A survey published by the Eurogamer site brought together more than a dozen testimonies concerning working conditions in the two branches of the British studio and publisher Team17. Above all, the increasing workload in recent years for wages that have remained low, but also internal communication concerns concerning this NFT Worms affair are questioned. This project would have been decided at the end of 2021 by “the top of the company” and the information would have been kept secret for several teams until the public announcement. More problematic, employees who were aware would have expressed their fears and disapproval of this NFT program, only to be completely ignored. Dysfunctions that go badly after the backlash that followed his announcement.
By snowball effect, a dozen former and current employees, all on condition of anonymity, confided to Eurogamer their concerns vis-à-vis in particular the release schedule of games published by Team17. With seven titles released in 2020, then eight in 2021, the workload has intensified since the band went public in 2018: “Management chases quantity rather than quality“. With ever more deadlines to meet, it is once again on the shoulders of the quality service (QA) teams that the workload has increased. All for salaries set at a base of £16,000 to the year for junior profiles, amounting to only £19,000 for seniors.
Testers say they tried desperately to alert bosses to development issues, but were ignored.
Other friction points would also have “affected morale” of employees. Besides the heavy working days – Eurogamer does not specify what hourly volume is concerned here – a “point of contention” was created around the question of bonuses granted at the end of the year. The teams would have worked overtime in the hope of receiving their bonus, before discovering last December that it had been severely reduced , for some beyond £ 1000. Cuts that management justifies by a “underperformance” titles first party released during the fiscal year, even though, on January 6, it announced to its shareholders that the results for the second half of 2021 exceeded their expectations. A situation that would have greatly benefited Debbie Bestwick, co-founder of the studio and current CEO, whose annual salary would have risen to more than 7.5 million pounds, or $ 10.2 million.
Among the other elements of dissension, the employees questioned entrust to Eurogamer “don’t trust“to the studio’s current HR team. They feel that HR has no “did not act when alerted“on issues of sexual harassment as several female employees reported receiving degrading messages and suggestive photos from male colleagues.”The culprits were slapped on the knuckles, and the victims had to fend for themselves“.
Asked by Eurogamer, the Team17 group replied taking “its responsibilities to its staff very seriously“and claims to have launched new steps in January to improve dialogue with its employees, particularly with regard to salaries.”Our goal is to make them feel connected, valued and have a sense of belonging and purpose, and continue to take pride in Team17 and the products we develop and release.“. A point on which the witnesses agree, trusting to be “fiercely loyal to their colleagues and proud of the work they do“.