All articles tagged with #workplace culture
Ubisoft Barcelona reportedly cut 51 staff after completing work on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, despite strong launch interest. Insiders claim project assignments were decided well ahead of completion, the Barcelona team was disbanded soon after, and a canceled launch event reflected broader concerns about workplace culture and workers’ rights.
As England’s 1am World Cup kickoff looms, UK employers are weighing flexible start times (some at 11:00 or later) and other arrangements to let staff watch the game and recover. While some industries like manufacturing and frontline retail may struggle with shifts, many firms are opting for leniency, unpaid or annual leave, or later starts. Government guidance urges common-sense and fair handling of requests, with advice from unions and Aubt Acas on managing time-off and scheduling to minimize productivity impact.
The article argues that the pandemic’s shift toward empathy placed a heavy, often invisible burden on managers—especially women—who become the 'emotional infrastructure' of modern work. This 'empathy tax' leads to burnout as colleagues rely on them for debriefs and conflict resolution, while leaders celebrate tougher, less empathetic styles. Research shows a large share of professional women spend at least 30% of their workweek on caring tasks, with many reporting increases year over year and thousands leaving the workforce. Experts call for recognizing, measuring, and rewarding emotional labor, setting boundaries, and ensuring leadership culture values vulnerability without exploiting it.
Variety reports that SVU’s season, led by Michele Fazekas—the show’s first female showrunner in 26 years—has ditched major toxicity and fostered a cohesive, energized team. Fazekas joined with Mariska Hargitay, Brenna Malloy, Kelli Giddish, and a refreshed writers’ room to center survivors’ perspectives with sharper writing and collaboration, delivering a season that feels fresh and more authentic than before. Fazekas also directed multiple episodes and helped shepherd finales written in the rain, underscoring a renewed sense of excellence and teamwork behind the iconic series.
A former Meta engineer, Jeremy Bernier, claims race-based discrimination at Meta, saying teams were 90% Chinese and that non-Chinese employees were routinely excluded and targeted in layoffs; he describes Mandarin-only informal conversations and social exclusion, urges Meta to enforce English-speaking policies and diversify leadership, but doubts real change will occur while the leadership remains ethnically homogeneous. Bernier was among Meta's 8,000 layoffs on May 20.
Dropbox continues to embrace remote roles as a core part of its hiring strategy, leveraging a global talent pool and flexible schedules to attract and retain workers, while also navigating collaboration and culture challenges as some teams shift back toward office work.
Energage and USA TODAY named the 2026 US Top Workplaces after surveying 2,375 organizations; the top winners among large employers are Fannie Mae, Fairway Home Mortgage, Plante Moran, Progressive Insurance, and The Baldwin Group, representing two mortgage companies, two insurers, and a CPA firm, with winners across four size categories based on factors like pay, leadership, meaningfulness, and appreciation.
A former Pearl Abyss developer and anonymous Blind posts allege Crimson Desert’s story was decided just before release, blaming an inverted-pyramid leadership style that rewarded 'yes men' and stifled dissent. The result, they say, is a disjointed narrative, a rushed development process, and leadership turmoil that may explain why the game ships with a strong technical footprint but a weak, underdeveloped story.
WIRED reviews Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat, the second season of Prime Video’s docu-comedy that puts a real temp worker into a staged corporate retreat. Anthony navigates pranks, HR antics, and leadership tests as Dougie Jr. tries to prove himself, while the show blends office chaos with moments of genuine connection, suggesting work can feel meaningful even amid layoffs and AI disruption.
An FT opinion piece on a glam Interview Magazine spread featuring four young bankers highlights tensions between media visibility, ostentatious displays of wealth and the expected discretion of Wall Street, noting the resulting backlash and suggesting younger bankers may need to learn the industry’s norms the hard way.
In 2025 women accounted for 19% of core tech roles in Europe, down 3 percentage points from the previous year, with the McKinsey report warning that AI-driven changes could widen the gap without targeted action. The analysis highlights pipeline drop-offs from school to tech, slow progression into leadership (only 13% in tech management and 8% in executive roles), and a concentration of women in product/design roles that rarely lead to top leadership. The research also points to sexism, increased unpaid “office housework,” and the impact of parental policies on advancement. To close the gap, the report calls for clear representation targets, linking promotions to outcomes, expanded mentorship, and AI-driven reskilling to create mid- to senior-level pathways for women.
Laura Fryer, then director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, says she was pushed out of Microsoft after being handed a bathrobe by a colleague in a hotel room during the 2004 Game Developers Conference; she alleges no HR help despite corroboration, framing it as a symptom of broader cultural issues at the company.
AI is speeding up job applications, but recruiters warn it doesn’t always improve quality or authenticity. The Washington Post notes Oceans asked candidates to submit a video answering a controversial workplace question, and more than 300 responses were eerily similar, signaling heavy AI assistance. Oceans’ chief experience officer Matt Wallaert said it was abundantly clear the responses were AI-generated and criticized the laziness of that approach. The piece emphasizes AI’s usefulness for applying quickly, but cautions job seekers to use AI to supplement—not replace—personal storytelling and genuine insight.
Meta is rolling out Checkpoint, a four‑bucket performance system that ties bonuses to impact, with a top Meta Award delivering up to 300% of base pay for truly exceptional performers. The mid‑2026 rollout aims to simplify reviews, reduce administrative time, and implement two annual cycles with AI‑driven impact assessments and annual equity refreshes, signaling a tougher, more performance‑driven culture.
A senior Google employee claims she was made redundant after reporting sexual harassment and a toxic 'boys' club' culture within the company, leading to an employment tribunal case where Google denies retaliation and attributes her redundancy to normal business restructuring.