According to Eurogamer, the head of Team17, Michael Pattison, promised to take all necessary measures to improve working conditions after numerous complaints from employees of the computer game publisher.
Team17 CEO Michael Pattinson joined the company in October 2021. He previously served as the chief executive of PlayStation.
Pattinson clarified in a video message to employees that Team17 will not only focus on the quality of each of its products rather than their quantity, but will also make significant changes to the corporate culture and working conditions of the development teams.
Pattinson told employees that he immediately demanded that testers' salaries be revised to meet market levels, their workload was rationed, and all overtime paid on time and in full.
In April, Team17 will revise the salaries of all teams in order to pay all developers in accordance with market rates and not lose valuable personnel who go to competitors for higher salaries.
Regarding bonuses, Pattinson was pragmatic. In his opinion, they will be received by those who work well and have proven themselves in released projects, but the total amount of bonuses will still not be as large as many in the leadership would like.
The head of Team17 said that he will consider and study all employee complaints and will try to improve the internal culture in the company so that employees feel safe, are not afraid to show themselves and are not subjected to any humiliation.
Pattinson is aware of the staff turnover in the company, but cannot do anything about it promptly, as the market dictates its terms. According to his vision, this situation should stabilize during the year and the staff will be assembled. At the moment, more than 30 vacancies are open in the studio, and some of the functions of the departed developers were redistributed among the remaining team members, although they did not raise their salaries.
Pattinson asked employees to put in a collective effort to help the company get back on track and get through these difficult months.
Team17 employees told Eurogamer that so far these are only promises, and no special measures have been taken. But they are optimistic and want the company to revive and start working with renewed vigor, and not collapse from the inside and fall apart due to the wrong actions of a few people.
On February 10, many members of the Team17 development teams said that they are unhappy with frequent overtime, unpaid overtime, toxic culture, high constant workload, low salary, stress in the workplace, many simultaneous projects in work, rushed releases, lack of time for testing, staff turnover , especially in the testing hotel, as well as the fact that the top managers of the company "lost contact" with the employees.
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