Back when I was in college when I first started Stardock to help pay for school, I never would have guessed how much money is spent on useless crap just to have a business that deals with consumers.
Here’s some stuff that we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on that I think a lot of people would be shocked about.
#1. LAWYERS. I’ve been in a number of lawsuits over the years. When I was in college (15 years ago), I’d never even met a lawyer. Now, 15 years later we spent well into the 6 figure range every year on lawyers. Why? Because nearly every day, someone threatens to sue us over some item or other. Occasionally we get sued for something.
The most obnoxious lawsuit I’ve ever been in (that I’m still bitter about to this day) was with Entrepreneur Media who sued us because we made a game called Entrepreneur and they believed that they owned the name Entrepreneur in all forms. We ended up settling because, well, 10 years ago, we couldn’t afford the lawsuit. If it happened today, well, it would have been a different story for them.
But every couple of weeks I get a summary of the various legal work that went in. Everything from company X arguing about a trademark, patent, or whatever that I’d never heard of to some user saying that they should get paid for “lost time” because a given program or game didn’t work the way they thought it would. Then there’s the people who claim that a given program or game “damaged” their computer and want compensation.
We tend to take a hard line on that kind of thing (I’d rather pay lawyers to fight something than to give in on some frivolous or baseless thing but it’s expensive).
#2 COMPLIANCE. When we were smaller, this wasn’t a big deal. But once you hit the magical 50 employees, all kinds of obnoxious state and federal regulations come in that serve no use other than to drive up costs.
As I watch the healthcare debate and see the vilification of insurance companies, I have to wonder how many people realize that a lot of that cost is due to state and federal regulations. Things like “tort reform” get mentioned a lot (which would help – see #1) but time spent complying with the government has always struck me as very wasteful. I mean, we make computer software that we sell. How much regulation hassle is there? As soon as you sell a product or service, the government is involved in a big way.
#3 EMPLOYEES. Of course, if you’re going to hire people, there’s going to challenges there. That’s not a surprise. What is a surprise is just how much time gets expended on “employee issues”. Ones perspective on a whole range of issues changes dramatically once you’re hiring and firing people as well as simply managing people.
Let’s face it, we humans are complicated. Each of us has our own “issues”. Like I said, it’s not a surprise that there are these issues. We can, in the academic sense “imagine” the kind of junk people have to deal with. But there is no substituting real world experience with it.
That’s why companies, even small ones, end up having to hire a HR manager (Human Resources). There’s always someone who just can’t manage to wake up in the morning or someone who’s “just going through a tough time”, someone who “broke up with their boyfriend”, and so on. There’s always something.
When you’re a small company, there’s a lot of flexibility. But once again, once you hit that magical 50 employee threshold, the government gets involved and is there to “protect” employees from us evil, money grubbing capitalists who might want to find out during an interview whether a potential employee is “trying to have a baby” or has a medical condition that requires them to miss a lot of work. Because you can’t ask those kinds of questions because, “it’s none of our business”.
Anyway, none of this is meant as a complaint of running a business. Rather, it is all interesting stuff that someone who never intended on starting a business but accidentally got into it has learned on the journey.
Too often people only hear one side of these issues without really considering the ramifications of “solutions” to problems in the work force.
I have the EXACT sentiments about Project Management and Change Management. As a developer, I hate 'em.
This is my last comment on this subject. I really come here because I like the game tips and I always get sidetracked by these political discussions. But here's the bottom line. Frogboy you're wearing too many hats. And your troubles are no different than the sole proprietor who had to get his license by studying crap he never uses and has to have insurance in case he accidentally burns down his customer's house and who has to hire a CPA to do his taxes and who spends his nights at the dinner table with a calculator and markets every chance he gets and on and on and on....
That's what I used to do. And it wasn't getting me the salary I wanted.
So I became an employee. And it was cool at first. I got to practice my trade everyday without the distractions. But then something went wrong.
I got promoted. They gave me the big bucks. On up the ladder I went. And I don't do my trade anymore. I get to watch the people under me do my trade. And it sucks.
Yep it sucks to be successful.
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My wife's employer screwed with her when we had our first child. And let me tell ya it ain't about "the corporation", who has the cash flow and the assets. It's about the survival of the family. We learned from that mistake. And we decided to buy a smaller house and always plan for the worse. So if you're unhappy with the rules then too bad for you. The world will keep on spinning. Thread was in poor taste and if I were a Stardock employee I'd be pissed off.
Johny - I think you misunderstand the purpose of the post.
The point is not that my experience is unique but rather that my experience is typical.
FB: Well hopefully for your employees' sakes you dont take the same route Activision apparently did. From an interview with Activision's CEO just posted on Gamespot today:
"We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."
Although from what I've seen elsewhere that definitely not your style. You can use that kind of threat to keep the grunts in line tho
Full article is here: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6226758.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;2
The 2 pages (so far) of outrage from the gamers is pretty interesting...although they probably don't have the perspective that someone like you would on the topic.
Bees? Did you say bees? http://www.redbalcony.com/?vid=23525
BEES!
I understand what you mean Frogboy! I work as the Senior Accounts Clerk for a Law Firm and dabble is several other areas such as our IT and HR departments as I'm what you'd call "tech savy" and "diplomatic" - two words you never want to be branded with in this industry - and I watch the money move around in nightmarish quantities.Anyway, the sheer amount of additional 'stuff' you have to do just to run a business is almost counter-productive to the running of business itself thanks in no small part to our wonderful Government Overlords. I've had to memorise several sections of Government Regulations to ensure we're clean at all times, at least in regards to my departments, and the amount of hard copies you need really makes me wonder what happened to all this talk of 'Paperless Offices' and the additional taxes and fees that we inccur to lodge items and run the damn Firm makes me wonder just who gets all these Tax breaks. The Government regulations for us would be different to the ones applicable to yourselves, I'm Australian and working in an entirely different industry, however I agree completely that we give the Government more money than any single department's yearly budget.I find the cost is also more than just the finances; each year we're subject to an Audit and the time needed throughout the year as well as during the time of the Audit to enusre it all runs smoothly takes it toll on everyone involved. I can only imagine the kind of hours the CEO of a Publishing company would need to pull to keep things working smoothly. Delegating surely helps, however from my own personal experience I've found it best to keep myself in the know where possible and try and do as much myself as I can. Being the guy behind the desk telling others to work harder isn't really my style even if it's acceptable.In any case, you're doing something right because you've got customers who love your products, you've got new partners signing up titles to your distribution platform all the time and you haven't been flamed once in this entire thread. I guess it's not easy being green, but it ain't all bad.
If someone sued me over a skin 'damaging their pc' I'd send some heavies over with an assortment of lead pipes & motorcycle chains.
...if I could afford it.
Brad, your typically.. unique.
Yeah, training ain't fun. I just got home from my first day of job training (Even though I've been working at this job for about three months, and know most needed information). It's all just a lot of union work and common sense stuff. But, at least I'm getting paid for the training.
The amount of lawsuits are really that ridiculous!? I'd never realise it. How many issues (or lack thereof) could there be to have lawsuits hurled daily?
Wow. That is awful.
No, having a good time is primarily the point in my mind. Our release schedule on our games we make tends to be very long so that we can indulge ourselves.
Yep and when I get things done almost they ask me to put that into a spreadsheet and submit it for them to see if I did it right. The trick is to get people that are good enough to work a lot of that paper work for you and with you. Then you get some help with things sort of. But there are things only you can do unless you have a person that is close at your right hand almost. I play this part where I work at with many of my boss's. Thus I'm a very busy and needed person at work. Along with trying to keep things happy and of course neat and on track a bit. Plus I have the responsiblity of handling some other funtions that are more Corp. involved beyond my boss's and what they think or do. Which they approve of so as they do not have to deal with. But I do and have a following for such matters. What is good about it is I tend to keep it on the up and up. Plus not giving it all away at the sametime. Only those who need to know will know all. Others get just what others are suppose to get - just so much.
But back to the paperwork end of it all. I tend to like doing less paperwork and more files for Office. Thus I can place them in a proper place and keep what is needed in the proper secure area. Then if that problem needs to be worked with I plan it and work it out. Giving just those that need the result only that - the result.
My big battle is when I do not know something and have to find out what is going on for others beyond myself. This type of thing gets me everytime. People are hard to get things straight with most of the time and when you do. It makes you wonder if they really wanted it that way. Some I feel do not care and are just as a lot of people look at it as. Your an employee right? Yep that is about all they are or want to be as such. Few are really into what they do at work with care for others being able to work closely and with great or good results. Sort of like teams or team players. These people are sometimes hard to figure or for that matter to find. Not saying everyone is like this... but I find a few who really only care about themselves and not much more than just that.
Plus there is always the person who is and has too much on their plate to get everything done. I'm talking about the guy that wants to do it all himself and does not look or ask for any help. Then things get into a mess and we have to find out about. Thus it goes into whatever is needed to finish such a project or why it went wrong. So work can be a funny place or one hell of a ruff ride. Sometimes I'm good with it and sometimes I'm loosing it. Stress!!! I hate it when I catch myself really going off on a person and I say to myself... "Now why did I do that?". But it happens and I've gotten now to when I feel this way I just let my boss's know I'm stressed out and got to take a break or leave for the day. It works... but I can't always do this. I have to be there. They expect me to be there and work does not get done if I'm not there. No one else is gona fill my shoes. They do not want too and I have a bit too much on my plate anyway. But I get it done and get it done right. They like that and it helps me when things are going right. So this means being where I'm suppose to be all the time and even when I'm not thinking of being there.
It's cell-phones, PDA's, push to talk phones, bluetooth ear piece, and tons of people in your office and in every place you go to discuss or look at what is needed or where is it at period. The ole who, what, where and with what things at every step you take. All done carefully and with lots of thinking. You have a very good day at the lunch time and when it's time to head out for home with just so much to go for that day still or that of tomorrow.
Business is business and being happy with those you work with makes for a good life. No matter what the stress and pain you have to endure to make it all go smoothly. The end results are worth it. Plus so is that great pay check. But I do not live for the pay at work. I live for the happiness with the people I work with. Due to one fact... I almost spend more time with them than I do with my family at home and that is a big thing to look at and say what you feel for all to be good.
If you have a good job! You are happy with it! Myself I am and do not feel I'll be going anywhere else. Kind of like saying I'm really secure where I am at and like it.
Hope others find this in life. It really makes a difference.
Well, I appreciate all of the hard work you're doing to keep 4x games on the shelves (dl queues?). GalCiv2 has really changed the way I look at games and I'm am so extremely stoked to get my hands on Elemental! In fact, I just made a big life change by moving into the workforce after a few years as a stay at home dad, and my gaming time has taken a severe hit. My decision to deal with this is to play Stardock games almost exclusively with what little time I have.
Also, thanks a bunch for staying in Michigan! I love this state and I want to see it rebound and thanks to people like you, it just might have a chance.
Heaven forbid people should be able to make babies or live with illnesses AND try to get good jobs. Whiny ass politicians...
I'd be interested to hear you blog more on this subject Frogboy.
This is actually helpful for me as I'm considering creating another startup company. I've done it before with partners and have an idea of what I'm in for. I'm currently tired of unemployment (laid off twice in little more than a year and can't find work though actively seeking and previously a desirable candidate).
I kind of relate to both sides of the whole litigation thing as I've seen both sides for why it exists. However, there is no question that the regulation of business is way out of hand and does more harm than good. Even when legit claims exist the regulators may choose to give warnings instead and then lash out with a heavy handed fine against a minor first time offense. Like dealing with OSHA it all just depends on the auditor you get.
I worked previously for a chemical application company that after being hired I found was very unethical. They found excuses to pay people less than minimum wage, didn't pay ANY over time and classified the same workers as salaried or exempt whenever it benefitted themselves. They were doing it knowingly and exploiting workers and after they were reported they got a warning. I didn't sue them personally as I just wanted to wash my hands of the company as much as possible. They also sent "trainees" without proper chemical handling licenses (or training or oversight) out on their own to mishandle toxic chemicals (across state lines to boot), they were a huge lawsuit waiting to happen.
They were only very marginally better than one non-profit corporate HMO I worked for. They didn't do anything illegal that I know of, but very, very unethical. Of course they exist not to make anything, but just to manage the bureaucracy and make crazy sums of money "helping" people with all the health care regulations and expenses. You can pick on FB for his red sportscar, but I sat in with middle Managers at this "non-profit corporation" where they moaned about deciding which sportscar or SUV to drive to work in the morning as they spent half the day sipping coffee. Meanwhile 70-80% of the employees at the place I worked at were making minimum wage. These guys pay lobbyists who make the regulations work in their favor though.
Most of the companies I've worked for have been nothing like those two hellish examples though. I've done a lot of work for manufacturing companies preparing people for audits. An auditor comes in and you lose a whole day of work (while still paying everyone) answering stupid questions. Some of these audits can be real hostile as the auditor just might be trying to make money for his department. Company before last I was at could easily lose one day a week between customer and government audits, and this is just one (major) source of regulation expenses. In the 3 years I worked there I only remember 1 of these audits that ever even hand significantly bad findings. I easily paid for my salary 10x over (at worst estimate) just be streamlining the audits which were a minor part of my job.
For a company running safely in the black it's usually not a problem.
For a company running in the red it's usually a problem especially a small company. If the small company goes out of business it doesn't help the new mom(now unemployed) or any other employees placed out of work.
The responses are......
.....entertaining....
its all very interesting. The problem with rules and regulations is that each situation is unique but we dont have the resources to makes rules for each situation.
The unexpected responses in this thread could be from an unintended message.
Just sayin'.
I'm currently studying to be a paramedic, after a career running my own business. I made enough to not have to do it anymore, and got out because of exactly these kind of headaches.
It isn't just about having to blindly hire people, other things like how difficult it can be to fire someone once they are hired. And yep, you do drive a nice car, or in my case sack aside substantial amounts of money in order to retire at a young age.
That isn't what stresses you out though. Knowing if your company doesn't turn enough profit, you are going to have to lay off workers. But when you have enough workers to get OSHA's attention, you have to lay off the single mother of 3 who busts her A**, over the ethnic minority fellow who sits around and barely works .... because he has seniority, is a minority, and if you fire him it is a huge legal issue. As your company fills up with these "barely working workers" it becomes very difficult to keep your company above water. And when you are talking 50+ employees, there are a good number of them you care about.
As the owner of the business you might make 2x or 3x as much as an employee, but you can't just "take a pay cut" and make everything better. The financial issues the company has are far more than what you get to take home.
You aren't just taking care of yourself, but the folks who work for you, and their families. If you are a good hearted individual, you are also trying to provide for your customers and keep them happy. When you are trying to do all this, the red tape the government applies, the permits, the fee's, the inspections, the audits..... can be enough to make you scream.
It was enough to make me give nearly 70 people 1 month notices, close my doors, and find a less "stressful" way of helping people.
Right, and those evil businessmen should have no choice in the matter!! Everyone's equal and equally good at the job and equally as efficent!! ...yeah. Cause really none of that stuff matters...meh.
I think Lawyers can be compared to nuclear weapons in terms of utility.
They are entirely useless -- no one ever profits from them, and using them usually results in a loss for both sides. We all need them, though, because if we don't have them the other guy will.
Also, even when storing your own, being in close proximity to them is bad for your health.
I know a few good people are lawyers. It's not that they ALL deserve to be placed in internment camps -- just that if we DID, the net gain would vastly outweigh the injustice to the good ones.
That's right it's none of your business
Or we could just go with the law that prohibits that kind of intrustion into our personal lives.
I can empathize with the your frustrations with Compliance and over-regulation. I worked at a very big financial company for almost a decade, and I eventually moved up into an IT Operations / Project management position where I spent most of my time coordinating environmental change tickets between the various departments. After Sarbanes Oxley was passed, the bureacratic bloat and overhead required to get any work done became outrageous. The bigger the company, the more time you spend documenting change tickets instead of actually doing things. I walked away from it a few years ago because I was miserable.
As for HR related problems...well....not to be crass, but most people management jobs comprise a large degree of cheerleading and babysitting. You do a lot less babysitting with professional, mature, self motivated people.
The company comes first, that's why. I've applied for government jobs and they're sure as hell a lot more intrusive. It's one thing if the job is working at McDonald's or some shit and another if you're paying someone 100k+ too. The pregnancy thing doesn't really bother me, but illness shit companies have to bendover for all sorts of crap. Then again I hate 99% of our PC culture.
Having said that, the scenario that ZehDon described is clearly an abuse of the system and it's hard to sympathize with the woman who lost her job.
I work at a startup so I understand that losing a key employee for an extended period of time can be extremely difficult. But I still think we should draw the line at ANY company asking, and hiring on the basis of, those kinds of personal questions.
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