How hard have you pushed yourself because of your work?

[Minos]

This is a serious thread. I see many of us (myself included) working long hours straight, without giving a shit to taking short breaks and exercises. Now all that "sacrifice" is paying off. I'm feeling a strong pain in my right armpit, that was caused by bad posture, unadequate chairs/desks, long hours doing the same repetitive work without breaks etc... I'm gonna take some tests today to find out what the fuck it is but I can hardly produce anything today. My boss is pretty demanding but I won't sacrifice myself because of a shit job, so I'll go home after lunch break today. I just hope this is not tendonitis, otherwise I'm doomed for life

So yeah, I'd like to hear from you guys if you are feeling any pains or any annoyances that were caused by your work routine. I'd also like to know how much do companies care about their employees' health (building adequate workplaces, encouraging them to take exercises/breaks, etc...) in your countries, because that's a very complicated subject here in Brazil. I've had several jobs and none of them had adequate workplaces nor any concerns to my health. Some of them even got upset when I complained about pains and stuff

[-HP-]

mmm, that doesn't sound too good Mino, you really should pay a visit to a doctor.

Personally, i can't complain about the place I work at, we have flexible hours, and we can take breaks whether or not we want, when we want, we game artists are not assets-makers machines, and I'm glad my boss understand that, coz he's an 3d artist as well.

Although, I do spend around 12 hours per day in front of the PC, (around 7 hours here at work, and the rest of the time at my place, gaming or working on my map), I can't complaint of any physical damage, although I did paid a visit to a ophthalmologist last month, and he told me my eyes are very tired, and I must wear eye protective glasses always I'm in front of a PC or TV from now on.

[Buddy]

Well, I work at home but I did had first stadium of RSI due to overworking, I had to slow down for few weeks. Now I'm ok but I feel like I will have to check my eyes as well. My vision is sharp as hell but i do feel I'm still overworking it due to exposure to the display.

[Steppenwolf]

My ears got a bit damaged when i was in the army because it was so fucking loud in the tanks even with ear protection. I don't hear as good on my left ear since then and sometimes have a pressure on it.

Working at my company is pretty relaxed most of the time. I have a normal 8 hours work day. Didn't had to work a single crunch time yet (mostly because im still rather new in the company and not so deep involved in the projects as some others. But the other level designers don't have to do too many over hours either as far as i can tell). We can take creative breaks whenever we need, even have a room for relaxation with a massage chair. I don't feel any pressure to work like a machine. Also the company pays some extra money for gym or massages. And we get free fresh fruits for our vitamine needs. After all the horror storys that i read about work conditions in the video game industry i'm happy to work at a company that treats its employees well.

Personaly i wouldn't sacrifice my health for a job anymore. I have a friend who always worked too hard and too long. Had his second burnout-syndrome already not long ago and is pretty fucked up now physically and mentaly. He is in my age.

[hessi]

i dont want to talk of my current employer, but i will talk of my old one:

so there was no health care. even worse: you had to do what you are supposed to do. no matter what. i remember a co-worker staying in office an entire week. 6 hours sleep. rest of the time was for working. this couldnt have been healthy. so did the doctor say! he was put on a diet and a sports training program.

the tables and stuff: well they were new, but i always prefer my chair at home. i can fall in there or lean forward. its just as i want. at work there was only a chair with a low back, so your head always dongled around.

to talk of physical damage:

i think i kind of have a small epileptic malfunction. from time to time my eyes start to flicker around. so do the fingers. its not that bad that i couldnt work or read, but it is annoying.

as a positive remark: my new employer is 10km away from my home. so i ride my bike to work as often as possible. and as a result i lost around 2kg weight. that means i am under 80kg now and i hope to reach the 70 one day again

[Minos]

as a positive remark: my new employer is 10km away from my home. so i ride my bike to work as often as possible. and as a result i lost around 2kg weight. that means i am under 80kg now and i hope to reach the 70 one day again

I wish I could do that. My workplace is approximately 10kms away from my home as well, but I'd probably get run over by some ruthless drivers lmao

stepp: That sounds great. It's great when companies realize that their productivity is closely related to their employees' state of mind and health.

[Ginger Lord]

Not game industry related but I pushed myself at work so hard one week I physically couldnt walk and move for the next 4 days afterwards.

I'm a landscape gardener over the holidays, basically a garden maintenance and builder job. We had a job for some extremely rich people to do a "patio" area. This patio turned out to be well over 100 square meters of slabs, at the bottom of his garden next to his triple garage containing two SLK's and a 911 Turbo. He also wanted it in a weird shape and out of extortionatly expensive slabs (ones we normally use are 60p-£1 each, standard moulded slabs. His ones were £7 each). It took three of us 5 days of 7am-8pm to do it. I ended up pretty much making concrete by hand (couldnt get lorry down there so cement mixer and shovel at top of garden and wheelbarrow it down) and god knows how much I made. Usually I can do about 4 tonnes of it by hand a day but I mustve been pushing 6 those three days along with another guy part time doing the same.

Long story short, he got his patio, we all couldnt do work the next week and enjoyed the nearly 6 figure sum to do it.

[General Vivi]

as a positive remark: my new employer is 10km away from my home. so i ride my bike to work as often as possible. and as a result i lost around 2kg weight. that means i am under 80kg now and i hope to reach the 70 one day again

I started riding a bike to raven since my apartment is right up the street. Only do it when its nice outside tho and I don't think I've lost any weight from it.

[dux]

Not game industry related but I pushed myself at work so hard one week I physically couldnt walk and move for the next 4 days afterwards.

I'm a landscape gardener over the holidays, basically a garden maintenance and builder job. We had a job for some extremely rich people to do a "patio" area. This patio turned out to be well over 100 square meters of slabs, at the bottom of his garden next to his triple garage containing two SLK's and a 911 Turbo. He also wanted it in a weird shape and out of extortionatly expensive slabs (ones we normally use are 60p-£1 each, standard moulded slabs. His ones were £7 each). It took three of us 5 days of 7am-8pm to do it. I ended up pretty much making concrete by hand (couldnt get lorry down there so cement mixer and shovel at top of garden and wheelbarrow it down) and god knows how much I made. Usually I can do about 4 tonnes of it by hand a day but I mustve been pushing 6 those three days along with another guy part time doing the same.

Long story short, he got his patio, we all couldnt do work the next week and enjoyed the nearly 6 figure sum to do it.

Hard labor is most satisfying at times!

[Ginger Lord]

The pay is certainly the best part, when I started I was 16 and got £4.50 an hour Must be close to £10 an hour when I go back this summer.

[Sentura]

The pay is certainly the best part, when I started I was 16 and got £4.50 an hour Must be close to £10 an hour when I go back this summer.

are you kidding me? people over here get £10 for working at a gas station..

unless you *cough* dont pay income tax *cough*

[Thrik]

Where is here?

[Ginger Lord]

Presuming Denmark, find it hard to believe people pay 95 Kroner an hour for petrol station employees. Here its minimum wage (£5 something)

Oh and theres some law for manual labour so we pay less tax (or no tax...) or something. Most of the time its cash in hand anyway.

[Thrik]

I was going to point out that the money itself isn't as relevant as the purchasing power of that currency in its own country. As such you simply cannot look at numbers alone and compare them between countries — their economies are completely different.

The most obvious example in the world right now is the ability for anyone to take a UK pound and immediately double its purchasing power by going to the US. That is, if I had enough money to buy GTA 4 in the UK, if I flew over to the US and took my money with me I would have enough to buy it twice. Yet that doesn't imply I'm more wealthy than my US counterparts — in the context of my own country I can't afford any more or less than they can.

But whatever the case, £10/hour isn't a bad wage at all in the UK. Two or three hours work gets you a game.

[Sentura]

I was going to point out that the money itself isn't as relevant as the purchasing power of that currency in its own country. As such you simply cannot look at numbers alone and compare them between countries — their economies are completely different.

The most obvious example in the world right now is the ability for anyone to take a UK pound and immediately double its purchasing power by going to the US. That is, if I had enough money to buy GTA 4 in the UK, if I flew over to the US and took my money with me I would have enough to buy it twice. Yet that doesn't imply I'm more wealthy than my US counterparts — in the context of my own country I can't afford any more or less than they can.

But whatever the case, £10/hour isn't a bad wage at all in the UK. Two or three hours work gets you a game.

all true, and i never argued this. however i thought wages were higher in the UK. you guys have nearly the same VAT as denmark (22 UK vs 25 DK) and i presumed wages would reflect this better. i dont know how much you actually pay in income tax.

gas station clerks here do get paid around 100 kr/hour, which would be somewhere around £9-10; the minimum wage being around 75 or 85 kroners at least. all this at a high income tax (40%), given, but we also get the first ~40,000 kroner "free" before we start paying income tax.

...it makes me wonder, because whenever i am in the UK i dont notice a real difference in prices.

also, how much is a gas station clerk paid in the UK?