MYW Unscripted Episode 07 – What is Crunch Mode and Why is it Terrible

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts125/v4/84/a7/84/84a784af-0328-2a74-661a-61991625e8e3/mza_1276778321422481937.jpg/600x600bb.jpg

Mind Your Work

Jose Espinoza; Nicholas Bremner

35 episodes

9 months ago

Mind Your Work is a podcast about investigating and understanding the human aspects of work through science. Scientists have uncovered important and interesting insights about work that many of us don’t ever get to hear. Research on people at work is also advancing rapidly making it hard to keep up. The hosts, Nicholas Bremner and Jose Espinoza, are Industrial/Organizational Psychologists and they dive into the research aiming to inform, educate, and entertain. They sum up what scientists know, how it’s being applied, and how it could affect us in the future.

All content for Mind Your Work is the property of Jose Espinoza; Nicholas Bremner and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

MYW Unscripted Episode 07 – What is Crunch Mode and Why is it Terrible

Mind Your Work

22 minutes 27 seconds

6 years ago

MYW Unscripted Episode 07 – What is Crunch Mode and Why is it Terrible

“Crunch Mode” may sound like a fun breakfast cereal, but it’s actually kind of a bummer. Crunch Mode is a controversial labour practice that is common in the video game industry. It involves long hours, high amounts of stress, and no extra pay. In this episode, Jose and Nicholas talk about where Crunch Mode came from, why it is so bad, and what could be done about it.

Timestamps:
0:40: What is Crunch Mode?
2:15: The rise of awareness of Crunch Mode
3:43: What are the specifics behind Crunch Mode?
8:42: What’s so bad about Crunch Mode?
14:27: How do we change this practice in the industry?
16:05: Key takeaways

Mentioned This Episode:
mindyourworkpodcast@gmail.com – Email us your ideas here!
MindYourWorkIO – Send us a tweet!
Mindyourwork.io – Find us here!
Original Crunch Mode blog entry - https://ea-spouse.livejournal.com/
Patriot Act Episode on Crunch Mode - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLAi_cmly6Q
Kotaku article on Crunch Mode - https://kotaku.com/inside-rockstar-games-culture-of-crunch-1829936466
Kotaku article on hiring cycles: https://kotaku.com/why-game-developers-keep-getting-laid-off-1583192249

Credits:
Our intro and outro music for Unscripted is “Pamgaea” by Kevin McLeod, licensed under licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. You can find more of Kevin’s music at incompetech.com.
Logo Artwork by Antonella Espinoza. Find her at @ellaspin on Twitter!