Benedikt Oehmen

It was really a magical time like we couldn't believe we got so lucky to be working at the single best company in gaming and having this for a job making money with it and basically having this second family away from home. We all felt like we found a second family in Blizzard because everybody was excited and passionate about the same things.

It was really a magical time like we couldn't believe we got so lucky to be working at the single best company in gaming and having this for a job making money with it and basically having this second family away from home. We all felt like we found a second family in Blizzard because everybody was excited and passionate about the same things.

And we spent time together during work and then we played together after work and we saw each other on the weekends for drinks and parties and other things. So it was really our entire world together. where the people at Blizzard had the jobs that we were there for doing. And that changed somewhat over the years as Blizzard emerged with Activision, which was a big publisher in the gaming industry.

And we spent time together during work and then we played together after work and we saw each other on the weekends for drinks and parties and other things. So it was really our entire world together. where the people at Blizzard had the jobs that we were there for doing. And that changed somewhat over the years as Blizzard emerged with Activision, which was a big publisher in the gaming industry.

And the priorities for Blizzard, to our eyes, started to shift. going from how can we make this the best most engaging experience for our players to how can we make more money with this and how can we make this graph go up more quickly and money is after a couple of years everything that we heard in discussions which

And the priorities for Blizzard, to our eyes, started to shift. going from how can we make this the best most engaging experience for our players to how can we make more money with this and how can we make this graph go up more quickly and money is after a couple of years everything that we heard in discussions which

was a strong departure from the original values that brought me to blizzard making the most epic experiences with gamers for gamers then it came in 2018 so a long way so i started in 2005 so 2018 was then 13 years in There was an announcement saying, hey, we need to save money globally and in our office here in Versailles specifically, we need to reduce our overall amount of people by 30%.

was a strong departure from the original values that brought me to blizzard making the most epic experiences with gamers for gamers then it came in 2018 so a long way so i started in 2005 so 2018 was then 13 years in There was an announcement saying, hey, we need to save money globally and in our office here in Versailles specifically, we need to reduce our overall amount of people by 30%.

And that was a shock to us because many of us, we started with Blizzard as our first company. And as I said, it really felt like a family. And all of a sudden we were to say goodbye to a third of that family. And we didn't know if we were impacted ourselves. So a lot of different and difficult emotions came up for everybody. We felt shocked. Oh, how can that be?

And that was a shock to us because many of us, we started with Blizzard as our first company. And as I said, it really felt like a family. And all of a sudden we were to say goodbye to a third of that family. And we didn't know if we were impacted ourselves. So a lot of different and difficult emotions came up for everybody. We felt shocked. Oh, how can that be?

Like we've been doing so well and I thought we are still doing well. And yeah, it was a really hard time for everybody involved and people had many different reactions because in France, after the announcement, it took about a year. before that reduction actually took place.

Like we've been doing so well and I thought we are still doing well. And yeah, it was a really hard time for everybody involved and people had many different reactions because in France, after the announcement, it took about a year. before that reduction actually took place.

So there was a phase for about half a year, three quarters of a year, where people could volunteer to leave so that the 30% would be filled up with volunteers as much as possible.

So there was a phase for about half a year, three quarters of a year, where people could volunteer to leave so that the 30% would be filled up with volunteers as much as possible.

and during that time frame it was getting increasingly difficult because few people a couple of people said there's too much pressure i i don't want to deal with this anymore i just want to get out and they left ahead of time i for myself decided i wanted to stay around to help my team through this process

and during that time frame it was getting increasingly difficult because few people a couple of people said there's too much pressure i i don't want to deal with this anymore i just want to get out and they left ahead of time i for myself decided i wanted to stay around to help my team through this process

And it turned out my team was completely gone at the end of the process because they reduced the entire community team to one person instead of around 10. which was, of course, a big change. For me, I took it as an opportunity to say, okay, good, this part of my career is done. Let's transition to somewhere else in the company.

And it turned out my team was completely gone at the end of the process because they reduced the entire community team to one person instead of around 10. which was, of course, a big change. For me, I took it as an opportunity to say, okay, good, this part of my career is done. Let's transition to somewhere else in the company.

And I went from a publishing to a production environment and localization, so the translation of our games, and started there as a manager, helping the team over there, the German and Italian team in particular,

And I went from a publishing to a production environment and localization, so the translation of our games, and started there as a manager, helping the team over there, the German and Italian team in particular,