Company News Herve wants employees to leave

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Herve Caen; Interplay

<b>Briosafreak</b> just pointed me to a <a href="http://www.nma-fallout.com/#6810">news item</a> just posted on <a href="http://www.nma-fallout.com">No Mutants Allowed</A> where an ex-<a href="http://www.interplay.com">Interplay</A> employee has basically told them that <b>Herve Caen</b>, CEO of the company, has told employees that if they don't like the situation with not getting paid or losing benefits, <b>they can quit</b>. Apparently money from their checks are still going towards benefit payments, even though those benefits are, indeed, cancelled. So, basically, <a href="http://www.interplay.com">Interplay</A> is paying them less than they should be paid since those benefits no longer exist. Nice, huh?
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Anyway, of course <b>Herve</b> wants them to quit. If they quit, they're much less likely to qualify for unemployment and <a href="http://www.interplay.com">Interplay</a> doesn't have to pay them the severence pay they'd get if they were laid off by the company. Apparently <A href="Http://www.nma-fallout.com">NMA</a> is advocating striking, but my advice is go to work - and don't do a DAMNED thing. Just play <A href="http://www.seankreynolds.com">ping pong</a> all day.
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[taks]

severance isn't a guarantee, either... unless they've all signed contracts for severance. even then, creditors usually get first crack at the assets THEN the employees get their back pay and other things... HOWEVER, if herve is authorizing the company to take out benefits deductions, and labelling them as such, without actually providing the benefits, there may be serious grounds for fraud charges. i'd like to see him go down on criminal charges out of this...

taks

 

[Transcendent One]

Wow this is getting simply ridiculous now. Herve is going to steal money from employees to keep the company alive? :shock:

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

severance isn't a guarantee, either... unless they've all signed contracts for severance. even then, creditors usually get first crack at the assets THEN the employees get their back pay and other things... HOWEVER, if herve is authorizing the company to take out benefits deductions, and labelling them as such, without actually providing the benefits, there may be serious grounds for fraud charges. i'd like to see him go down on criminal charges out of this...

Severence is part of the Interplay employment contract. If they are laid off, they get a few months pay per the contract. I'm not sure whether or not it's two or three months, though.

You're right about the benefits thing. If anything, it's at least grounds for a civil contract suit. Of course, it's also illegal to work people without pay, which seems is what Interplay is doing right now also.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Where is my stapler? Has anyone seen my stapler?

 

[Walks with the Snails]

i'd like to see him go down on criminal charges out of this...

How? The entire point of a corporation is limited liability - the owners/directors aren't held financially or legally responsible for the "company's" actions. Yeah, the employees can sue Interplay, but you can't get blood out of a turnip. Herve can be dumb sometimes but probably not in that way.

I don't think the employees will lose unemployment for quitting, though. Interplay is in breach of contract (i.e. not paying them).

 

[Fireblade]

i'd like to see him go down on criminal charges out of this...

How? The entire point of a corporation is limited liability - the owners/directors aren't held financially or legally responsible for the "company's" actions. Yeah, the employees can sue Interplay, but you can't get blood out of a turnip. Herve can be dumb sometimes but probably not in that way.

I don't think the employees will lose unemployment for quitting, though. Interplay is in breach of contract (i.e. not paying them).

Yes, if you "quit" because you're not getting paid, you can get unemployment.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Now, has anyone seen my stapler? I need my stapler.

 

[Jung]

...but my advice is go to work - and don't do a DAMNED thing. Just play <A href="http://www.seankreynolds.com">ping pong</a> all day.

Or use office equipment to send out resume.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I believe you have my stapler?

 

[undead dolphin hacker]

Where is my stapler? Has anyone seen my stapler?

I'll... I'll burn the whole building down. I will.

 

[Psilon]

And I told Bill that if Sandra can listen to her headphones while she's filing, then I should be able to listen to the radio when I'm collating, at a reasonable volume, between the hours of nine and eleven...

All right, now, enough strychnine in the guacamole.

 

[Rosh]

Apparently <A href="Http://www.nma-fallout.com">NMA</a> is advocating striking, but my advice is go to work - and don't do a DAMNED thing. Just play <A href="http://www.seankreynolds.com">ping pong</a> all day.

Well, that's nothing different from how Sean K. Reynolds "develops" at Interplay to begin with. I wonder if he's put together that his work isn't going to amount to shit since it will never be released.

Then I hope he shares the enjoyment of seeing his work never see the light of day, much like the real BIS devs have, perhaps the ultimate insult for any developer.

Then he may realize that he shouldn't have much such bloody idiotic statements as he has about BIS' closing. He's just a hired D&D whore. :D

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I don't think the employees will lose unemployment for quitting, though. Interplay is in breach of contract (i.e. not paying them).

Well, that's the thing about this, Interplay can argue they are paying them, they're just a little behind on the payment. Even if IPLY loses the argument, unemployment in California is still less than paying the severence.

 

[jimkirk]

has any of the interplay employees spoken to the labor dept?to see what benefits they can get through the unemployment office?or has anyone spoken to the california(or whatever state intrply is in)attorney general?not paying employees etc and defrauding them could be big

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Personally, I find it funny that we're talking about a bunch of computer game programmers (who are presumably professinuls) and what unemployment benefits they might get.

 

[Fireblade]

Yeah, it is humorous when you think about it. I'm not sure why people care that much. Even more humorous, at times, is the impression I get that a bunch of people on a message board seem to think they know how to run a large corporation better than an experienced executive would. It could be true that this guy is incompetent, but I wonder if anyone here has better credentials, such that their criticism could be taken seriously. No offense intended, BTW...

 

[Sol Invictus]

Would it ever occur to you that some of us here may have actual working experience with corporations in managerial positions? Of course not, people from the 'real world' (e.g. managers) don't frequent message forums, or even use the internet. We're all a bunch of 13 year olds living in the basement of our parents with nothing better to do than pretend we actually know something about the outside world.

You are a fucking retard. No offense intended, BTW...

 

[Spazmo]

In all fairness... everyone who has a business degree, raise your hand. Might be a couple of you, but we're mostly geeks here, programmer and scientist types.

In any case, the thing with IPLY is that it doesn't take an MBA to see that the company is (was? or rather, will have been was) run by idiots, for idiots.

 

[Sol Invictus]

No! If you have no MBA there is no way for you to know that. Who are you to say they ran a bad business? Where is your MBA, huh? I don't see it, chum. Until you get a business degree you have no right to question the business decisions of anyone WITH the qualifications. You have no idea what it is like to run a business so don't even pretend to. Why don't you try running a business and see how successful you are without the qualifications. I will bet that your company will go bankrupt the day it opens. If it is successful, only then can you talk about Interplay.

</sarcasm>

What's sad is that the majority of you folks would probably go bankrupt if you did try to run a business as big as Interplay's without the qualifications to do so, or the industry contacts to invest in your project. Haha.

Anyway, yeah, it doesn't take a fucking genius with an MBA to realize Interplay fucked up, and they fucked up big time. It's like saying, "hey, you have no right to comment on the Enron debacle because you've never even tried to run a lemonade stand in your life." Doesn't take a fucking genius to see the extent of the failure, man.

 

[Fireblade]

Would it ever occur to you that some of us here may have actual working experience with corporations in managerial positions? Of course not, people from the 'real world' (e.g. managers) don't frequent message forums, or even use the internet. We're all a bunch of 13 year olds living in the basement of our parents with nothing better to do than pretend we actually know something about the outside world.

You are a fucking retard. No offense intended, BTW...

Uh, yeah, it would occur to me that some people do, because I am one of them. I am not a CEO though, or even an executive officer of any kind. Are you? Maybe there is someone here who has the resume or credentials to compete with the guy you're talking shit about. I have a hard time believing that any/many of the people bashing him here have anything approaching that. If you are one that does, then that's fine, bash on. If everyone here does, then I apologize--I didn't realize I stepped into a board of directors meeting...

 

[Sol Invictus]

Oh yes, obviously us proles and plebes have no brains whatsoever to witness the huge fuck ups that are going down at Interplay right now simply because we lack MBAs. It's back to the blue collar jobs with us, fellow proles, nothing to see here!

 

[Fireblade]

BTW, just because his company is clearly failing does not mean he was a failure as an executive, necessarily. I don't know the inside details surrounding Interplay's management, because they don't invite me to their board of directors meetings. However, speaking from a general standpoint... It is up to the executive to carry out the company's plan, not to set that plan. Unless the CEO also happens to be a major investor/founder/owner, he may have no role at all in setting the company's direction. His job is to carry out the wishes of the board of directors.

In the startup community that I personally exist in, there are numerous examples of companies that failed miserably yet their CEO's were not considered responsible at all. If the founders create a business plan that's doomed to failure, and investors buy into it, and the board of directors keeps that plan...the CEO could carry it out to perfection, yet the company would still fail. In that case, it is not the CEO's fault at all, he may have done his job expertly.

 

[Fireblade]

Oh yes, obviously us proles and plebes have no brains whatsoever to witness the huge fuck ups that are going down at Interplay right now simply because we lack MBAs. It's back to the blue collar jobs with us, fellow proles, nothing to see here!

The company is obviously a failure.

I was talking about people bashing the CEO and other executives, primarily.

 

[Spazmo]

Unless the CEO also happens to be a major investor/founder/owner, he may have no role at all in setting the company's direction. His job is to carry out the wishes of the board of directors.

Herve Caen is the majority stockholder in Interplay. He carries out his own wishes which are, apparently, "make mediocre to shitty console games for SLAM DUNK! profits." Too bad he's incompetent.