In Games Industry seems like Crunch Time is All the Time

Gaming designer's wife has a bone to pick with EA. And I don't blame her! ea_spouse says: EA's bright and shiny new corporate trademark is "Challenge Everything." Where this applies is not exactly clear. Churning out one licensed football game after another doesn't sound like challenging much of anything to me; it sounds like a money farm. To any EA executive that happens to read this, I have a good challenge for you: how about safe and sane labor practices for the people on whose backs you walk for your millions? There are over 2600 comments (seems to have struck a nerve!) in the thread that follows her post. (Seems EA is not the only game company working employees into the ground) "If they don't like it, they can work someplace else," is not a very good HR motto when you are trying to hire some bright, shiny light straight out of school. Not very good for someone on the Fortune 100 best places to work either. Now, I'm no stranger to Project work or "Crunch Time". I've worked on several SAP implementations and the countdown to "Go-Live" is no joke. But let's face it, managers (no matter where they are) need to wise up to the fact that people canNOT sustain 70 Hour work weeks without an end in sight! And, "Put up or shut up!" as a hiring strategy can only get you so far. My son wanted to work in the gaming industry and I was prone to let him give it a shot. However, based on ea_spouse's experience, I'm thinkin' that's not such a good idea. Maybe the Military would be better. Pay's lousy, but the hours a sure as Hell probably better. Link Thanks ea!