Ubisoft fires developer who publicly opposed its return-to-office mandate

[midian182]

A hot potato: Ubisoft, a company that doesn't need any more reasons for people to hate it, has fired an employee days after he was punished for criticising its return to office (RTO) mandate. The news comes as the French gaming giant deals with massive internal upheaval and international strikes by workers.

David Michaud-Cromp, level design team lead at Ubisoft Montreal, says he was placed on unpaid disciplinary suspension last week for publicly speaking out against the company's RTO plans. Ubisoft is forcing employees back into the office full-time five days per week, with a limited number of annual remote work days on offer.

In a new LinkedIn post, Michaud-Cromp writes that he has been "terminated by Ubisoft, effective immediately."

"This was not my decision. I won't be discussing internal details or circumstances."

When asked about why Michaud-Cromp was fired, Ubisoft told Kotaku, "Sharing feedback or opinions respectfully does not lead to a dismissal. We have a clear Code of Conduct that outlines our shared expectations for working together safely and respectfully, which employees review and sign each year."

Michaud-Cromp told the publication that remote work can be a great way of collaborating and making games while offering unique benefits, such as allowing less vocal teammates to be heard. The dev did admit that some activities, such as brainstorming, onboarding, and mentoring, are often better suited for office environments.

Working from home has been one of the tech industry's most controversial topics since the end of the pandemic. Most big companies now require workers to come into the office for 2 or 3 days per week at least, though many are now reverting to their pre-Covid-era full-time hours.

A viral video in December illustrated how people feel about the subject by asking if they'd rather work in a full-time office job with a $240,000 salary, or have a $120,000 job that's fully remote.

Ubisoft announced in late January that it will restructure its internal operations in the coming months, refocusing its strategy around open-world games, live-service titles, and player-facing generative AI. The changes include delays to seven projects and the cancellation of six others, among them Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

The restructuring will see studios in Halifax and Stockholm closed, which means job losses. The company is also trying to make 200 people at its headquarters in France quit voluntarily. All this is in addition to the new RTO mandate.

Ubisoft staff were, unsurprisingly, angry at their employer's actions. In the wake of the restructuring announcement, five unions representing workers called for a massive international strike on February 10, 11, and 12.

Permalink to story:

Ubisoft fires developer who publicly opposed its return-to-office mandate

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Always two sides to a story and here you get about 1/4 of it.

All we know is the employee was put on leave and then terminated. The employee originally said he believed it was for him speaking out about returning to office for work and then after he was terminated he doesn't want to talk about it (or can't, perhaps for some legal issue). And legally, the company cannot give specifics about an employee's termination

Right now, it sounds like a big nothing burger and some stupid wannabe news reporter ran with "Ubisoft employee FIRED for speaking out about RTO!" Now everyone needs to panic, be extremely upset and scream at Ubisoft for the supposed firing of an employee speaking out, even though the employee and Ubisoft will not confirm the actual reason for termination!

What a shitty story to put out there with misleading title for post clicks.

 

[Squid Surprise]

The “real” story is probably “Struggling Ubisoft starts letting go of any employees it can”

As the story already admits (but buried towards the end), Ubisoft has been laying off tons of workers and is closing down studios…

I would wager the RTO is largely irrelevant…

Real estate is a big thing for many companies though… they pay big bucks for buildings for their employees to work in, and generally can profit from selling the land/building if necessary.

With Covid and so many people working remotely, office real estate became virtually worthless over night. This is the main reason many companies want people to return to work - their multi-million dollar buildings need to have people inside to be worth something…

 

[toooooot]

I think not many will argue that creative work often requires people to be in the same place.
And I won't even talk about people who simply can't manage their time unless someone else
is doing it for them.

And since we are talking about Ubi, they should only complain about the management and letting the weak
links go because they won't survive for long if they keep making games of current quality.

 

[sreams]

Was he fired because he criticized a policy? Or was it because he didn't follow a policy? These are two very different things. This article is irresponsible at best.

 

[GoldenGoat]

Ubisoft has made some great games, but it seems like they are a sinking ship. I don’t care about their office mandates, but they have become a company I’d rather avoid. There are so many great games to play and not enough time to play them all, so it’s easy to just skip their stuff. Same with EA. I’m sure they don’t see it because it’s not really measurable, but if there are enough people like me, then there is a cost to their crappy policies towards customers.

 

[p51d007]

Company says our policy is employees work FROM THE OFFICE.
Don't like it? Quit and create your own company. One of two things will
happen. If enough people quit and they can't hire enough replacements, they
will change their policy and their company will suffer.
If enough people return to the office, those that don't like it will either go back to
the office or quit.

 

[ZedRM]

So Ubisoft proving yet again how slimy and horrible they are? Anyone surprised by this? Ubisoft needs to go away.