World of Warcraft Classic is losing its tech lead. The reason is that he didn’t want to judge his employees poorly.
It could have been a nice year for Blizzard. Many players are pleasantly surprised by World of Warcraft Dragonflight, and many others are enjoying Wrath of the Lich King Classic, making their way through Ulduar. But now, there has been another unpleasant incident at the company that reflects poorly on Blizzard. One of the lead developers of WoW Classic was fired – because he did not want to evaluate one of his employees poorly.
Who is it about? It is about Brian Birmingham, the tech lead of World of Warcraft Classic – at least until recently. He had considered quitting Blizzard due to an evaluation system for his employees, as he finds the procedure unfair and counterproductive. Now, they have preempted him and fired him.
What happened to Birmingham? The reason behind it is an evaluation system that team leaders are supposed to use to rate their employees. The process, called “Stack Ranking”, assigns ratings to all employees. However, the system only works – according to the management – if a nice curve can be drawn from the distribution of performance. Birmingham refused to change the assessment of one employee from “Successful” to “Developing”. However, this was expected by the management.
The “Stack Ranking” system discussed in this article is particularly widespread in the USA, having been developed in the 1980s and used in more and more large companies, including Amazon. In recent years, however, the system has been increasingly abolished due to various concerns. In 2013, for instance, Microsoft banned this evaluation system from its own company.
Birmingham subsequently wrote an internal email to many Blizzard employees, which was viewed by Bloomberg. It stated:
When the team leaders asked why they should do this, the WoW directors explained that – although they did not agree – the reasons from the leadership are that it is important to identify the least performing employees to ensure that everyone can grow.
Birmingham explains in the further course of the email that he does not agree with this approach and also that in recent years they have managed not to use the system. For the last two years, they have simply refused to apply the system as requested, but now management insists that it is enforced:
This type of regulation encourages competition among employees, sabotage of another’s work, the desire for people to find a team with poor performance so they can be the best employee there. It undermines trust and ultimately destroys creativity. […]
If this regulation can be revoked, maybe my Blizzard can be saved and then I would love to continue working here. If this regulation cannot be revoked, then the Blizzard I want to work for no longer exists, and I have to look for a job elsewhere.
A negative evaluation can also have consequences for the respective employees. For those rated poorly, chances for promotion decrease, and their bonus payments in case of success may be lower.
In the meantime, Birmingham is also expressing his views on Twitter regarding this issue. According to him, this evaluation procedure likely comes from the management at Activision Blizzard and is generally extremely unpopular at Blizzard.
At least: According to Birmingham, several team leaders from the WoW team offered to simply set their own evaluations to “developing” (i.e., “bad”) instead of those of their employees to meet the expected quota. However, this was apparently not an option for management.
What is the exact reason for the dismissal? Even before writing the email, Birmingham had told many colleagues that he was likely to resign. Following this, he was summoned by a member of the HR department who wanted to confirm that Birmingham was resigning. However, he only said that he was considering it but was not sure – he would not work until the regulation concerning employee evaluations was abolished.
As a result, Birmingham was fired.
What Blizzard says about it: Bloomberg had requested a statement directly from Blizzard. A spokesperson for Blizzard explained about this evaluation procedure that it exists to promote “excellence in performance” and “ensure that employees who do not meet their performance expectations receive honest feedback, differentiated compensation, and a plan on how to best improve their performance.” Furthermore, this process would include evaluations from multiple managers, which could lead to discussions that would then result in a rise or fall in the ratings.
How to evaluate the whole matter must be decided by each person for themselves. On one hand, such an evaluation system – especially from a German perspective with many protective mechanisms for employees – appears highly unjust and destined to treat some employees unfairly. On the other hand, the threat of not working until a system is abolished may not be the best negotiation method either.
Perhaps more details about this story will come to light in the following days.
