Now 100% Optional
Rockstar recently put their whole foot in their mouth when they made a comment about their team putting in 100-hour weeks for Red Dead Redemption 2. Since then, a whole mess of people have come forward to refute or reinforce this claim. Now, after some internal discussion, it looks like the overtime rules are changing within the company.
More specifically, Rockstar Lincoln, the studio responsible for QA testing for Red Dead 2, is changing their overtime policy. Although overtime has always been voluntary, many employees have felt like participation was more of the mandatory variety. The studio is working to rectify this. According to Jenn Kolbe, Rockstar Lincoln’s head of publishing, they want to “make sure it is clear that the OT is not mandatory.”
Hopefully this will free employees from any Crunch that they don’t want to engage in, but the policy’s wording is still somewhat insidious. Specifically, one employee posted on Reddit that “all overtime going forward will be entirely optional, so if we want to work the extra hours and earn the extra money (As well as make yourself look better for progression) then we can do, but there is no longer a rule making us do it.” In other words, you don’t have to work OT, but you’ll look better if you do. Still, this is a small step in the right direction.