Looks like I won't be getting this call every day.

EDIT: Hi, I'm David S Gallant. I used to be a call centre employee. It was a very frustrating job, and eventually I made a game about it - I Get This Call Every Day. On January 29th, I was terminated from my employment because of the game. Sorry the original post lacked all of this context. Things were... weird that day.

Looks like I won't be getting this call every day.

EDIT: Hi, I'm David S Gallant. I used to be a call centre employee. It was a very frustrating job, and eventually I made a game about it - I Get This Call Every Day. On January 29th, I was terminated from my employment because of the game. Sorry the original post lacked all of this context. Things were... weird that day.

Care to elaborate?

Edit: Nevermind, I didn't know about your situation. Best of luck to you.

Bah, sucks. More gaming time though!

Well if it helps, I bought your game. Always happy to support talent. You'll bounce back in no time.

Your game is on my back burner list, so I think I'll pick it up tomorrow. Hopefully you'll bounce back soon!

Is it just me or does this just feel like a shameless plug?

This really needs more elaboration... I mean I don't even know what is going on here, and you're just linking to another page.

Best of luck. Pretty cool game, and great idea. Don't give up, keep making games. Real comedy is tough to find these days in games.

@beeftothetaco said:

Is it just me or does this just feel like a shameless plug?

I think if you get fired, you're entitled to at least one shameless plug.

This really needs more elaboration... I mean I don't even know what is going on here, and you're just linking to another page.

@DarthOrange: I wish I could talk about HOW it happened; basically, an article about me and my game went up on a major national news website. My employer caught wind of it, and at the end of the day I found myself unemployed.

This article does the best job of explaining the situation. It didn't really exist when I made my first post.

@TurboMan: I love your Best of Quick Look videos.

I am looking forward to the sequel. "I get this call everyday 2: The last call!"

I fantasize it was a call that got you fired.

Knew a costumer service guy doing much the same job, he got a person that was pranking him pretending to be foreign. The guy didnt even do anything wrong simply after 10 minutes of this said "I am sorry, I cannot help you if you wont speak English. If you could have someone who does speak english phone on your behalf, I will be able to help."

Manager overheard the last part called him up on it and there was new policy's in order and new recording tech. Except the tape never appeared to listen back. Fired him without knowing the full details.

Edit: huh it was the game that got you fired. A very tricky thing is employer nowadays.

People get fired for their Facebook accounts. Since the upload pics of them being drunk and such. Then employers pay people to check up on peoples face-books and fired them for "improper presentation of the company."......so people are married to the company and not allowed to live life as they see fit?

I wish I had a job to get fired from.

I want to kill myself.

Good luck on your travels, duder.

@Fattony12000 said:

I want to kill myself.

Don't do it, man. Unemployment sucks, but it's not the end of the world. If you can, focus these feelings into something creative; it'll help, believe me.

@Zvarri said:

Don't do it, man. Unemployment sucks, but it's not the end of the world. If you can, focus these feelings into something creative; it'll help, believe me.

I have been trying to, for months. A major problem is that I think I have crippling self-confidence issues, and am also a complete turd.

Never helped anyone outside of my infinitesimally small world. Never impacted anyone outside of my infinitesimally small world.

Never did my best at school. Never did my best at work.

I know that unemployment is not the end of the world, my problem is that if/when I do manage to get another job I will still not have anything to offer the outside world (I don't mean finding a vaccination or cure for HIV/AIDS, or constructing the world's first fully quantum computer, or solving the current problems in generating sustainable electrical power from nuclear fusion) that will be of any note to any one. I'll just keep taking up space and resources as a shadow of a hollow husk in the shape of a man.

Your game is pretty funny/good by the way, good job!

I'm sorry for you, but at the same time, I can't help but find this particular situation both hilarious and awesome - it's easily documentary material. Good luck to you, dear sir.

I imagine you could actually make quite an interesting game about unemployment.

@Fattony12000: That's rough, man. But you're awesome! I always enjoy your contributions around here. I hope you'll eventually be able to appreciate the inherent worth in simply being you in life. :)

@Fattony12000: If you're feeling that way then go out and find people with similar interests and meet up with them. Not a clue where you live but fund a trip to PAX or something. Ya know get around other people. These days with the internet at your fingertips its really easy to find like minded groups and people to hang out with.

I really, truthfully and completely honestly didn't mean to jump into this fine thread and take away from the actual matter at hand. I will not talk any more about my problems in this here thread, it's totes unfaire to @Zvarri.

To draw my moaning and moping to a close, I will reply to those two lovely duders who took the time to reply to me above. Damn that's a lot of ts.

@TruthTellah: Always Be Inherent! I have always considered myself to be optimistic and happy and nice about nearly everything and anything that I have done, and that has been done to me, over my lifetime. I'll get up and over this hump sometime...somehow...SOMEWHERE! I'm sure. Thank you for your kind words \( ^-^) /\ (^-^ )/

The January edition of my hallowed Fatbomb blog is coming later this very day. And this time...IT'S JUST FOR YOU! x

@Demoskinos: I have lived in a small, rural town in the South West of England for the past six years. We don't got shit here. I am also poor and mostly scared of interacting with people in the Real World, so the Widest of World Wide Webs has indeed been my major source of I/O with like-minded people for the past 20 or so years. I should try to branch out, I know. Maybe I'll get there someday...something...SOMEWHY! x

@Zvarri Are you able to talk about how well this game has done for you? Whether that's financially or personally, are you planning to work on more commercial ventures in the future? Do you have any plans to make a game about being fired after making a game about your job?

Not sure how what your employer did was legal.

You should probably seek legal advice.

Hang in there man.

@Canteu said:

Not sure how what your employer did was legal.

You should probably seek legal advice.

When you start work at a call center job, your first day is often spent signing a bunch of terms of employment regarding how you have to keep everything super confidential. The obvious parts of that are that you're not supposed to remember anything but customer's names, addresses, banking information, etc.

But it also often extends to not being allowed to share company policy or whatever. I used to work in a call center for a major ISP in Canada (Bell), except not really because Bell doesn't bother with its own call centers, and instead contracts various call centers in Canada, India, the Philippines, etc. So I was technically working for this independent call center that had been contracted to Bell for like a decade, but while speaking to customers, if they asked, I was to refer to myself as a Bell employee, as if Bell was one big happy family.

So while "I Get This Call Every Day" is probably an even more ambiguous case, I assume SOMETHING about the game probably gave a pretty good impression of how Gallant's employer does business, and the terms of his employment he signed may have been specific enough that even that was enough to get him fired.

@BisonHero: I've worked at several call centres, military support and tax management included. Of course I was required to sign confidentiality agreements, but from what I can tell Zvarri's product releases no actual information or working practices. I mean maybe it's different in Canada, but the office depicted, the computer system used, the customer dealt with and the end result all seem fictional to me (well maybe the customer has some truth to it).

I still feel this is a case of unfair dismissal due to incorrect or perceived information about his product.

edit: I had to refer to myself as HP when actually contracted by the employment company. Was weird since I didn't actually work for HP.

@Canteu: Yeah, I thought the same, in that he did go to pretty good lengths to make everything seem fictional and to not give away where he was actually employed. I certainly wouldn't discourage Gallant from speaking with a labour lawyer, but given that he has stressed in the past that he has to keep working call center jobs to make ends meet, I don't imagine he would have tons of time or money to get into a court case.

So call centers are the necessary evil of mankind?

It's funny because I am that guy who you deal with every day. I have Bell internet and no home phone, but every time I call they want my home phone number, so we battle.

@BisonHero: That kinda sucks. Here in the UK if we get unfairly dismissed we can take it to an employment tribunal, to no cost of our own.

@Canteu: I believe there is an equivalent option here in Canada, where he can file an appeal with the Ministry of Labour. But it's my understanding that he worked for the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency), and they're a big enough operation that I fear they probably know pretty well what is within their ability to fire someone for.

@BisonHero: Yeah, after reading the article and finding out about his place of employment, I lost some faith that a lawyer would be able to do anything.

@Zvarri: They fired you for making a game? That's fucking disgusting, and something you should look into the legality of. I don't know where you live but considering unemployment is at ridiculous levels everywhere (been unemployed for two years myself and can't seem to get anyone to even interview me) this is fucking... ugh.

Link me to where I can buy your game, because fuck that shit. Also try to drum up some publicity to take advantage of other like-minded people ;)

@GunslingerPanda: Just nodding my head at the 2 year unemployment bit. I am the same in the Uk, Scotland to be precise and I am utterly desperate for any job. I however have had 10 interviews the last two years. More than I ever had in the three years before I got my 6 month job. I sadly have not had a job last past 6 months. I even can run a very busy shop by myself, the area manager would listen to me and agree, and do the action I suggested. While I am only ever employed as Sales assistant I am a damn good store Manager. Sadly....I never had the official training or title.

And who wants someone who can be a Manager doing you till work? Overqualified for Sales Assistant and other jobs of the like, under qualified for Assitant manager or the like.

Also the legal side of his firing is the Canadian Tax fired him on the grounds that sensitive data was used in it, meaning in their eyes he broke their trust. Unless he is going to fight them with an expensive legal battle, they are pretty legit in their action. Just not the facts.

I don't know what's up with the Consumerist, I guess it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing, but they posted your story twice in 24 hours.

Good luck!

I was fired last summer (still looking....), and it's a shitty thing. But you'll bounce back.

Getting fired is a frustrating thing, and I fully support you getting out said frustrations in a creative way. Good on ya.

Saw this story on the Detroit news this morning. All this press could only be a good thing, right?

I took the opportunity to finally throw some money your way and give the game a go. Hope you land on your feet, and optimistically enough I think this might turn out to be a good thing for you, considering you hated that job anyway.

@GunslingerPanda: Here ya go. http://www.davidsgallant.com/igtced.html Also be sure to vote for it on steam greenlight. =)

@Zvarri said:

Looks like I won't be getting this call every day.

EDIT: Hi, I'm David S Gallant. I used to be a call centre employee. It was a very frustrating job, and eventually I made a game about it - I Get This Call Every Day. On January 29th, I was terminated from my employment because of the game. Sorry the original post lacked all of this context. Things were... weird that day.

Wow classic response from a bunch of call center management assholes. I commiserate with you, I really do. Best of luck finding a new job with a company that isn't a bunch of shit sacks. Really glad to hear the sales of the game have taken off though and you are getting a lot of support.

@Zvarri: Have any lawyers tried to contact you after seeing the article?

I'm not a lawyer and don't formally know anything about the law, but I agree with the others questioning the legality of this.

Unless you were using actual recordings of calls or used your employer's name in the game I just don't see how they had the right to fire you. Maybe if you'd been slacking off and not doing the job because you were too busy writing code at night or were convinced you were going to make a fortune off of the game I could see that, but if you were still showing up on time and putting in the required hours it seems unjust. Was there anything in your employment contract about not writing a novel or making a game about your experiences?

Well, I bought your game a few weeks ago. I hope it helped just a little. I don't know how much of the $2 you saw (I assume the distribution service costs something), but I hope it was enough for a taco. The next taco you eat is on me, dude.

Well, I bought your game a few weeks ago. I hope it helped just a little. I don't know how much of the $2 you saw (I assume the distribution service costs something), but I hope it was enough for a taco. The next taco you eat is on me, dude.

@MariachiMacabre said:

@GalacticGravy

Well, I bought your game a few weeks ago. I hope it helped just a little. I don't know how much of the $2 you saw (I assume the distribution service costs something), but I hope it was enough for a taco. The next taco you eat is on me, dude.

Ok, come on. Your payment was WEEKS ago! He's eaten at least one taco since then, surely. Let a new generation of supports buy his tacos, old man. The next taco is on me.

When I was your age $2 would buy three tacos! You kids just got no respect. I had to walk through nuclear fallout to get to the Taco Bell and now you kids can just download one off of the computers.

And another thing.......zzzzzzzzz.......

@Fattony12000: The fact that you can write a post with no glaring grammatical mistakes makes you automatically better than 95% of the internet.

@Zvarri: Man, that blows, I'm always hearing about how hard it is for employers to get rid of dead beat employees. With you its the exact opposite, an actually talented and hardworking person gets fired because they made a harmless game. I guess it's much easier for the government to fire people. Good luck with the job search!

Sorry to hear that man. I just bought your game for $20 (smart idea letting people put whatever they want =) ).

Also hunted for it on GreenLight and voted it up. You will get through this!

Edit... if it does get greenlighted I expect a steam code =P

@Zvarri said:

@DarthOrange: I wish I could talk about HOW it happened; basically, an article about me and my game went up on a major national news website. My employer caught wind of it, and at the end of the day I found myself unemployed.

This article does the best job of explaining the situation. It didn't really exist when I made my first post.

Maybe it was a bad idea having your real name associated with a game you made complaining about your job? Still it sounds like the stars of bullshit aligned and dropped their load in your lap. Best of luck to you.

Looks like this got moved from the Off-Topic forum. I feel like this needs to be heard. Perhaps @patrickklepek can get an article going? I am not one to sensationalize something, but it's pretty screwed up you lost your job over this.

Lemme field some questions.

First, if you think Patrick should cover the story, he's already way ahead of you.

Legal stuff - I haven't spoken to a lawyer yet. I still have to sort things out with Compensation and the Union. I really don't know if I will be pursuing any legal action yet. If I do, I'll probably have to keep quiet about it. Legal proceedings are fun like that.

To any of you who have bought the game, upvoted it on Greenlight, or wished me well: thank you. I cannot thank you all enough. Everyone involved has helped turned a negative situation into a glowingly positive one.

Hope the attention that you're receiving helps you land on your feet. Just bought your game!

@Zvarri: How intentional was the art direction for the game? Was it something that you just did out of necessity (lack of time, lack of art training, etc.), or was it more a creative decision? Or perhaps a combination of the two?

In either case, I find it completely endearing and charming.