It has been around three weeks since Microsoft laid off a reported 9,000 workers, including many within its video game division, and multiple employees at the company’s ZeniMax Media subsidiary have spoken out to explain how that chaotic day unfolded and detail the struggles of adapting to a new normal after yet another debilitating round of cuts at the Xbox maker.
Microsoft’s decision to force people out of the door hasn’t just caused widespread upheaval and emotional distress—but, as some employees tell us, will also hamper the productivity of those left behind.
A number of ZeniMax Media staffers told Game Developer how they were blindsided by the way the cuts were communicated to employees. One source, who chose to remain anonymous, spoke to us on the day of the layoffs and explained they were left in limbo for hours after being locked out of ZeniMax’s internal Slack channel. “In the last few minutes I’ve unfortunately lost access to literally everything,” they said. “No Slack, email, nothing is working. We have an off-work Discord, but it’s all people freaking out with no real verifiable info.”
They detailed how staff were frozen out of those channels before HR had made contact, prompting widespread confusion and panic. “Considering we don’t have email now, I don’t know how they’re even supposed to contact us—I don’t know if they even have my personal email,” they added. Another source, who also chose to remain anonymous, corroborated that information and said the ordeal left them feeling as if they had been “run over by a truck.”
Current ZeniMax employee and ZWU-CWA union member Page Branson described that day as “one of the worst days at a job I’ve ever had in my entire life.” She explained Microsoft failed to effectively clarify who would be impacted by the layoffs—and claimed those who were eventually laid off were “absolutely crucial” to the success of The Elder Scrolls Online and “integral” to the everyday function of the studio.
“It was so sad seeing people so distraught and confused and not knowing if they would have a job by the end of the day—or even if the layoffs were done by the end of the day,” she added. Branson said the layoffs felt like a “betrayal of trust of the highest magnitude” and stated it feels as if the company is now talking to shareholders first and developers second.
ZeniMax Media senior QA tester and ZWU-CWA member Autumn Mitchell said the lack of communication from Microsoft left her and colleagues in a state of “fight or flight” on the day of the layoffs. “It’s not okay. It wasn’t normal. I don’t care how many times they do it to try and make it seem normal—it’s not. The way they do it is inhumane. I don’t care how much they say that it’s dignified or they want to do it in a respectful way—it’s not,” she added.
“Some people were here for 15 years and cut out. Making it so that people have to rush to type a goodbye message into Slack to their colleagues that they’ve been working with on various projects, that have been making your corporation money for 15 years, is disgusting. It’s disgusting. If I could get any message to any executive right now it would be review this process because it’s not normal and it’s not okay”
‘This is an acute traumatic event and it needs to be treated like that’
Both Mitchell and Branson are still currently employed at ZeniMax, but have some candid words for Xbox leaders Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Sarah Bond—who have now presided over multiple studio closures and repeated mass layoffs following the company’s $68.7 billion merger with Activision Blizzard.
Mitchell said it feels like Xbox leadership are “disconnected” from the reality of life at the company and wants them to actually start communicating with people in the trenches of production. “I would beg you—I would get on my knees and beg [you] right now—to please talk to people and ask them what this is like on the ground level before sending out the blast emails that you do,” she said, referring to the leaked internal memo (via Windows Central) sent out by Phil Spencer that communicated widespread layoffs while simultaneously noting that Xbox has “more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before.”
“You are too far away to have any idea how—maybe not intentionally—how hollow those emails are,” added Michell, who acknowledged that while there is no “right” way to make layoffs, Microsoft has repeatedly missed the mark by a country mile. “This is an acute traumatic event and it needs to be treated like that,” she added. “[…] How do we mitigate the impact of how absolutely traumatic this is on people, including those who survive it?”
Although Branson explained she has never had any personal interactions with Xbox leadership, she feels they will struggle to regain the trust of employees after upending so many lives over the past 18 months. “I don’t know what they can do at this point to win back trust from the consumers and some of their employees,” she said. “I continue to think back to [the closure of] Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin—watching that happen is now the second worst day of my career.
“These mass layoffs affect real people and real families and throw their lives into disarray. I wish for empathy, is the core of my messaging. I wish for people to be empathetic and think about the human cost when it comes to all of this.”
It’s currently unclear how many people have been laid off at ZeniMax specifically, but one anonymous source told us it was a “fuck ton” and another indicated hundreds have been impacted.
In a public statement issued last week, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and ZeniMax Online Studios United-CWA (ZOSU-CWA)—another union to have formed within ZeniMax—said no union members have been laid off yet but confirmed it remains possible that some will eventually be made redundant. The CWA and ZeniMax union representatives remain in negotiation with Microsoft over the layoffs.
Workers claim Microsoft just kicked decades of institutional knowledge to the curb
The emotional impact of the layoffs—on both those being made redundant and those who remain—is evident. The more practical downside is that Microsoft has just erased decades of experience in the blink of an eye, making it harder for the developers who kept their jobs to maintain the same level of quality their employer (and its shareholders) will undoubtedly expect.
“A lot of practical knowledge just disappeared overnight,” said Branson. “Everyone left now has to pick up the pieces as best they can. The [dwindling] morale and general confusion of it all has extended into our general workflow. We used to have very, very reliable people working on things and they’re no longer there. They were integral. I feel like they were numbers on a sheet that got cut, but the real application of what they were doing was integral to making everything run correctly.”
Mitchell claimed ZeniMax has lost a third of the institutional knowledge that was keeping a lot of its projects running smoothly. Microsoft said the cuts were made in service of streamlining workflows and making studios more agile, but Mitchell suggests the reality will likely require remaining employees to grind themselves to the bone by taking on the work of multiple people.
“This carcass of workers that remains is somehow supposed to keep shipping award-winning games,” she explains. “I don’t really know [how that works]. It looks like a lot of people moving between projects to fill in the position of someone who was laid off—and it probably took them a good six months to figure out [how to do that role effectively].”
On a human and emotional level, Mitchell said it’s also just really difficult to do your best work when you’re “looking at a graveyard.” She explained ZWU-CWA union members had only just agreed a contract with Microsoft that will see them return to the office. One of the silver linings of that situation was the possibility of collaborating more closely with colleagues in-person. Now, many of those people no longer have jobs.
“Microsoft just took everything that could have been great about the culture and collaboration and decimated it,” she added. “Morale is terrible. It’s grotesque. People are stressed. They’re crying. For a lot of us, those were some of our best friends. They’re our roommates. In my case it was my partner—my partner and I worked together and he was laid off. And I’m not a unique story.
“It’s terrible. It’s going to take a lot of time to heal. It’s going to take a lot of time to regroup and get those projects running smoothly again. I also think we need to bring some people back. I don’t see how we get through this work without bringing some people back.”
‘A lot of us are trying to stay because we believe in making it better’
Both Mitchell and Branson believe the layoffs would have been so much worse at ZeniMax had so many of its members not unionized. Hundreds of ZeniMax employees have successfully organized under the ZeniMax Workers United-CWA and ZOS United-CWA banners and those groups are now rallying together to provide support to each other.
“It’s reassuring having an organization like CWA for people during this moment, because if we hadn’t organized and if we didn’t have the backing of an outside organization that could fight for the people who have been affected—and those who still retain their jobs—it would be night and day for people,” said Branson. “It’s incredibly helpful to have their resources behind us during this time. I remain a very, very strong advocate for unionization across, not just the video game industry, but the whole tech industry.”
Mitchell explained union members across divisions have united to help each other navigate the situation by editing resumes, hosting mock interviews, and reviewing portfolios. They are essentially doing whatever they can to ensure those who’ve had their lives derailed by Microsoft aren’t simply left out in the cold. She also noted that some of those who fought tirelessly for unionization within ZeniMax will now be prevented from seeing the fruits of their labor, but said their collective efforts will help pave the way for a brighter future.
“We just ratified our first contract. It was a real moment of celebration for us, but we only had about two weeks to celebrate it. In that regard, it’s hard not to feel like ‘damn, we just went through all of that and now a third of us aren’t going to see this thing in action,'” she added.
Mitchell believes there is still progress to be made when it comes to securing better contract terms and mitigating the impact of layoffs, but said that unions have given workers the means to break down the communication silos between teams and departments, enabling them to rally together in the face of catastrophic moments like these. She hopes there is a chance that ZeniMax employees will be able to continue working together to overcome the pain and adversity caused by Microsoft, and suggested she would have left the company long ago if she didn’t truly believe that was possible.
“I’m still at Microsoft. It’s not like I’m looking for other work. A lot of us are trying to stay because we believe in making it better. I think that’s important for anybody who’s reading to understand, especially the executives,” said Mitchell. “If people are sticking around it’s not just because they’re fearful of losing a job. It’s because at some point in time, they have believed in the culture and values that were once created at this place.”
Game Developer has approached Microsoft for comment.
