Prioritising staff wellbeing in a high pressure environment

gamesindustry.biz:

Maria Trnroos

Thursday 7th April 2022

In the beginning of the pandemic, many assumed that gaming companies would quickly adapt to new remote work rules. After all, many game developers and designers are used to working flexibly and independently from wherever they please.

Reality quickly proved to be different as cases of fatigue and burnout began popping up across the industry. And it wasn't just game studios who were feeling the weight. Employee wellbeing decreased across a range of companies characterized by high self-direction and passion for work -- in other words, high-pressure environments.

Companies were quick to react -- Guerrilla Games delayed the launch of their newest game to avoid crunch time, Mozilla shut down the entire company for a company-wide "Wellness Week," while Twitter and Fujitsu made working from home a permanent option.

There is no silver bullet to make your employees happy and healthy, but here are the 3 + 3 things every game company can start doing to foster wellbeing and performance at work.

Cultures of self-direction sometimes get blamed for putting too much responsibility on an individual employee, which might lead to overtime or even burnout. In reality, micromanaging, top-down control and not having a say in how you do your own work are much more likely causes of burnout or resignation.

Micromanaging, top-down control and not having a say in how you do your own work are causes of burnout or resignation

Building a culture of trust is a long journey and doesn't happen overnight. To succeed in it, managers need to check their assumptions about how people behave. If you believe that people are lazy by nature and need to be monitored, you are the problem, not them.

Communicate your expectations and