ckeymel:

CoziestPigeon:
It's entirely fair. If they are paying someone to do what they want, you will do exactly what they want, or they will find someone else who will. It is not your right to get a job with them, and if they don't like the fact that you play games like WoW, tough shit. Guess that's not the job for you.

So, you think it's ok for your boss to control everything you do in your life, if you want to keep your job? Ummm, no - your personal time should not be held against you if it is not affecting your work.

Well actually in most big business jobs I have had yes they do control both your off time and on time. Ever since the PDA was created managers text their employees more than ever before letting them know how horrible they are doing every day they work. From my experience I've noticed more companies want to control the off time of employees to get more work done and use their personal activities as reasons to fire them.

My manager has asked me what video games I am playing not for conversation but to determine a reason to fire me that I am not dedicated to the cause (making money). He also takes pictures of social events as blackmail to make sure employees will do as he says because he can send the pictures to HR or his superior and fire for the reason "improperly representing the company and its vision".

So yeah bosses can and do control everything people do in life or you can lose your job. I do not mean to be this pessimistic it is just that I have seen technology used for malevolent reasons because it gets them ahead in life.

And if you disagree with me ask yourself this. How many times have you seen on the news of government or business employees fired for acts during their off time such as going to a house of berlesk, cheating, or saying racist comments all I just mentioned are not against the law but still they lose their jobs because of their "immoral" acts. Chances are without this age of information people would have their privacy back and be able to handle things privately. While I do not condone such acts it is up to the individual and direct family to handle such matters not the government or employer.

Don't we put people through a WoW training program when we hire them?

yeah that is dumb, if any thing video games are better for you then they are bad, I play WOW myself and I been working for 2 years now part time and never once did I have to say that I had a raid or some thing to do and I stayed up late doing it and that's why I was in late

Well, I hate to say it, but what they say is kinda true, since most of the 11million WoW players have horrendous sleeping patterns, spend most of their thoughts on it, and would probably do badly at work, but there are a lot of people who don't really get into it.

Haha, it's funny how everybody assumes that people who play cannot do it casually and it's everything to them, I've played for about two years now, I could not play it for a week and continue my life as normal - just because some sad individuals dedicate their life to it doesn't mean everybody does, it's like not hiring black people (but this is sort of the Walt Disney version)

makes a lot of sense I was a completely useless employee during my WoW addiction.

Perfectly reasonable IMO.

enh, its fair, it seems to have a rep for consuming a lot of time. if you can't devote the time nessecary to complete your job then you can't have it.

i guess a lot of people have ruined a nice thing for the rest of us

What if you were applying for a job at Blizzard?

I was talking to an old school mate a while back when we first saw this on Digg, we both agreed that we would hire gamers but less likely hire MMO players. We couldnt explain it but we both agreed that when we played MMOs, it seemed to distract us outside of the game to the point where it affected our concentration.

I think this empoying problem is really quite far-fetched. it's like refusing someone to work because they're wearing the wrong kind of shoes which dont enable them to walk as fast as everybody else, sounds silly, i know.

Also; the person who is a WoW player could be the next bill gates or somethin' and could be very useful to the job.

Shame on you employers.

Shame.

uppitycracker:
yeah that is pretty stupid not taking any personal traits into consideration. Sure, a lot of WoW players sacrifice their own wellbeing for the sake of playing the damn game. But at the same time, a lot of drinkers sacrifice that same wellbeing to stay drunk 24/7. Just seems poor practice. And with the number of people in this world that actually do play the game, it certainly does disqualify a large number.

One of these large no. of people could invent something revolutionary yet they now they are prevented. Thats the way to think... assume that doing something bad will lead to something even worse in the future or prevent something even better, then everyone will become a better person.

TheSeventhLoneWolf:
I think this empoying problem is really quite far-fetched. it's like refusing someone to work because they're wearing the wrong kind of shoes which dont enable them to walk as fast as everybody else, sounds silly, i know.

Also; the person who is a WoW player could be the next bill gates or somethin' and could be very useful to the job.

Shame on you employers.

Shame.

Thats what i agree with

Tenmar:

ckeymel:

CoziestPigeon:
It's entirely fair. If they are paying someone to do what they want, you will do exactly what they want, or they will find someone else who will. It is not your right to get a job with them, and if they don't like the fact that you play games like WoW, tough shit. Guess that's not the job for you.

So, you think it's ok for your boss to control everything you do in your life, if you want to keep your job? Ummm, no - your personal time should not be held against you if it is not affecting your work.

Well actually in most big business jobs I have had yes they do control both your off time and on time. Ever since the PDA was created managers text their employees more than ever before letting them know how horrible they are doing every day they work. From my experience I've noticed more companies want to control the off time of employees to get more work done and use their personal activities as reasons to fire them.

My manager has asked me what video games I am playing not for conversation but to determine a reason to fire me that I am not dedicated to the cause (making money). He also takes pictures of social events as blackmail to make sure employees will do as he says because he can send the pictures to HR or his superior and fire for the reason "improperly representing the company and its vision".

So yeah bosses can and do control everything people do in life or you can lose your job. I do not mean to be this pessimistic it is just that I have seen technology used for malevolent reasons because it gets them ahead in life.

And if you disagree with me ask yourself this. How many times have you seen on the news of government or business employees fired for acts during their off time such as going to a house of berlesk, cheating, or saying racist comments all I just mentioned are not against the law but still they lose their jobs because of their "immoral" acts. Chances are without this age of information people would have their privacy back and be able to handle things privately. While I do not condone such acts it is up to the individual and direct family to handle such matters not the government or employer.

I know this isnt a nice thing to say, but i can safely say i hate my boss.

I like to play WoW, and I enjoy raiding. I have yet to find a job that allows me to raid and have a steady sleep schedule. As a result, I haven't actively raided since Classic. I've been in a few casual raiding guilds that have allowed me to raid on occasion, but finding a guild that raids regularly on a schedule that allows me to be in bed when I need to be seems excessively difficult. Maybe that will change with this new optional-raid-time-extension patch, but I don't think it will be enough.

That said, I don't think playing WoW has an all around negative impact on people in regards to their ability to perform jobs well. Raiding is a group experience that requires teamwork, focus, and responsibility to carry out successfully. Leading a raid effectively requires leadership skills, strangely enough, and everything about WoW requires research skills, basic technical knowledge, and communication. Discriminating against people who play it is stupid.

Well actually in most big business jobs I have had yes they do control both your off time and on time. Ever since the PDA was created managers text their employees more than ever before letting them know how horrible they are doing every day they work. From my experience I've noticed more companies want to control the off time of employees to get more work done and use their personal activities as reasons to fire them.

Man, I am so glad that I got out of retail (knock on wood, I would like to keep my job). If I was working, I wasn't working hard enough (despite lacking the staff to get things done). If I was selling, I wasn't selling hard enough (despite constant unannounced changes to the policies that I was attempting to sell to now very angry people, to the best of my ability). If I wasn't working, I got cell phone calls about how horribly everything was going at work. If I was supposed to be getting off, I was given assignments that would take far beyond the remaining time to complete at the last minute.

They even said they would promote me, doubling my salary, so they increased my responsibilities and duties and all, put me through the training, and said they weren't going to promote me after all and kept me on the same schedule with the same responsibilities and duties without the pay increase. Then they hired some new staff, cut back on hours until nobody had any but the store and assistant store managers, and started to complain that we weren't meeting goals or performing our duties, which hadn't changed to reflect our hours. So far as they were concerned it was us not selling as well as we should be that was the cause of all their ills, not falling market share, the rise of new competitors, a three year void in advertising, or prices that continued to rise for services that continued to have benefits stripped from them.

So I found another job. One that pays more, has better hours, a stable schedule, people I enjoy working with, and utter freedom from constant doom and gloom from people who I'm sure were being pressured severely from above in a similar capacity. That's not always an option. I feel quite fortunate.