There is a very interesting piece over at InnerBits exploring why employees of game developers don’t fight back over the insane ‘crunch time’ work hours. Several reasons are given, ranging from general apathy/acceptance to lack of a unified labor force.
“One rationalizes the decision to stay quiet: other companies are the same; the grass isn’t any greener on the other side; it’ll be over in 6 weeks; etc. Again, older employees are more prone to this understandable line of thinking.
Still, they should speak up more. While it’s the youth in the industry that brings in fresh ideas, change is more likely to be effectuated by people at the top, senior people, the ones with experience. They are likely to be listened to by management.”
I went through a couple of crunch cycles, and they were certainly rough. Though the company I was at did have a compensatory program in place, it still made for some long weeks.