I really don't get this company. So I applied to Buzz Monkey when I was unemployed over 2 years ago. I'm thankful I didn't get the job because they got bought out by Zynga a year later, and then had layoffs a year later in June 2013. About 1 1/2 years ago I was also looking at Zynga Seattle. And just last week that studio was shut down. The first round of layoffs was 520 people, and now I believe it is another 300. I dodged 2 bullets so far and am definitely dodging a 3rd bullet now:
What bothers me is I was talking to Zynga Orlando, that is looking to staff up to like 100 people asap. WTF is up with this company? Why don't they use existing resources, why do they buy companies and dump them. They just bought another company last week which I would bet they layoff or close in 2 years. And now they have this Orlando studio which sounds like they are doing exactly what Zynga Seattle was doing.
What is also funny is as I talked to them they were extremely surprised I currently had a job (like 3 comments about it right at the beginning of chatting with them). After thinking about it I was wondering if they get some crazy tax credits when hiring unemployed people. I know my current job did that when I came on board, they got a tax credit for hiring me. I just was like maybe they only hire unemployed people to get tax credits, and then anticipate laying off hundreds of people all the time so they can hire different unemployed people and get more tax credits. It just sounds strange all around. 800 jobs lost in a year? I don't think I could ever go to Zynga and I'm trying to figure out the "acquire and fire" mentality/strategy.
Zynga
What is also funny is as I talked to them they were extremely surprised I currently had a job (like 3 comments about it right at the beginning of chatting with them).
Well, I wouldn't read too much into that. It's much easier to find people who want to get hired in games and are unemployed than it is to find people who want to get hired in games and have a game job already. There could be lots of other reasons for them to be surprised about that.
Business is interesting.What bothers me is I was talking to Zynga Orlando, that is looking to staff up to like 100 people asap. WTF is up with this company? Why don't they use existing resources, why do they buy companies and dump them.
Sometimes it is based on location, one place is overstaffed and another place is understaffed, and the company doesn't want to pay to relocate. Sometimes it is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. Sometimes it is the case of wanting to dump a mediocre team. Sometimes it is inexperience of younger management.
Sometimes it is done for publicity reasons, there is a bad earnings report and they feel the urge to fire people to manage their stocks. Sometimes seasonal layoffs provide a convenient way to get rid of worse or troublesome employees without terminating them individually.
Sometimes a large project gets cancelled (which is a rather complex thing itself) and a studio finds themselves with too many workers and not enough projects; if they cannot find a project quickly they will either need to pay people to be less productive (or non-productive) or have some layoffs. Depending on the quality of the team and the difficulty of replacing their talents and skills, it may be better in the long run to keep the people around doing lesser tasks while a new project is ramped up.
The reasons companies buy studios and quickly close them vary widely. Sometimes they just wanted to acquire some specific technologies or key individuals. Sometimes the market shifted in ways that weren't anticipated. Sometimes and anticipated shift didn't happen. Each time it happens it is going to have a different story behind it.
It is fairly uncommon for a game studio to dump a well-working established team and simultaneously hire a new, nearly identical team. It does happen, and I've seen it happen too often with inexperienced managers who would rather search the world to headhunt people with (for example) 12 months PS4 experience (those who worked on pre-release hardware) rather than train their existing PS3 development team. The ones who I have discussed it with have all said later it was an expensive mistake after considering layoff severance costs, hiring and relocation and training costs, and higher salary of headhunting an expert. Fortunately most managers aren't that foolish, but it does happen.
It is frustrating for more people than just you as the outsider. Those who remain and watch their talented co-workers lose their jobs for no seemingly rational reasons have it difficult and team morale usually plummets after layoffs; but even those aren't the most frustrated. Those who were laid off, notice the same studio is hiring for the same job they were doing, and when they call back are told they will not be considered because they don't have next-gen experience (in spite of a 10+ year work history on their predecessors) are perhaps the most frustrated of all.
I have a friend that works at Zynga. He got laid off in the previous layoffs, then they hired him back about 8 months later for the same position. What kind of sense does that make?
Business is interesting.What bothers me is I was talking to Zynga Orlando, that is looking to staff up to like 100 people asap. WTF is up with this company? Why don't they use existing resources, why do they buy companies and dump them.
*snip*
Sounds to me like a heck of a lot of mismanagement.
7 months, over 800 employees, and now they buy a new studio and want to start another one. No logic in it.
I can only guess that firing people and hiring others who are hungry for a job a month or two later when you need them is cheaper, at least from a short-sighted point of view. If everythng you do is based on short-term exploitation (which seems to be the case with Zynga) this may work out.
Though of course the need to transition work to them costs non-neglegible time and money, which makes this somewhat of a two-edged sword.
Zynga doesn't have the cash reserves to stay open much longer.
They lost $25 million USD in Q4 2013
They are expected to loose over $160 million USD in Q1 2014.
With current cash reserves at $1.1 billion USD, they are estimated to be able to operate for another 9 quarters (2 years, 3 months ) before going insolvent .
The decisions of hiring and firing, including firing someone and a short time later re-hiring them on the same team doing exactly the same function, is not necessarily a sign of bad management. Some management needs to be focused on the short term. Some management needs to be focused on the long term. A business that is struggling and sees themselves on a long term cliff will make decisions based on that, and look for ways to cut costs immediately. Since salary is the biggest cost, mass layoffs are the order of the day. Once the crisis is over and the longer term looks more stable it will tend to make decisions based on maintenance and growth, often involving hiring. Laying someone off for 8 months may seem odd, but once layoff costs and hiring costs are removed it may equate to a $100,000 savings per person. (Salary is only part of a person's cost to a company.) Do that for 10 people and you've helped the corporate bottom line by a million dollars.
Zynga is having to re-invent themselves, all companies do this with varying frequency, but I don't think they are facing a death knell right now.
