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Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

Okay Question Day lezgo! ✨AMA✨ about VFX, game dev or my career in games, breaking into game development, books (in general, not just game-related), nerd stuff, whatever else you wanna know! No particular end time because timezones are silly, so ask away! https://t.co/VwN5JlP5CC

Okay Question Day lezgo! ✨AMA✨ about VFX, game dev or my career in games, breaking into game development, books (in general, not just game-related), nerd stuff, whatever else you wanna know! No particular end time because timezones are silly, so ask away! https://t.co/VwN5JlP5CC

  • hadidjahb
    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
    Okay Question Day lezgo! ✨AMA✨ about VFX, game dev or my career in games, breaking into game development, books (in general, not just game-related), nerd stuff, whatever else you wanna know! No particular end time because timezones are silly, so ask away! https://t.co/VwN5JlP5CC

    • Iksar
      Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
      @hadidjahb Has your view on working overtime changed as your career has progressed? Do you have different rules for the teams you manage than you do for yourself? How do you identify times when it's okay to push yourself vs times you need to step back?

      • hadidjahb
        Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
        @IksarHS Yes, more than literally anything else. My soundbite take these days is that OT needs to be completely personal- in that you should do OT rarely-if-ever and only because YOU want to, and in that the work you create in that time needs to be confined to you, not ripple to others.1/

        • hadidjahb
          Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
          @IksarHS Bad scoping and scheduled OT can go to hell, but it’s hard to tell passionate adults Actually No OT Ever. I think the better culture is one that gets people out of the office in 40 hrs tops, and trusts them when they sometimes say “This is worth it.” Big fan of Supergiant here.2/

          • hadidjahb
            Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
            @IksarHS But I’m leery even of passion-based OT, because if it isn’t very occasional and clearly documented, it just becomes invisible work. I think that’s *especially* dangerous at more junior levels, where you’re hungry to prove yourself - I did this, a lot, and truly loved the work. 3/

            • hadidjahb
              Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
              @IksarHS But if even if you’re clocking your OT and people know about it, it still risks becoming the new normal of how much output you have (continued callout post to past me), and the schedule will warp around that. So imo the better approach is almost always “don’t even start.” 4/

              • hadidjahb
                Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
                @IksarHS If the schedule warps, that’s the OT-less baseline now. If you burn out, you’re behind. That productivity is expected of those after you. I didn’t just fail myself when I messed up HS’s VFX schedule with all my OT, I failed every single person who’s joined the VFX team since. 5/

                • hadidjahb
                  Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
                  @IksarHS (It also completely broke the second half of the personal rule, because I didn’t use all that time on confined work, I used it to create more VFX, which then cascaded onto Audio. So really, I failed them too. 6/)

                  • hadidjahb
                    Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
                    @IksarHS As for different rules: I’m very protective of my teams' time, so overflow work goes to me first. Part of my job is to make sure their schedules are accurate and protected, so if I failed at that it's my problem. It used to just be that, I'd just tank instead of cutting things.7/

                    • hadidjahb
                      Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
                      @IksarHS All great in theory, but they aren’t stupid, they’ll figure out I’m working extra. Even if they don’t, they might feel the pressure to be as productive as me in the “same” 40 hours. It's too likely to get internalized as what success, seniority, responsibility look like. 8/

                      • hadidjahb
                        Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
                        @IksarHS (Theoretically, if tanking it isn’t practical (it's too much work for one person, they’re midway through a big piece and handing it off is impractical/demoralizing, etc.), it’s on me to support them and fix it next time. But we always solved it through offloading and cutting. 9/)

                        • hadidjahb
                          Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
                          @IksarHS So the me vs. my team rules are still different, because building them a healthy schedule is part of my job, but they’re less different now because it turns out “Do as I say, not as I do” is real obnoxious to grown-ass adults. I think I'm much more inclined to cut scope now. 10/

                          • hadidjahb
                            Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
                            @IksarHS Finally, I’ve yet to see something that *really* works as far as knowing when it is and isn’t okay to push myself. Usually it just comes down to what the schedule or my team needs, or more ideally, something I’m wildly excited about. But it’s such a slippery slope, I dunno. 11/11

                            • Iksar
                              Posted 4 years, 7 months ago (Source)
                              @hadidjahb Thank you for your thoughtful comments, I will always look up to you!
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