More 38 Studios Ugliness

Okay, this isn’t really breaking news, as most of this has been circulating around the Interwebs in various forms of rumor for a while now, but the more layers you peel off of this story the more repulsive it seems.

From Broken Toys comes this:

While all this was happening, 38Studios employees were kept completely in the dark. Their first warning was when payroll checks stopped showing up in their bank accounts.

The final warning was a dismissal letter showing all the compassion of Ayn Rand towards welfare recipients.

And that’s just what’s on the public record so far.

The rumors that have been surrounding this total collapse/clusterbomb have made the above look like a case study in business management.

Insurance plans unpaid for months (and literally uncovered by pregnant women informed by their doctor that their insurance expired) ensuring that the newly laid off employees are disqualified for COBRA and liable for pre-existing conditions with new plans …

… relocation/home sales packages so badly mismanaged that ‘beneficiaries’ turned out to be liable for two mortgages and back taxes due to lack of payment, the list goes on.

First off, that email laying off everyone is wrong in so many ways.

These employees were loyal beyond belief. They stuck it out when they weren’t drawing paychecks (or at the very least were receiving them late). They deserved more than a mass email. They deserved for that big bag of wind to show up & tell them face to face.

Mr. “All Go, No Quit” Harry Stamper Curt Schilling should have used some of his magical mmo powers to conjure up a nut sack and shown up to thank each & everyone of them for their undying loyalty one employee at a time.

Secondly, the insurance stuff.

Are. You. F***in’. Kiddin’?

Now you have people with pre-existing conditions, including pregnant women who are without insurance, or any hope of acquiring some because you asshats mismanaged the company?

Are you going to run out & campaign for more conservatives that would do their best to repeal the only chance those individuals sole chance at landing an insurance provider right now? Color me curious you f***in’ clown.

And finally, the mortgage fiasco.

What. The. Holy. Hell?

So you relocate the company from Massachusetts to soak up some taxpayer guaranteed loan action, tell employees you have a system in place to unload their homes (granted, in this market why anyone would have thought it’d be that easy is beyond me) & then not only fail to do so…but keep them in the dark about it.

Then you run your company into the ground, cry about how the big bag gum’int did you wrong & break the bad news about layoffs through an e-mail that has all of the compassion I’d expect from a mob hit.