Anonymous Is Going After Zynga For Mistreating Employees

As a current zynga contractor who is losing his job there next Friday, I have to admit I have mixed feelings about this.<p>Firstly, I don't see the employees being let go as victims, most are getting 3 months severance. Secondly, I don't think there is any real evil going on by Zynga; they accidentally hired more people than they can afford, it sucks as I'm one of them, but I fundamentally agree with the notion of at-will employment in the US.

I would be shocked if this isn't actually just a post-rationalization for previously completed hacking activity (which has been the majority of their previous M.O.)

The inner nerd in me would love the opportunity to take a peak at some Zynga game code, but the exterior sensible adult in me has mixed feelings about this. The employee's weren't terminated without pay, the employees are being gracefully compensated, I don't see what Zynga have done wrong here other than failing to predict how many employees they actually needed. Any company regardless of money in their bank is entitled to make their own decisions and trim excess staff, it's called business and I am sure even a profitable company like Apple if in the same situation would do the same thing.

So releasing employees from their <i>ahem</i> employ is mistreatment? These kids need to stick their noses back in their schoolwork.

All this will do is hurt Zynga employees further. Releasing sensitive data about a company will push the stock price down further. Most employees have equity in the company. Equity is (was) one of the major incentives for working at Zynga. Zynga is not forcing anyone to work there. If employees feel mistreated they are free to go work elsewhere. I say all of this as a former Zynga employee.

I don't see the evil in a company needing to lay off employees after shipping a bunch of games that didn't do so well.<p>Zynga should be more careful the next time they hire somebody wearing a Guy Fawkes mask in their profile picture.

So they're going to cause Zynga employees problems (who, after all, will have to deal with the fallout) in an effort to protest the fact that problems have been caused for Zynga employees?

I am guessing that Zynga games don't have a lot of security, and that a targeted attack would be disastrous to their players and analytics.

The gamers I know (who are the only people I know with an opinion about Zynga) would like to see Zynga no longer exist as a company, which entails all the employees having to find a new job. What's with the sudden sympathy for the employees?

Tackling the big issues...

I'd rather Anonymous go after Zynga because they use flash. It's about time we get some quality client-side code that doesn't eat 100% CPU just to plant some seeds on my stupid little virtual farm.<p>Another legitimate motive is to reduce the amount of time people waste on *ville. Even if they just DDOS, that means 2+ hours more productivity per person! That leaves bored programmers with nothing to do to waste their time, and we might just get some quality games out of it!

Anonymous is now composed of jilted Zynga employees?

These sort of news posts should be a game, take an article like this and put the top comment against an article about SOPA or any other internet "oppression" policy:<p>From a "Hacker Advocate" at Spotify<p><pre><code> The internet needs policing </code></pre> Really?

<i>&#62;The offensive has been dubbed “#OP MaZynga”</i><p>A pun for Mazinger[1]?<p>[1] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazinger_Z" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazinger_Z</a>

Getting really tired of how internet news is acting like mob vigilante justice is a good thing.

Meanwhile at Walmart employees are receiving great treatment.

At which point do these guys simply become a lynch mob?

I have mixed feelings about this. Laying people off, for business reasons, and providing three months severance, is not worthy of this kind of attack. Most of these people will get better jobs. Companies commit injustices against their employees all over the place, and Zynga is justifiably disguised, but this isn't a case of that.<p>I think the <i>general precedent</i> of increased employee empowerment (by increasing the consequences, currently at zero, of treating employees badly). I'd like to live in a world where employees have some power and a few hiccups or overactions on which I don't agree with all the details is something I have to accept. So that is to the good.<p>I don't think they deserve this for laying people off. Every company has to lay people off. The clawbacks, on the other hand, earned Zynga this.