Epic Games recently announced it would be ending a pandemic-inspired policy that gave staff alternating Fridays off. Epic Games did say that this vacation plan was only meant to be temporary and that the company hoped workers would use the policy to take paid time off on their own schedule.
This recent change has caused an uproar at Epic Games. Several employees said that extra vacation days “helped their mental health, allowed them to be better parents, and even improved their productivity while working on updates for Fortnite.”
“Right now, we are seeing lots of Fridays off for deep work, and lots of people who must work Fridays anyways,” Chief Operating Officer Daniel Vogel wrote in an email to staff that was discovered by Bloomberg. “This meant that many people were not benefiting from this policy equally.”
Just a few days earlier, Epic Games had opposed Apple’s efforts to put on hold orders handed down by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the antitrust lawsuit between the two companies. In a court filing, Epic argued that Apple has not met the legal standard required for this type of pause to be enacted.
For this hold to take place, Apple would have to show the company would be “irreparably harmed by even temporarily complying with the order if the injunction is later reversed on appeal.” However, Epic Games said that Apple’s positive comments about the September ruling revealed the company would not be harmed by enacting the orders.
On September 10th, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued an injunction in the Apple-Epic Games lawsuit that put new restrictions on the Apple App Store. This ruling declared that iOS applications must be allowed to direct users to payment options outside of Apple.
(All information was provided by Bloomberg, Reuters, and The Verge)