Game Freak is a development studio extremely well known to Nintendo fans, with Pocket Card Jockey on 3DS being a particular standout. Yes, ok, there's also all of those hugely successful Pokémon games, too.
It's a company with an important place in the industry, then, and it's also exceptionally busy with consistent Pokémon main series releases. Game Freak has confirmed, however, that it's introducing an optional four day working week for its staff, in order to support those that need more flexible arrangements.
The scheme is applied monthly (allowing for short-term or long-term flexibility), in which employees can choose to make a weekday an additional Holiday. In the press release (Japanese) it is emphasized that this is primarily for "full-time employees who are raising children under elementary school age or who need family care and nursing".
It offers welcome flexibility, though taking up the option of a shorter working week will reduce salary and bonuses when applied - a working week of 32 hours (8 hours x 4 days) will lead to 80% of total pay. It's a pro-rata compromise that some may decide better fits their lifestyle or family demands.
At present there are a range of shifts and new options being utilised throughout the gaming industry and broader workplaces, with flexible hours, work-from-home and hybrid working all becoming more common.
[source prtimes.jp, via twitter.com]
Comments 21
that's pretty good
I'm genuinely surprised that companies are actually giving out more options for employees, but it's good to see MOST developers see some sort of progress in terms of work conditions and hours.
Great! More companies should do this.
Offering additional flexibility is always good, one of the few good things to come out of the pandemic.
But only offering an 80% week is kinda baffling. Why not allow those staff members to work an extra 2 hours each day and have a 100% week over 4 days?
"Employer offers full-time employees part time jobs." Nothing special here, especially if they are still expected to produce a full-time amount of work, which is possibly the case here. Also everyone deserves a more flexible work-life balance, not just parents. I'm a parent working in healthcare and I'm fortunate enough to work 4 10-hour shifts per week, it's so much better. I want to see more employers offering that as well.
Great. Now the trees are going to look 20% worse!
The trees... the trees...
cue the Twin Peaks theme
@nkarafo, that means 20% less water, IGN will be happy
So basically allowing parents to go part time rather than the misleading title. 4 day working week shouldn't be where companies are reducing pay.
This ain't it Game Freak.
I’ve been an American working a full time job (50+ hours salary) too long for this to compute as a reality. Lol.
@AcridSkull How is giving employees a more flexible work schedule not good?
Only downside is they get paid less but I guess it is optional after all.
In any case, does this mean the trees will look worse? If so, I'll riot!
@Kiz3000
Speaking as someone who negotiated a 4 day work week within a company, but got stuck with the "10 hour days so it's still 40 hours" setup. I wish I could just work 4 days of 8 hours. I'd likely even be willing to take a pay cut to make it happen (salary based). Not like a 32 hour work week wouldn't still legally qualify as full time, both federally and regionally (where I live, anyway). Not sure why so many companies have to be so hung up on keeping people either working forever, or working so little they can be legally re-classified as "part-time" (and by extension, have all benefits cut). There should be a middle ground.
From my perspective, what Game Freak is offering here is actually an ideal arrangement, especially as an optional one.
@Fighting_Game_Loser Because studies show that those working four 8 hour days a week are no less productive than those working five 8 hour days. So, same work for less pay.
Don't people in Japan usually work very long hours? At least that's the impression I get. I don't assume for a moment that they "only" work 8 hrs a day. So, it would seem like giving them a 4x10 option would be better, as I assume that's probably closer to how much they're working anyways. Unless the goal of the company is really to just pay them less.
There is a movement to go 4x32 lately, but with 100% pay. They're saying they are seeing productivity gains and reduced burn out. I could go for that. I'd definitely be more productive like that if I knew I had an extra day just to stay on top of errands and stuff.
The fact that they only work 32 hours is a little baffling. Just make it four 10s. Personally I’ve been working on a 4/10 schedule for the past seven years and the lengthened weekends are AWESOME.
So they are allowing you to go part time? I mean the reduced pay makes sense. If you are working less you get paid less.
What's the crunch like at Game Freak? Is this great until four months before release and then all bets are off?
This isn't a 4 day working week?!
Being allowed to take your holiday when you want to and reducing your working hours to be paid less are things you should expect at a minimum... The fact they've announced these as improvements is almost as ridiculous as NL interpreting this as meaning a 4 day working week?!
Neither of these things are a 4 day working week...
A 4 day working week means you work ALL your hours from 5 days within 4 days and are paid ALL your salary and bonus. In practice this tends to mean working 8am-6pm or 7am-5pm instead of 9am-5pm - sometimes you reduce your lunch from an hour to 30 minutes too.
Life is too short to work for companies that don't take this stuff seriously.
It was less than 100 years ago that everyone working in Britain received 1 week of annual leave a year. In the US you have some of the worst holiday allowances on the planet! We should all continue to push for more flexibility, more time to spend with our families (and videogames!) and better pay.
The rich are rich enough.
Japan is notoriously behind when it comes to enforcement of workplace laws and encouragement of taking paid leave (most people don't even take all of their few paid days off). The technology sector has always been a bit further ahead it offering flexible solutions to working though. But I still feel this great offer will simple be disregarded by most eligible employees where they feel co-workers would look down on them for reducing hours and they will feel pressure to keep working full time in order to stay in the running for promotions etc.
Japan's government is having a big push recently on male employees taking their legally supported paid maternity leave (which is actually very generous) but I hope this supports people in making that transition back to working life with children easier.
I've always thought you should be able to take a pay cut for less work. 32 hours for the same pay would be awesome, but this is acceptable too.
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