

Loving games is fine...and it is often required to work with almost no compensation at the start with a small indy company which is also fine, but if they wont even sign something promising your share....just walk.

EDIT: forgot to add: Why didn't you have a contract?
If they were setup for 18 months then it wasn't just a couple of guys working from their apartments anymore.

gugleguy

in the spirit of the last post

A few years ago, I read this rather unfortunate tale of an Indy Irish game developer whom a large game company, their name will remain nameless, decided to string along in the purest sense of the word.

The game the indy guy was developing was GAA sports a la football manager 2012 etc format.

LegacyUser

OP here. I didn't sign a contract because I was an idiot and was blinded by my desire to get into the industry. I had been trying to set up my own indie dev thing, but it was going nowhere so I jumped on the opportunity I saw. After a few months when they started paying me part-time I should have asked for a contract then, but I stupidly never thought of it. And yes, they were no longer working from home. They had a small revenue stream coming from flash games and Enterprise Ireland had a share in the company which helped them find an office space. They were operating as an Inc. with a few private investors when I joined them.

Regarding social welfare fraud, I was awaiting a decision from Social Welfare all the way up to December on my claim. For May, June and some of July I was officially volunteering my time with the company and receiving nothing in return. Then I was getting paid for one day a week at minimum wage and volunteering the rest of my time. It was understood that a project was in the pipeline that would provide everyone with fulltime hours and wages. This moved from September to October, to November, to December and by the time it kicked off I was under review and not trusted to be put on that project.

not even wrong

BurnedAndBitter wrote:

I was super eager to get into the industry, had been for years, and quit a full-time, decent paying job to follow my dream career. I gladly agreed to work for basically nothing and go on the dole until they were in a position to actually pay me.

You've basically ****ed yourself because you're guilty of defrauding the taxpayer.

Regarding social welfare fraud, I was awaiting a decision from Social Welfare all the way up to December on my claim. For May, June and some of July I was officially volunteering my time with the company and receiving nothing in return.

Doesn't matter whether you were being paid or not, in order to be eligible for the dole you must be available for work on the days in question.

The first lesson to learn is that you never, ever work for a for-profit company for free, no matter what promises they make about the great prospects in the future. If their future is so bright then they should have no problem getting money from investors to pay employees properly.

The second lesson to learn is don't get involved with people who are dishonest or cut corners morally, if they screw the taxpayer or their other employees they'll screw you just as easily.

gugleguy

A collegue of mine in an earlier job, got messed up along the lines of OP. The head of this particular 'start - up' painted a 'very brave new world' of how things would run. This was over 10 years ago. As things go, business was not as brisque as projected.......... And so the "cabin fever" set in, . So it all ended acrimoniously.

BostonB

OP what exactly are you looking for out of this?