Merge layoffs

[Yucca]

This is the big merge article. In coöperation with me (Yucca) and VanS.. VanS. is from Habbo.DE. We have watched all the staffs and mods during the merge. Just kept an eye on who stayed, and who were fired. In this post I will tell you how many staffs must have left because of the merge, how long they have been working for Habbo until Sulake dumped them like they were rubbish. The staffs were fired because of the merge, or during something else. We can’t know everything. But here is our list, of staff we do know who were fired BECAUSE or DURING the merge. How we got it? Just noticed when a staff lost their badges, stopped loggin in & checking their sulake mail if it was valid or not.

Ofcourse, this is so much more easier for Sulake. They have shut offices, they could reduce on lots of staffs & mods et cetera. Although, perhaps they shouldn’t have done it. Where is the sympathy for your workers, who have made Habbo on the top of social games. I believe Sulake lost their habbo-spirit. They only want to earn more money, and want to spend less money. Ofcourse it’s ideal for Sulake. Over 80 persons are fired because of the merge. Some were given a notice for a month, some a week… But! There is one person, who is fired without a single notice, without a single warning, after 5 years of hard work & extra not-paid hours. The Human Resource Management (Marjaana Murtomaa) has dumped (in my eyes) the specific person. I thought it was so low to do that, even if he was been noticed. I am talking about CrestHawk. CrestHawk started working for Sulake during 2006, for VMK. Together with his wife (Moiraine) they started to host events for Virtual Magic Kingdom. In October 2006 his wife went to Habbo, and in January 2008 CrestHawk followed. He became the Hotel Manager of Habbo North America (CA & US). But then, after countless unpreciated hours of work, they fired him. On the first of April, he was called by the HR Management. They said he must take his stuff, clean his desk and go. Together with Moiraine they cleaned his desk, and went home. Without even a notice, or having a good word for his work he was fired. I could see this wrong, in that case forgive me.

The perhaps even sad part, is that the most of the MODS worked on CA, US, UK. Sulake had an incredible evil plan about them. Lets fire all the expensive MODS, located in CA, US & UK and lets hire the much more cheaper MODS from Singapore! So they say, so they did. During the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, all MODs who were located in CA, US or UK were fired. Even some who were volunteer moderator. The Singaporian MODs earn about 5 american dollars per hour (they don’t have an minimum salary in Singapore). Cool, sulake! Lets hire Moderators who don’t understand Habbo’s, who don’t have experience with it, and who will probably never search friendly contact with them.



[B]So! Our article, we have counted 82 layoffs because of the merge. What do you think of these actions? We are looking forward to read your opinion & thoughts. Do you want to know who are fired? Check it out here: (Made by Yucca & VanS.) (http://www.habbotimes.net/aktuell/2458)

Love, Yucca & VanS.

[.:TRUTHSTAR]

cool very cinfusing tho

[dbgtz]

Probs the wrong section but it makes sense about moderators, uk had nice moderators imo, if you done a joke in the help tool they'd realise it was a joke :P

[Yucca]

Sorry, my english is not that good ;)

[motojack1000]

The English Mods were awesome. These new mods are total FAILURES

[superalex929]

Wrong section..

Edited by Cosmic (Forum Moderator) Please leave moderating to the moderators.

[Catzsy]

This article is very good. You have hit the nail on the head. Firing somebody without notice is appalling. Habbo don't seem to have managed this merge and downsize very well at all.

[xzl.]

Very interesting, thank you for this :) +rep
Im assuming the attachment in the link is the lay-off's?

[Yucca]

Very interesting, thank you for this :) +rep
Im assuming the attachment in the link is the lay-off's?

Yep, we've posted it on HabboTimes ;)

[Cosmic]

Great article! I had no idea that 82 staff had been made redundant, however I'd love to know the exact amount of money they will be saving because of it.

[Circadia]

All the mods on .com are from Singapore and nice article i sorta understood it. and really82 lay-offs that is alot !

[Sarah]

Ive noticed lost_witness isnt on the link with the link you provided.. is he still staff then?

[Clasus]

Despicable!

[Cosmic]

Ive noticed lost_witness isnt on the link with the link you provided.. is he still staff then?

As far as I'm aware, the only member of UK staff to stay is 0rca.

[Sarah]

On their site which they have updated with people who have left such as bucho6 and cresthawk they are listed under former and lost_witness and a few others are still listed as staff? Unless they just don't know yet..
http://www.habbotimes.net/habboinfos/listen

[Kalk]

What I am more interested in is who actually stayed, I want to at least know the name of our Hotel Manager and other staff.

[Cosmic]

On their site which they have updated with people who have left such as bucho6 and cresthawk they are listed under former and lost_witness and a few others are still listed as staff? Unless they just don't know yet..
http://www.habbotimes.net/habboinfos/listen

Yeah I presume they have been left in the UK section for the time being, just until everything is confirmed.

[Sarah]

What I am more interested in is who actually stayed, I want to at least know the name of our Hotel Manager and other staff.
On that website (habbotimes) It says Puffin is the Senior Hotel Manager with Fozzie from AU and Tallespin also being listed as Hotel Managers..

[Yucca]

On that website (habbotimes) It says Puffin is the Senior Hotel Manager with Fozzie from AU and Tallespin also being listed as Hotel Managers..

Yup they both do site producton, puffin is their boss. We are not sure about the uk staffs yet. You can find a full list of staffs for habbo.com on habbotimes.

[Sarah]

What hotel is Tallespin from? Or was she always .com

[Cosmic]

She was from Singapore.

[Cherpi]

So has Lost_witness been fired?

[Cosmic]

So has Lost_witness been fired?

It looks that way, but I'm sure we'll know more by Friday.

[DPS]

But the help tool isnt there to make jokes? ;s

[Jordy]

What a load of nonsense. Habbo is a business not a ******* charity or fansite. People work there to make money not because they love Habbo, redundancy has been happening throughout the world in the past few years due to the economic downturn. What's this "Habbo Spirit" you speak of? There's absolutely no such thing as the Habbo Spirit, it's something you've just made up. The Sulake spirit is making money for their shareholders, like every single other business. You make it sound like they've broken laws and how it's so bad they want cheaper labour for their moderators? At the end of the day they need to make profits and without these lay-offs the company would no longer be able to survive. I seriously think you need to grow up writing crappy articles like that as if they're Oxfam or something.

[Sarah]

Well if theres two previous hotel managers from AU and SG its hopeful that lost_witness may be staff.. unless they feel puffin could represent North America and the UK.

[Frisky]

This is so stupid. Lost_Witness is probably the oldest member of the hotel who has been through the whole system of being a Hobba, Moderator and then Hotel manager. Why lay off people like MOD-Kitty and MOD-blueeyes when they've been playing for years and have the best knowledge of the hotel?!

[Moh]

What a load of nonsense. Habbo is a business not a ******* charity or fansite. People work there to make money not because they love Habbo, redundancy has been happening throughout the world in the past few years due to the economic downturn. What's this "Habbo Spirit" you speak of? There's absolutely no such thing as the Habbo Spirit, it's something you've just made up. The Sulake spirit is making money for their shareholders, like every single other business. You make it sound like they've broken laws and how it's so bad they want cheaper labour for their moderators? At the end of the day they need to make profits and without these lay-offs the company would no longer be able to survive. I seriously think you need to grow up writing crappy articles like that as if they're Oxfam or something.
Didn't Sulake announce their best financial quarter the other month?

A company's main priority should be the relationship between their customers. Hiring staff who can barely speak English really doesn't build that relationship for me. If the wage for a SG moderator is $5 USD, then are the moderators even fully qualified to be a moderator?

Plus Sulake are purely abusing the wage in SG, which I think is wrong.

[GommeInc]

82 layoffs is a lot for an online business :S

A good article though :) I've not been on in ages, but I remember the UK Mods being half decent. These new ones lack anything to be desired :/

[Okeanos]

Lost_Witness was boring, his comps sucked and his prizes left much to be desired. I hope he has gone. Puffin is friendly, chatty and Norwegian - who wouldn't want her?!

[Jonster]

What a load of nonsense. Habbo is a business not a ******* charity or fansite. People work there to make money not because they love Habbo, redundancy has been happening throughout the world in the past few years due to the economic downturn. What's this "Habbo Spirit" you speak of? There's absolutely no such thing as the Habbo Spirit, it's something you've just made up. The Sulake spirit is making money for their shareholders, like every single other business. You make it sound like they've broken laws and how it's so bad they want cheaper labour for their moderators? At the end of the day they need to make profits and without these lay-offs the company would no longer be able to survive. I seriously think you need to grow up writing crappy articles like that as if they're Oxfam or something.

Correct. I was actually about to post this myself and couldn't have put it better. These sort of things happen every day whether it be on a large or small scale and increasingly more so as the economy goes into a downturn. I think as it's a virtual platform people automatically overlook the costs behind running such a large scale company - hosting 15 million unique visitors each month isn't cheap, at all and the years of work from the hundreds of staff Sulake employ all results to costs. Look at it this way, previously Sulake may have flown out a representative for a meeting whereas now they probably hold meetings via video conference as its cheaper - its exactly the same concept as cutting staff and using cheaper labour.


Didn't Sulake announce their best financial quarter the other month?

A company's main priority should be the relationship between their customers. Hiring staff who can barely speak English really doesn't build that relationship for me. If the wage for a SG moderator is $5 USD, then are the moderators even fully qualified to be a moderator?

Plus Sulake are purely abusing the wage in SG, which I think is wrong.

No. A company's main priority should be to survive. Without survival you cannot have customers. Without customers you cannot have a relationship between your customers. How do you survive in an economic downturn where the average human has zero disposable money to spend? You cut your costs, which is exactly what Habbo have done, and I think rightfully so. And if you're going to make a statement out of Habbo announcing its best financial record to date please back it up with hard evidence, as when I read the article featured on their website I noticed this "The strong revenue growth, combined with operating model improvements and cost savings in the final quarter of 2009".

And please don't bring up this abusing of the wage in SG, otherwise please take off all your clothes, burn them and walk around naked for the rest of your life. And if you still think abusing the wage is wrong please get rid of your computer/mac, your TV, and your console - I could go on for hours. Cheap labour is a godsend to us all as without it you would be paying a hell of a lot more for your everyday items meaning you probably wouldn't have them.

[Jordy]

No. A company's main priority should be to survive. Without survival you cannot have customers. Without customers you cannot have a relationship between your customers. How do you survive in an economic downturn where the average human has zero disposable money to spend? You cut your costs, which is exactly what Habbo have done, and I think rightfully so. And if you're going to make a statement out of Habbo announcing its best financial record to date please back it up with hard evidence, as when I read the article featured on their website I noticed this "The strong revenue growth, combined with operating model improvements and cost savings in the final quarter of 2009".

And please don't bring up this abusing of the wage in SG, otherwise please take off all your clothes, burn them and walk around naked for the rest of your life. And if you still think abusing the wage is wrong please get rid of your computer/mac, your TV, and your console - I could go on for hours. Cheap labour is a godsend to us all as without it you would be paying a hell of a lot more for your everyday items meaning you probably wouldn't have them.Completely agree with you there.


Didn't Sulake announce their best financial quarter the other month?

A company's main priority should be the relationship between their customers. Hiring staff who can barely speak English really doesn't build that relationship for me. If the wage for a SG moderator is $5 USD, then are the moderators even fully qualified to be a moderator?

Plus Sulake are purely abusing the wage in SG, which I think is wrong.The main priority is to get make profit for their shareholders. I have no issues with the Singaporean's English. Call it what you like, abusing the wage or exploitation, it goes on everywhere. Everything is manufactured abroad (Mostly in China) because it's cheaper. Ring Microsoft or ring a bank and you'll find they're located in India, because it's cheaper. This is passed down to the consumer and we all pay less. At the end of the day, providing they're not being forced to work long hours etc, they're getting a job to feed their family, without foreign investment these countries would not progress. I know where I'd source my moderators from if I was running Sulake, wherever is cheapest providing they can follow instructions. I don't believe think they need to be "qualified" anyway, just an understanding of the rules and people skills is what Sulake require?

As for Sulake profits, I thought for the past year or so they've been making minuscule profits/breaking even, it'd be interesting to see some firm statistics on this but I've been under the impression things have been bad at Sulake since the economic downturn.

[qaxzsw]

If habbo don't make these essential cuts, then you won't have habbo to play, so you should stop moaning imo. Even when there were UK mods they didn't give a crap, so, not much of a change, just worse english.

[Okeanos]

just worse english.

How'd you work that out? English is the first language for nearly all Singaporeans.

[Blissa]

That was a really interesting read.

[Arolu]

Right, so this merge was just to cut expenses, then?
Honestly, Habbo has been ruined, quite frankly. I had no idea we've only got the Moderators from Singapore left...
I've met some Habbo's from Singapore and they are quite different so I'm guessing the Moderatros aren't gonna be that great...
So... What is going to happen to Habbo now? Probably plunge into an abyss...

[Lukeg92]

Habbo.com have made a new Habbo staff group.

http://www.habbo.com/groups/123056/id

According to the group page these are the main Habbo.com staff

Fozzie - Hotel Manager

SmoothCriminal - Hotel Manager

Puffin - Hotel Manager

Moiraine - Community Manager

0rca - Community Co-Ordinator

notMiceElf - Pixel Pusher

Tallespin - Player Support Guru

Inari - Community Assistant

[Yucca]

Habbo.com have made a new Habbo staff group.

http://www.habbo.com/groups/123056/id

According to the group page these are the main Habbo.com staff

Fozzie - Hotel Manager

SmoothCriminal - Hotel Manager

Puffin - Hotel Manager

Moiraine - Community Manager

0rca - Community Co-Ordinator

notMiceElf - Pixel Pusher

Tallespin - Player Support Guru

Inari - Community Assistant

Already thought that.. They keep a lot of staffs un-noticed. www.habbotimes.net/habboinfos/listen (http://www.habbotimes.net/habboinfos/listen) for the full list.

Where are Elkah, Yobbo, Samie, Doelee & some new staffs?

[Cosmic]

Habbo.com have made a new Habbo staff group.

http://www.habbo.com/groups/123056/id

According to the group page these are the main Habbo.com staff

Fozzie - Hotel Manager

SmoothCriminal - Hotel Manager

Puffin - Hotel Manager

Moiraine - Community Manager

0rca - Community Co-Ordinator

notMiceElf - Pixel Pusher

Tallespin - Player Support Guru

Inari - Community Assistant


Interesting. I'd love to know the difference between a Community Manager and a Community Co-ordintor, i.e. how different the two roles are.

[Yucca]

Interesting. I'd love to know the difference between a Community Manager and a Community Co-ordintor, i.e. how different the two roles are.

The Community Coordinator is responsible for implementing Sulake online community guidelines and policies locally for Habbo Denmark, regarding customer care, moderation and online safety. He/she is also responsible for training and managing the moderator and customer care
teams.

Community Manager
Responsibilities included:

- Managing moderation and customer service function with given budgets
- Implementing moderation and customer service policies from Sulake HQ
- Recruitment, training and management of moderation and customer service staff
- Maintaining FAQ knowledge base
- Local point of contact for external law enforcement agencies
- Developing compelling safety content for end users
- Analyse and communicate end user feedback to relevent HQ departments
- Guide and educate local team on community related issues

[dbgtz]

I think 0rca could possibly host events for us too. Does that mean she works from home now? :P

[Grig]

I love it how people seem to treat Singapore as some third world country, when it is actually one of the world's top cities, and was cited as one of the best places to do business. People are not out of some poor slump there, hell I'd say they live even better off than in the UK. You can't criticize their English, as we might as well go into a debate of English, because as long as they answer and moderate to a fluent standard, then it's fine.

Habbo has indeed shifted it's focus in terms of it's business model to retain maximum profits. There was point where they thought hotel expansion was the key, now it has turned into the opposite trend. At the end a business is a business, and profit is the key. I do believe there sometimes needs to be a balance struck, but if they get more profit at the end of the day, then it's their right call.

I'd also be interested in an expanded staff list to know where some other faces have gone to.

[xPun]

Didn't Sulake announce their best financial quarter the other month?

A company's main priority should be the relationship between their customers. Hiring staff who can barely speak English really doesn't build that relationship for me. If the wage for a SG moderator is $5 USD, then are the moderators even fully qualified to be a moderator?

Plus Sulake are purely abusing the wage in SG, which I think is wrong.


It's cheaper in SG due to iDA (our local technology governmental agency) providing grants of at least $2000 for each staff

[nat965]

This is quite interesting to read, thanks for writing this up :)

[Trigs]

May I ask where you're getting all this info? I'm guessing you have connections with someone who works for Sulake?

[Yucca]

May I ask where you're getting all this info? I'm guessing you have connections with someone who works for Sulake?

I have connections, yes but I haven't used them for this ;) Did it all by myself...

[Verrou]

TBH who cares about staff. If you play Habbo for the staff, you are a loser. I've found them quite helpful with any issues i've had.

[Sameer!]

Why is Lost_Witness not a staff member :'(

[Trigs]

Didn't Sulake announce their best financial quarter the other month?

A company's main priority should be the relationship between their customers. Hiring staff who can barely speak English really doesn't build that relationship for me. If the wage for a SG moderator is $5 USD, then are the moderators even fully qualified to be a moderator?

Plus Sulake are purely abusing the wage in SG, which I think is wrong.

SG Mods make $10 - $15 (Singaporean Dollars) or approx. $7 - $11 USD an hour, not $5

[HotelUser]

Just bring back free moderation all ready.

[GommeInc]

Just bring back free moderation all ready.
Ah, the Hobba times <3 Before Habbo abandoned all community relations.

[CrazyColaist]

that's bad