Dec
16

WoW Player? No job for you!

11 Comments

Once again, WoW seems to be the whipping boy of everything from poor education to the overall mortality rate of the planet…and now, it could be a reason you don’t get hired:

Some of the reasons cited for the rejections include bad sleeping habits, and an inability to give 100% due to a wandering mind — presumably wandering to the next Azerothian adventure.

…and here is the kicker: this assessment of WoW players came from a recruiter in the online media industry. I hope I’m not the only one who sees the irony in that.

Crap…I have bad sleeping habits and it’s only because I’m a night owl who needs to get up early, not because I play games all night. Fine…on some occasions I can blame gaming, but not all. I’m sure most people on the planet have nights like that at least once a week and it’s not always WoW related.

There is probably no law against a recruiter drawing a line like that, but I think it borders on a privacy issue. Personally, if a potential employer wouldn’t hire me because I play games, well, the middle finger goes up and I find one who is…ummm…not crazy and respects my personal time.

Just curious on why gaming is being singled out by this recruiter. What if I like building ships in a bottle all night and come into work tired? Is he asking each potential employee about bottled ships? Gawd….I hope not or I’m screwed! Honestly, if you’re not going to hire because a person plays a game then you might as well not hire for some of the other hobbies that people are into. Boy…what if he only had a choice between the guy who builds bottled ships and the guy who plays WoW?

/whipser
I’d pick the WoW guy because those ship building guys are just freaks.
/end whisper

Honestly, I think employers should just be happy if a person comes into work, does their best, and doesn’t end up shooting everyone at the company Christmas party. As long as they are not posting pics on MySpace of them eating kittens while being blown by a midget, then I think that their hobby time is their own business.

D out.

Posted in Editorial
11 Comments Posted by Darren

11 Responses to "WoW Player? No job for you!"

  • Snafzg says:
    December 16, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    This guy I know works in a unionized environment and has become a horrible employee since he started playing Everquest 2. His normal work schedule is 8:15-4:30 yet he shows up at 1:00pm and leaves around 5pm. That’s if he shows up at all, since he’s completely absent about 6 work days per month. He pulled the physical and mental health card and his boss just lets him get away with it, probably due to some kind of fear that this guy will go postal. He still earns his full paycheque (about $50k/year), while office morale is down the shitter. He works in a department with 6 others who are totally disgusted with the crap he gets away with but there isn’t a thing they can do about it.

    They could pull the same BS he does and send the matter to upper management but again, a fear of someone going postal and the fact that they are actually good people and not slackers prevents them from doing this.

    Trust me… video games can have an affect on people, just like alcohol and drugs can. Like you point out, any hobby to excess can have a negative impact on productivity, but video game obsessiveness is probably more common than rampant model airplane building.

  • JoBildo says:
    December 16, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    “As long as they are not posting pics on MySpace of them eating kittens while being blown by a midget, then I think that their hobby time is their own business.”

    I lol’d.

  • wilhelm2451 says:
    December 16, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    Given what I can hear coming over the cubes, I would guess that companies should discriminate against fans of American football, especially college football. Since the season was looming, there has been non-stop talk about the upcoming season, team rivalries, and the inevitable fantasy football league that has consumed many hours of company time. But I guess they all get to bed at a reasonable hour, so it is just “boys will be boys” I suppose.

    Personally, I wouldn’t bring up the fact that I play WoW or any other game while applying for a job.

    @Snafzg – What you describe there is a management issue, not a gaming issue. It can be tough because management needs to do a lot of work and follow a set of very specific rules, but they could get rid of that person if they wanted to. But I’ve seen what you have described before, an employee not pulling their weight at all but I hear from their manager how much of a pain it would be to get all the documentation in order to get rid of the person. So they let it ride, give them good reviews (because it is easier that way) and raises, and soon the person in question thinks they are doing their job.

  • Rob says:
    December 16, 2008 at 2:28 pm

    If I show up for work, do my job, then what concern is it of theirs what I do off the clock? Sure, staying up too late can, and probably does affect my performance, but if it became a real issue of me not getting my work done, then they should deal with that on a professional basis when it becomes an issue. Why don’t they make a rule to not hire anyone who drinks, smokes, watches TV, surfs the internet, etc, all of which are things that can keep you up late. Funnily enough, time and time again, the one thing that can always pull me out of an MMO streak is having a lot to do at work.

  • Maess says:
    December 16, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    @Snafzg If you are talking about the US, and the employee was asked for an accommodation under the ADA, there isn’t much that the boss can do.

  • Workplace Discrimination Against WoW Players | Random Battle says:
    December 16, 2008 at 10:49 pm

    [...] just saw Darren’s post pointing out this f13 thread where an online media recruiter was specifically instructed not to [...]

  • Jmo says:
    December 16, 2008 at 11:30 pm

    I know that when I interview people there are questions I cannot ask. Some being the following: What religion are you? What are your sexual preferences? And even How old are you?

    Why? Because I’ve been informed by my employers (this one and a past one) that they have been sued at one point or another because someone wasn’t hired for some reason or another, and they brought it back to a question asked in the interview (whether that was the reason for not hiring or not). In fact, we have a script and premade questions to follow during interviews. If this company is based in the U.S. I don’t give them long before someone sues them for damages for not getting the job due to an out-of-work hobby. With 11 million WoW players worldwide, and over 3 million being in the U.S., it won’t be long. We’re a lawsuit happy country, and someone is going to take this company to the cleaners for discrimination.

    Am I saying the person who does it is right? Not necessarily. But it may teach them to be a little more discrete in their hiring process.

  • Jason says:
    December 17, 2008 at 9:11 am

    What’s wrong with eating kittens and what do you have against little people?

    I demand that you recant that last statement!

    Jason (resident drunken idiot of Channel Massive and Chairman of The Association for Midget Loving Kitten Eaters)

  • Jason says:
    December 17, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    I also like your blog.

    But since we’re already trading links, I’d like some beer and dancing girls instead.

    Jason (resident drunken idiot of Channel Massive)

  • Rog says:
    December 25, 2008 at 7:41 pm

    Seems kinda funny to me, when the economy was doing better, there were all these media stories about how playing WoW could help your career, even suggestions to put your raiding and guild experience on your resume.

    Now that everything is slumped, it’s the other way around.

    How about this shocking concept, that our pastimes are just that, pastimes. =)

  • Male Fertility Diets says:
    March 4, 2010 at 6:46 am

    The testis is the primary organ of male reproduction while the spermatozoa, or simply ‘sperm’, is the product of the reproductive activities of the testes. The sperm is produced in the testes through a cycle/processes known as spermatogenesis and is stored in the epididymis. This process of spermatogenesis, takes about 74 days from the primitive cells called spermatogonia to the matured sperm cell. The development throughout this cycle is greatly influenced by a number of hormones, such as Lutenizing Hormone (LH), Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), testosterone and others. Finally, the matured sperm cells in the testis are non-motile and incapable of fertilization until they get to the epididymis for storage and distribution, where they undergo the final maturation to become motile and fully capable of fertilization. It should also be understood that, though the adult testis is located in the scrotum behind the testis, it actually develops, during fetal life, in the abdomen and only descends to its final position just before birth.

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