Speaking of feeling less like a human being every day: journalists.

@jmic75 said:

Man create games about his experience in all call centres.

"Journalist" sensationalises by implying it is about specific government agency only and all tax paying Canadians.

Man gets fired, "journalist" pats self on back, never returns his phone calls.

pretty much. all call centres are awful. it's got nothing to do with our taxpayers in particular. that said, he probably should have expected this. People get fired for a lot less.

anyways, hope this guy is able to find another job soon

I think the real bad guy (girl) here is the reporter. Why would she disclose the company he worked for? That could do nothing but harm.

@jmic75 said:

@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

I've always had nothing about respect for our northern neighbors. I can't respect this.

Except for the part where he is an employee of the federal government and he's bitching about his decent paying, tax-funded job with great benefits which involves interacting with tax-payers concerning taxation. He was "club-fed" employee. It takes remarkable skill to get fired from government agencies. Maybe if his frustrations could take a more artful turn into metaphor and allegory he wouldn't lose his job, but they didn't.

He did all this while off the job, was making commentary on all call centres jobs and did not at any point say it was about his current job nor did he even mention his current job. At what point is something like this infringing upon free speech? If I post on a social media site that I hate Mondays should I then be fired for implying that working at company X on Mondays suck? What difference does it make that he was a federal employee? Everyone bitches about their jobs at some point no matter what job you have.

Except it wasn't a comment to his friends on facebook, it's something he's offering to the public. I know he doesn't specifically mention the CRA, but it's really not that big of a stretch to assume a lot of this is coming from his (then) current job. A job which happens to be funded by tax-payers. He is getting paid to deal with these people. That's the job. If he hates it so much, find another job. And if he can't go without making his complaints about the people he is supposed to offer a service to into a public spectacle, then he shouldn't have the job. There are enough people who will take the overpaid government job and shut the fuck up about it

@satansmagichat said:

With the title, "How Making a Video Game About Your Life Can Get You Fired", I expect it to be a story an underdog fighting the man, but I don't really see that here. After all, he had the kind of job where releasing peoples' personal and private information is a serious infringement. I'm sure he changed the names and everything, but I'm sure he expected to get fired, so I don't see that as being the crux of the story.

Did you take even a second to look at the game? There's not a hint of personal information being released, you just get the most generic call ever about changing someone's address.

Reporters, as classically asshole-ish as ever.

Seems like the reporter could have held back the employer information, but it seems like the developer was informed beforehand about that.

One of the worse things about these kinds of jobs is that the employer pretends like there isn't anything bad about the experience and then chastises employees when they bring up the bad things. It reeks of corporate and bureaucratic insensitivity.

He was stupid to make the game, when he knew the risk, but so long as he did not include any personal information about his clients or disclose any government secrets, they (Rev Canada) really shouldn't feel threatened by this.

Perhaps she was just doing her job, but the reporter got a man fired and is further perpetuating the stereotype of reporters being vultures that feed off and incite human suffering to make their living. Way to go dumbass. You are the reason most people despise reporters.

@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

I've always had nothing about respect for our northern neighbors. I can't respect this.

Except for the part where he is an employee of the federal government and he's bitching about his decent paying, tax-funded job with great benefits which involves interacting with tax-payers concerning taxation. He was "club-fed" employee. It takes remarkable skill to get fired from government agencies. Maybe if his frustrations could take a more artful turn into metaphor and allegory he wouldn't lose his job, but they didn't.

You assume too many things in your posta. Like how artful allegory or metaphor could have saved his job, or like in another post where you said that "No one outside of Toronto reads to Toronto Star".

Actually I read the Toronto Star and I'm from Florida, about as far South in the US as you can get. I also don't think you understand how game development works if your response was he should be more metaphoric.

If you're going to continue being an insipid asshole to a guy who clearly put a lot of hard work and dedication into something, I have no business with you. Don't bother responding if you're going to continue being rude about this, and stop assuming things that you don't know.

@Triumvir said:

Man, I hate my government sometimes.

EDIT: Oh, I finally got the quest. Cool. Anyway, I hope Minister of National Revenue likes lawsuits.

I hate our government all the time. :(

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse You've obviously never worked in a call center and don't know what you're talking about.

I worked for a while as a project manager, where my main responsibility was to be phone-answering-guy for various customers who were wondering why they had paid hundreds of thousands for a service which wasn't working/hadn't been delivered. You're obviously just seeking to dismiss anyone you disagree with and don't know what you're talking about.

@MattyFTM: According to the metrics he has been tweeting its gotten roughly 39% or so of the votes needed to be chosen.

@ghostNPC: Yeah, me too, really, but sometimes I really hate 'em. : /

Wish I could make a game about shit that annoys me.

@MildMolasses said:

@jmic75 said:

@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

I've always had nothing about respect for our northern neighbors. I can't respect this.

Except for the part where he is an employee of the federal government and he's bitching about his decent paying, tax-funded job with great benefits which involves interacting with tax-payers concerning taxation. He was "club-fed" employee. It takes remarkable skill to get fired from government agencies. Maybe if his frustrations could take a more artful turn into metaphor and allegory he wouldn't lose his job, but they didn't.

He did all this while off the job, was making commentary on all call centres jobs and did not at any point say it was about his current job nor did he even mention his current job. At what point is something like this infringing upon free speech? If I post on a social media site that I hate Mondays should I then be fired for implying that working at company X on Mondays suck? What difference does it make that he was a federal employee? Everyone bitches about their jobs at some point no matter what job you have.

Except it wasn't a comment to his friends on facebook, it's something he's offering to the public. I know he doesn't specifically mention the CRA, but it's really not that big of a stretch to assume a lot of this is coming from his (then) current job. A job which happens to be funded by tax-payers. He is getting paid to deal with these people. That's the job. If he hates it so much, find another job. And if he can't go without making his complaints about the people he is supposed to offer a service to into a public spectacle, then he shouldn't have the job. There are enough people who will take the overpaid government job and shut the fuck up about it

His job he had might not have even been a call centre position? I know tons of people that I went to high school with that worked minimum wage call centre jobs to sell shit/do surveys, and they fucking hated it. To assume that this particular game is about this particular job is ridiculous. Get your head out of your ass. He probably did exactly what you're saying and found another job, a job at the CRA. In his free time he made a game about his life, and he's offering this to the public because making games is probably his passion. Don't be such a prick.

call center > most food service jobs, but barely

@Laivasse

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse You've obviously never worked in a call center and don't know what you're talking about.

I worked for a while as a project manager, where my main responsibility was to be phone-answering-guy for various customers who were wondering why they had paid hundreds of thousands for a service which wasn't working/hadn't been delivered. You're obviously just seeking to dismiss anyone you disagree with and don't know what you're talking about.

There's a difference between Project Manager and Call Center Rep. You had power. He didn't.

I should make a video game about my job... I'm an orange guy with a trumpet nose that lights up blocks by jumping on them. Gets frustrating, man. Gotta do what you gotta do.

@thabigred said:

@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

I've always had nothing about respect for our northern neighbors. I can't respect this.

Except for the part where he is an employee of the federal government and he's bitching about his decent paying, tax-funded job with great benefits which involves interacting with tax-payers concerning taxation. He was "club-fed" employee. It takes remarkable skill to get fired from government agencies. Maybe if his frustrations could take a more artful turn into metaphor and allegory he wouldn't lose his job, but they didn't.

You assume too many things in your posta. Like how artful allegory or metaphor could have saved his job, or like in another post where you said that "No one outside of Toronto reads to Toronto Star".

Actually I read the Toronto Star and I'm from Florida, about as far South in the US as you can get. I also don't think you understand how game development works if your response was he should be more metaphoric.

If you're going to continue being an insipid asshole to a guy who clearly put a lot of hard work and dedication into something, I have no business with you. Don't bother responding if you're going to continue being rude about this, and stop assuming things that you don't know.

I appreciate being called an insipid asshole and then told that I'm the one being rude.

BTW, I already corrected and admitted my mistake regarding the Star earlier.

Interesting story, Patrick.

I looked into the forums here on this game on the day it was released, and David was in there chatting amiably with folks about it. He seems like a genuinely good guy.

Great to hear that there's been an outpouring of support - I hope he lands on his feet.

$2 more dollars coming your way, Dave.

Hope he finds another job soon. Idiotic reporter had to snoop around about this little indie game which didn't hurt anybody.

@CrystaljDesign: I was really hoping Minister Shea, or someone in her office, would actually take the time to play it. I have no confirmation, but based on her publicized reaction, I do not believe that she did.

@Homelessbird: Thank you!

I find it funny how there is such overwhelming support for this guy and yet at the same time the common view of the standard government employee is that of someone who is lazy, incompetent, and over-entitled. A CRA call center agent makes close to $50000 a year on a high-school education and has access to the same "gold plated" government pension we all wish we had. If he hated his job so much, he should have just got the f on. There are many who would gladly take his place, especially in today's economy. Now I don't know anything of this guy's ability on the job, but if life has taught me anything it's that people who hate what they're doing tend to do it really half-assed (especially call centre people).

@CornBREDX: I honestly should have thought twice about the interview with the Star. The game kept getting coverage in the gaming press, and then suddenly traditional media wants to hear about it? I was way too excited about that idea to really think through the consequences.

Alas, what's done is done, and I honestly think I'm better for it. If anything, it was a huge exercise in how not to deal with the media.

@Konig2540: From the Star article

Gallant confirmed in a tweet early Wednesday morning that he got fired from his job as a part-time employee answering calls to the Canada Revenue Agency. The Star has not been able to reach him directly.

---------

Gallant’s online game, I Get This Call Every Day, allows the player to listen to a conversation between an unprepared, annoying caller and a government-style call centre employee. At least one of the game graphics refers to “Last Tax Return.’’ The player gets to make choices as to how the call-centre worker responds but in many of the scenarios, the employee gets fired.

---------

Ironically, Gallant’s website said people could pay more to “help the developer escape the job that inspired this game.”

But you're probably right. People are way off base thinking the game has anything to do with his call-centre job at the Canada Revenue Agency

@Humanity: It really wasn't a shock to me; as has been said elsewhere, and even in Patrick's article, I always knew this was a possibility. I never expected the outpouring of support that followed, however.

Leaving that office, all I could think about was how I was going to make sure my wife and I would be able to put food on our table. In 48hrs, everything flipped on its head.

@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

@MildMolasses said:

@thabigred said:

I've always had nothing about respect for our northern neighbors. I can't respect this.

Except for the part where he is an employee of the federal government and he's bitching about his decent paying, tax-funded job with great benefits which involves interacting with tax-payers concerning taxation. He was "club-fed" employee. It takes remarkable skill to get fired from government agencies. Maybe if his frustrations could take a more artful turn into metaphor and allegory he wouldn't lose his job, but they didn't.

You assume too many things in your posta. Like how artful allegory or metaphor could have saved his job, or like in another post where you said that "No one outside of Toronto reads to Toronto Star".

Actually I read the Toronto Star and I'm from Florida, about as far South in the US as you can get. I also don't think you understand how game development works if your response was he should be more metaphoric.

If you're going to continue being an insipid asshole to a guy who clearly put a lot of hard work and dedication into something, I have no business with you. Don't bother responding if you're going to continue being rude about this, and stop assuming things that you don't know.

I appreciate being called an insipid asshole and then told that I'm the one being rude.

BTW, I already corrected and admitted my mistake regarding the Star earlier.

When you make a game then I won't call you an insipid asshole for being an insipid asshole to someone who put the enough heart and dedication into something to actually ship a finished game.

@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse You've obviously never worked in a call center and don't know what you're talking about.

I worked for a while as a project manager, where my main responsibility was to be phone-answering-guy for various customers who were wondering why they had paid hundreds of thousands for a service which wasn't working/hadn't been delivered. You're obviously just seeking to dismiss anyone you disagree with and don't know what you're talking about.

There's a difference between Project Manager and Call Center Rep. You had power. He didn't.

'Project Manager' is increasingly a glorified term for corporate gopher. When someone's used as nothing but a buffer between top management and dissatisfied clients, the lack of power is the same. The point stands that if a lack of power is frustrating to a person, then they should avoid the fundamentally servile role of customer service.

Avoiding the role is not the point of the game. It's demonstrating the futility of the role. And not everyone is able to avoid it, even if they want to, because it may be the only avenue of employment open to them. A friend of mine worked in an IRS call center for three years and took calls very much like I Get This Call Every Day. It was the absolute worst thing ever, but it was the only job he could get at the time despite his college education. He worked there for about two years before he was finally hired on for a position that wasn't innately soul crushing. He couldn't do anything to avoid it because he, like every other responsible adult, had to pay his bills.

@thabigred: You seem to be making an awful lot of assumptions about me now.

But it's nice to know that you will go out of your way to insult people who were never insulting you. I'll be sure to let you beta test my next project

Canada, you're a jerk.

I have worked at two call centers - one was a sales job, which I quit after two weeks, and one was a survey job that I quit after a month. I actually think I have a serious phobia of phones. I get the complaints - at the same time, it makes sense that somebody being that negative about his job would be fired. I've had sucky jobs to be sure, and probably should have been fired for the way I reacted to one, but unless you have a contract you really don't have a right to complain and badmouth your company.

Best wishes for this guy, though. It's neat to see the outreach from the community.

@Zvarri: Sorry to hear you lost your job over this, I don't know why but your art style reminds me of Fat-Pie.com

Dumb government, like people really thought the Canadian Revenue Call center was a fantastic job location in the first place. Then they actually allude to him compromising people's tax information. Shameful.

@Zvarri said:

@CrystaljDesign: I was really hoping Minister Shea, or someone in her office, would actually take the time to play it. I have no confirmation, but based on her publicized reaction, I do not believe that she did.

I used to get annoyed that non-gamers thought every game was Pong or Mario, but now they think every game is Call of Duty which is a million times more dangerous to the culture.

@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse You've obviously never worked in a call center and don't know what you're talking about.

I worked for a while as a project manager, where my main responsibility was to be phone-answering-guy for various customers who were wondering why they had paid hundreds of thousands for a service which wasn't working/hadn't been delivered. You're obviously just seeking to dismiss anyone you disagree with and don't know what you're talking about.

There's a difference between Project Manager and Call Center Rep. You had power. He didn't.

'Project Manager' is increasingly a glorified term for corporate gopher. When someone's used as nothing but a buffer between top management and dissatisfied clients, the lack of power is the same. The point stands that if a lack of power is frustrating to a person, then they should avoid the fundamentally servile role of customer service.

Avoiding the role is not the point of the game. It's demonstrating the futility of the role. And not everyone is able to avoid it, even if they want to, because it may be the only avenue of employment open to them. A friend of mine worked in an IRS call center for three years and took calls very much like I Get This Call Every Day. It was the absolute worst thing ever, but it was the only job he could get at the time despite his college education. He worked there for about two years before he was finally hired on for a position that wasn't innately soul crushing. He couldn't do anything to avoid it because he, like every other responsible adult, had to pay his bills.

Dealing with people's problems over the phone is only 'futile' if you assume their grievances are illegitimate or that there is something about the callers that makes them fundamentally impossible to reason with. If you believe that to be true about people, how could an internet forum possibly be any better? What would differentiate me or any of the other posters on this page from the average caller to a call centre? I don't accept that there is a deep well of sympathy to be tapped here.

My disabled aunt faced a situation where her phone number somehow became saturated across the lists of the all the shadiest call centre fuckers around. Before she went ex-directory, her phone rang several times an hour with endless telemarketers and surveyers calling up. To the phone of a blind woman with learning difficulties. I was there to answer once and insisted 'sorry, I just don't have the time' - to which the smarmy bastard on the other end offered 'well, you keep saying you don't have time, but why are you still talking to me then?' ...No doubt he ended up with some bleeding heart story to tell about how awful it is to get expletives shouted at you over the phone. I don't see people making games about how intimidating it would have been for my aunt to get that call. I don't see people making games about the experience of other relatives I've known, left nearly in tears because they desperately needed a serious financial issue resolved, but instead got passed around between departments, left on 'hold' (ie. the receiver was just dumped; the rep was audibly working at her desk), hung up on, and left hanging until office hours expired and the line went dead. Therefore I don't particularly care to play a game like the one David Gallant made.

I am someone who got fired from a call center job thanks to something I said on the internet, so I feel for this guy. Hopefully he can make it where his actual passion lies.

Why is everyone villainizing the government? You act as though they should have patted him on the back and let him continue. It's a sad story, but the guy obviously got what he wanted, and knew about the consequences. I know we all love to hate the government, but geez guys, pick your battles.

I worked at a call center. It sucked, some good times but mostly just crappy and mundane.

It's interesting to see this story and the comments. The first I heard about it being about the CRA was when it hit my Inbox while at work. That was quite the surprise. Good luck to David in his future as a game developer.

@Laivasse: Probably a fair point. Although the driver for firing this guy could have been equally predicated on the chance that the public would take offense of it, There could be a general backlash against the agency in question, and it would be indepedent as to the quality of the job being done.

In either case it does show a lack of respect toward customers. But in circumstances where home life and public life are being intertwined more consideration needs to be given to ignoring what people do off the clock. This could easily turn into a customer represenative (or account manager on a B2B side) putting in a mention that is interpreted as disrespectful on facebook being fired the next day. Not a circumspect move, but at some level it might be a good idea if society at large distinguished between personal vs. work more stringetly. It just leads to excess fricton when people take out of context mentions to seriously.

I can guarantee his job sucked. Not as much as digging ditches for a living, but it still sucked. Early on in my life, I spent a few months working for a call center that worked to help people in Oklahoma register for the state health care program and choose their providers and find other information. For the most part, everyone is normal and decent and just trying to get through a shitty task so they can move on with their life. Almost all were less fortunate or, at the least, down on their luck. But there were always just enough absolute morons who could not handle the most basic concepts, instructions, or requests that it made you just want to push the big red button and wipe out all of humanity. Multiply that by the number of days you have to be stuck doing that job and . . . it's pretty demoralizing.

I also worked for a bit doing call center work around that same time for a popular browser in the earlier days of the internet. I literally had people who didn't know what a keyboard was and more than once I received calls from someone who demanded that I write down their suggestions for "the next version of the Internet". And those weren't the aggravating ones. The aggravating people are the big chunk of customers who just flat out lie to you about everything and make your job infinitely fucking harder.

However, you just don't talk shit about your customers at the business you are currently employed at. Hell, you don't do that for companies you used to work at. References are important and you don't want to burn bridges. I do think this has to be better for this guy, in the long run. Sometimes the best thing to happen when you're in a shitty job that just eats away at you is to have it pulled out from under you so you're forced to move on with your life. Obviously, there are plenty of ways he could have put out his game without risking his job, if he really gave that much of a damn. Pseudonym Change enough information about the job function or subject. Lots of options. He didn't. So . . . this has to be an accepted and expected result.

@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse

@Hailinel said:

@Laivasse You've obviously never worked in a call center and don't know what you're talking about.

I worked for a while as a project manager, where my main responsibility was to be phone-answering-guy for various customers who were wondering why they had paid hundreds of thousands for a service which wasn't working/hadn't been delivered. You're obviously just seeking to dismiss anyone you disagree with and don't know what you're talking about.

There's a difference between Project Manager and Call Center Rep. You had power. He didn't.

'Project Manager' is increasingly a glorified term for corporate gopher. When someone's used as nothing but a buffer between top management and dissatisfied clients, the lack of power is the same. The point stands that if a lack of power is frustrating to a person, then they should avoid the fundamentally servile role of customer service.

Avoiding the role is not the point of the game. It's demonstrating the futility of the role. And not everyone is able to avoid it, even if they want to, because it may be the only avenue of employment open to them. A friend of mine worked in an IRS call center for three years and took calls very much like I Get This Call Every Day. It was the absolute worst thing ever, but it was the only job he could get at the time despite his college education. He worked there for about two years before he was finally hired on for a position that wasn't innately soul crushing. He couldn't do anything to avoid it because he, like every other responsible adult, had to pay his bills.

Dealing with people's problems over the phone is only 'futile' if you assume their grievances are illegitimate or that there is something about the callers that makes them fundamentally impossible to reason with. If you believe that to be true about people, how could an internet forum possibly be any better? What would differentiate me or any of the other posters on this page from the average caller to a call centre? I don't accept that there is a deep well of sympathy to be tapped here.

My disabled aunt faced a situation where her phone number somehow became saturated across the lists of the all the shadiest call centre fuckers around. Before she went ex-directory, her phone rang several times an hour with endless telemarketers and surveyers calling up. To the phone of a blind woman with learning difficulties. I was there to answer once and insisted 'sorry, I just don't have the time' - to which the smarmy bastard on the other end offered 'well, you keep saying you don't have time, but why are you still talking to me then?' ...No doubt he ended up with some bleeding heart story to tell about how awful it is to get expletives shouted at you over the phone. I don't see people making games about how intimidating it would have been for my aunt to get that call. I don't see people making games about the experience of other relatives I've known, left nearly in tears because they desperately needed a serious financial issue resolved, but instead got passed around between departments, left on 'hold' (ie. the receiver was just dumped; the rep was audibly working at her desk), hung up on, and left hanging until office hours expired and the line went dead. Therefore I don't particularly care to play a game like the one David Gallant made.

That's fine, but no one needs to see you on your high horse. You are not some morally superior being for refusing to play it.

That's fine, but no one needs to see you on your high horse. You are not some morally superior being for refusing to play it.

I gotta' say, it's near impossible to get fired from the Government of Canada and there are hundreds, if not thousands of spectacularly inept people who have been working their cushy jobs on the taxpayer dime for decades. That this guy gets fired because he parodies his crappy job and doesn't even mention where it was, that's just ridiculous. Shouldn't be surprised with Revenue Canada I suppose. I'm absolutely buying this game to show support for the guy. I hope this helps get him started on a path to a better career.

@Laivasse said:

@Hailinel said:

That's fine, but no one needs to see you on your high horse. You are not some morally superior being for refusing to play it.

Of course, god forbid anybody else's moral superiority feels threatened.

I never said anything about being superior. I'm just capable of empathizing with the game's creator to a greater degree.

@ck1nd said:

Why is everyone villainizing the government? You act as though they should have patted him on the back and let him continue. It's a sad story, but the guy obviously got what he wanted, and knew about the consequences. I know we all love to hate the government, but geez guys, pick your battles.

I think it's a bit more to do with Free Speech. Just finished playing the game, and while crude, it is incredibly passionate. Nothing about it seemed to leak any secrets about his company or would do any specific harm to them, so his firing seems a bit brash.

Are there not unfair dismissal laws in Canada? I don't quite understand how creating a piece of art which parodies an unspecified job is legal ground for dismissal.