How do you react when your employees decide to skip work and play video games instead?
When a staff comes back to work on Monday, he will be grateful to the employers, more motivated to work, and will produce fewer errors
ONE of the most awaited video games in Japan was released yesterday and a Japanese company realized that many of its workers had filed for a vacation leave so they made March 26 an official day off for all non-executive employees.
Monster Hunter: Rise was launched on the Nintendo Switch on Friday and the Tokyo-based game studio, Mark-on, knowing how much its employees are gamers themselves understood that staff will probably not be able to focus on their work.
An executive announced the launch day to officially be "Monster Hunter Holiday", giving the employees a three-day weekend to enjoy the game.
In a Huffington Post Japan interview the executive, Masaki Hiyama, said the employees have been grateful for the decision.
He shared the company memo on Twitter which has received over 19,000 hearts and prompting replies from other Monster Hunter fans wishing their own company would do the same.
Filing for vacation leave or even feigning a sick leave to purchase and play a game on release day or attend a gaming tournament or event is not uncommon in the gaming community around the world.
Companies like Mark-on who understand the habits of their staff and are willing to bend their rules are rare to come by.
Judging by the reason they announced on Twitter, "staff will probably not be able to focus on their work," the executives are actually creating a healthy employee experience.
They were quick to see the pattern of employees filing a leave on the same day a popular game is launching and responded positively.
When the staff comes back to work on Monday, they will be grateful to the employers, more motivated to work, and will produce fewer errors.
It can also be remembered that in 2019, Nintendo delayed the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons to March 2020 to "provide good work-life balance" and "avoid significant extra hours," according to Nintendo of America's CEO, Doug Bowser.
In turn, the game has won Game of the Year at the Famitsu Dengeki Game Awards 2020 and the Japan Game Awards 2020 as well as Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2020.
Game developers and studios heavily work on crunch time for success. Players' reception of a game can change based on the timing of its release that big companies make it a habit of announcing release dates and in-development projects to create anticipation and generate more attention.
As games reach their final stage of development, companies push its staff into overdrive or "crunch time" to avoid delays, bad press, and ensure it meets release deadline.
Whether in the video game industry or outside of it, crunch is a problem that can affect employees in any line of work, which is why decisions like these are appreciated. (HD)
Tags:#Japan, #videogames, #workplace