Open letter to Management from the workers at Don’t Nod

Below is the open letter written by Don’t Nod workers, at their request. Currently (November 7th at 12:30 PM), this letter was signed by close to 150 of the Paris studio’s workers, which represents more than half of its workforce.


This letter is addressed to both the management of Don’t Nod and its employees. Its purpose is to explain our consternation about the decisions taken by the studio over the last few years, which have now led to this PSE (redundancy plan).

Management justifies this redundancy plan, which will see up to 69 people dismissed from the company, on the grounds of the “difficult economic context in the industry, without questioning itself. However, as workers in the company, we know that these failures are due to a succession of management missteps and bad decisions. All of us have been pointing out these failings for years, without management listening to us. In the end, it is us who are paying the price for these absurd decisions with this plan.

We, the employees of Don’t Nod, are absolutely opposed to the application of this PSE which, far from saving the company, will be its downfall.


A spiral of irresponsible decision-making

Delusions of grandeur and short-term strategy

Management makes decisions impulsively, without measuring the consequences, and without long-term vision: constant, contradictory organizational changes, and project cancellations galore. Over the past two years, we’ve seen many departures: deputy general manager, production manager, financial director, studio technical director, business developer, narrative director, executive producer, several game directors, and most recently our HR director, who resigned a few weeks before the announcement of this PSE after denying it for months.

In 2018, Don’t Nod’s management decides to go public. In 2020, it creates a new studio in Montreal, in 2021 it goes into self-publishing, then into third-party studio publishing. In May 2022, Don’t Nod announces 6 parallel in-house lines of production. How can we measure up with such delusions of grandeur?

This strategic chaos is now leading to job cuts, at a time when finding work in the video game industry is particularly difficult.

And yet, Don’t Nod benefits from substantial public funding: CIJV (six million euros per year), CNC funds, and France 2030, to which our CEO applied without consulting with the revelant teams, for a vague and meaningless project, notably promoting the use of generative AI.

How can we expect the company to function with an inconsistent studio management team, which doesn’t learn from its mistakes, despite having already experienced a receivership in 2014?

It is us, the workers, who suffer the consequences despite our numerous warnings.

A dangerous management of teams and projects

Management seems to launch projects without a long-term vision.

This leads to numerous changes in project direction, failure to meet planned scopes, and ultimately to projects getting canceled. These incessant changes lead to massive loss of effort, team burnout, and projects that look like Frankenstein’s creatures.

In February, following a quality of life at work internal survey and an external expert’s report, Don’t Nod’s Works Council (CSE) noted a stagnation in recruitment and an increase in the size of projects. Worse still, intermediate and senior profiles are being replaced by junior ones, and the contracts offered are increasingly precarious. The result is a company-wide loss of knowledge and productivity.

On the other hand, various reorganizations and project cancellations have sometimes resulted in significant overstaffing over long periods. Some of us spent several weeks without an assignment, for example following the termination of the Jusant production line. Leads found themselves doubled up, and had no choice but to accept being “demoted”.

Over the past two years, four of the six production lines at Don’t Nod Paris have been dismantled, including the Jusant line. However, dismantling a team means dismantling organizational knowledge and skills that cannot be applied to other projects, or that have to be completely rebuilt. For the Jusant line in particular, making a sequel with the same team and the same technologies would have made it possible to build upon the game’s success, at a much lower cost.

Likewise, the inter-project “professions directors” positions have been abolished, dealing a heavy blow to the exchange of knowledge and harmonization of practices between the studio’s projects, which they guaranteed.

Keeping the same people in key positions over the course of several projects leads to them becoming quasi-stars. This leads to a lack of listening to the rest of the team, and even contempt.

As a result, teams suffer, projects fall behind schedule and lose quality.


The reality behind a progressive façade

Workplace suffering

It now seems clear that management and its corporate strategy are putting growth and profits ahead of working conditions and of our jobs security, despite our relentless warnings.

Strategic and artistic shifts in projects, or even the complete closure of production lines, cause teams to lose their sense of purpose and motivation. It’s impossible to project oneself confidently into a production, or to commit to new projects in the knowledge that they are most likely to be cancelled.

The teams had to cope with increasing understaffing, and then with the reduction of collective events that were so crucial for a a mostly remote studio.

On top of that are the problems of intense delivery cycles where overtime hours pile up, and more generally a workload so heavy that it leaves us in a permanent state of tension.

At the same time, over the last few years, we’ve seen a rise in the precarity of our jobs, with the transformation of permanent positions into short, fixed-term contracts, or freelance workers.

Some of the most senior employees are choosing to leave the company, tired of not being listened to and no longer knowing how to provide their team with reassurance. Management is doing nothing to halt this exodus of senior employees, announcing no intention of improving salaries or working conditions.

Despite the fact that the CEO promised an investigation into psycho-social risks 8 months ago, management is backing away from this as it launches a PSE, contenting itself with redirecting people to a psychological hotline, a largely insufficient and impersonal solution.

Company values and corporate culture

Management regularly shows how lightly it deals with very important issues, simply making hollow statements and providing completely outdated anti-SGBV and anti-racism awareness campaigns. Inside the studio, management confines itself to doing the bare minimum on all subjects related to minoritized people, in contradiction with the message of our games and the studio’s public image.

We are still a long way from achieving gender parity, and women are generally employed in more junior positions (employee rather than executive status). Despite figures close to the national average of 24% of women in the industry, the reality is very different in the production teams, where women are grossly under-represented. The vast majority of the studio’s key positions are held by men, and there has never been a single female game director. However, Don’t Nod Montréal is making progress on these topics, such as the introduction of a menstrual leave, but these advancements are not transposed to Paris.

Yet the studio’s website states that “Caring for each other is at the heart of everything we do and is the central theme of our values”.


An out-of-touch management that no longer listens to anyone

Management’s disdain for workers

Despite claims to the contrary, management does not listen to workers. They ignore our suffering, give vague answers to our questions, and systematically try to clear their name when a reproach is made.

In 2023, an internal survey showed that barely 35% of employees were in phase with the company’s strategic direction. Management’s only response was that employees didn’t understand the strategy, and that this would be resolved by yet another reorganization.

This constant use of doublespeak only accentuates the lack of transparency towards employees, who feel that they are not being listened to, and are being taken for fools.

At the same time, management gives itself gifts in the form of promotions, bonuses, shares and luxury seminars, while our salaries are kept ridiculously low and our contracts are becoming increasingly precarious.

Sabotaging social dialogue

The Works Council (CSE) is also actively engaged in reporting back from the workplace, both in its regular meetings with managment and in the opinions it issues. Management systematically dodges the issue, or responds with arrogance, infantilization, and patronizing behavior.

Management acts as if the CSE did not exist, regularly leaving their communications and the results of their inquiries for dead letter, despite the legal obligation to respond to them. Their other prerogatives are regularly infringed upon, or require the argumentation of elected representatives, particularly when it comes to informing and advising on issues affecting working conditions.

During the entire period of the announcement of the redundancy plan (PSE), only the work council was able to respond to employees with transparency and a plain-spoken approach, while management muddled through its narrative.


What’s next for Don’t Nod?

A redundancy plan that will doom the company

The company has been understaffed for a long time now, as the latest working conditions survey once again highlighted the issue. Management’s only response is to lay off almost a third of the workforce, which can only be seen as an attempt to reassure investors.

What’s more, this loss will not be limited to 69 employees, as the non-renewal of short-term contracts, freelance and intermittent work will also be a factor. How can we hope to release projects under these conditions without questionning their scope or schedule?

These redundancies, without any further self questioning on the part of management, simply confirm the company’s determination to continue with its current strategy, while jeopardizing the working conditions of the remaining employees. This can only lead to further layoffs following this first one, and may even doom the company once and for all.

Let’s fight for our Don’t Nod

Don’t Nod is one of the few video game companies to offer full-time remote working, has in the past been able to offer permanent contracts, and defends a much more progressive editorial line than its competitors. It’s for all these reasons that we want to fight to ensure that the company’s values can one day match its aspirations.

Management needs to listen to employees, recognize its mistakes, and at last assume its responsibilities so that they can take concrete action on all the issues raised in this open letter.

We want to save our company, but not at the cost of unjustified lay-offs or worsened working conditions.


Don’t Nod: call for strike on Friday, November 8th

Last Monday, over a hundred workers showed their determination by walking out rather than being stuck listening to management’s corporate nonsense. Negotiations are now fully in motion: management aims at firing 69 colleagues as fast as possible.

What we want

  • We demand that management immediately gives up on this irresponsible and unfair layoffs plan.
  • We demand that the studio’s workers, who are the most competent people, have an actual say in all decision-making.
  • We demand the presence of Oskar Guilbert in the negotiations, and that he takes full responsibilities as CEO.

Towards a meaningful strike

Our management has demonstrated its irresponsibility: we shall draw the necessary conclusions.


Our management wants to fire 69 colleagues despite already understaffed teams, and believes it can do so quickly, brutally and without protest.

It even dares to tell the union delegation not to disrupt the production of games still in development.

But who disrupts production?

Who has been reorganizing the company non-stop for the past 2 years?

Who is dismantling the Jusant production line, despite its critical success?

Who is imposing unachievable ambitions on undersized teams?

Who wants to force us to do more than before, with 30% fewer people?

Don’t Nod, Do Strike

This layoff plan is absurd, violent and will not save our company.

We therefore call on our colleagues to continue their mobilization with a one-day strike on Friday, November 8.

Layoffs at Don’t Nod: call for a walkout on October 28

Dont Nod Entertainment’s top management, led by Oskar Guilbert and Julie Chalmette, initiated a redundancy plan on October 16. Presented as necessary to save the company, the aim is in fact to cut 69 jobs in order to make their employees pay for their own crass ineptitude.

In so doing, management has launched the negotiation of a method agreement, which will determine the terms of negotiation for the content of the plan itself.

Management hinders negotiations before they’ve even begun

The agreement proposed by management, which will be negotiated shortly, must be described for what it is: a rag.

  • Time limits have been reduced to the bare legal minimum, so as not to allow the STJV, the CSE and the mandated experts to do their work properly. The timetable is so slapdash that the experts are expected to deliver their opinion even before the agreement with the STJV has been concluded, i.e. an opinion that is incomplete and constrained by time – the deadline set by management falling on the day after the Christmas holidays, which is unrealistic and irresponsible.
  • The elected members of the CSE and the union delegation negotiating the PSE only have a very small number of hours of delegation, which are restricted as far as possible.
  • Management refuses in advance to let the CSE call for additional meetings, granting itself the unilateral choice of if and when to hold them.
  • No union communication channels are provided, and management confines us to the existing ones, i.e. an on site notice board and an intranet page buried by the tool’s referencing. It is impossible to inform almost 300 employees, 80% of whom work from home, with these derisory means.

What’s more, management is asking us to sign their amateur work starting this Monday, in order to expedite the PSE and hamper the work of the STJV and the CSE elected representatives. Their goal is to carry out their plan as brutally and quickly as possible, by trampling on all checks and balances, to fit in with their games release schedules.

Management must listen to employee representatives

It goes without saying that the STJV will use every means at its disposal to oppose this massive social slaughter, the likes of which has never been seen before in our industry. Behind these 69 jobs is yet another inept reorganization (the 4th in two years), which threatens all Don’t Nod workers in the long run.

We therefore demand that management rethink its position as soon as possible, in particular by including the following provisions in the method agreement:

  • That the additional delegation hours be left to the good use of the CSE’s elected representatives, in accordance with the practice described in its internal regulations and which has been respected since it came into effect.
  • For all meetings dealing with the PSE (R1, R2, R3 and R4; extraordinary CSSCT meetings; and any additional meetings):
    • that elected representatives and substitutes be excused from their productive work for the two days preceding each meeting, without this being deducted from their delegation hours, so that they can confer with the designated expert and prepare the PSE meetings collegially;
    • that elected representatives have the right to convene an additional meeting, following a vote by the CSE;
    • that the experts, mandated by the CSE and the union, can take part in each of these meetings to fully assist the staff representation bodies;
    • that the deadline for submitting expert reports be extended to coincide with the vote on the majority agreement and the delivery of the CSE’s opinion.
  • For the union delegation, a total of 12 hours of delegation per meeting, distributed and used in the same way as provided for in the method agreement on the NAO 2024.
  • That negotiation meetings be spaced out by a minimum of 48 hours, to allow the union delegation to pursue its obligation of democratic consultation of the section.
  • That, as for the NAOs, the union section be given a discussion channel dedicated to the redundancy plan, to keep employees informed of the progress of negotiations.

All these demands are more than legitimate, and are merely intended to maintain a semblance of social dialogue. We urge management to return to serious terms, respectful of democracy and social dialogue, and to immediately stop twisting the arm of elected representatives already exhausted by years of contempt.

As a result, we are calling on Don’t Nod workers to mobilize on Monday October 28 with a walkout from 4 to 6 p.m., which will be an opportunity for Oskar Guilbert and company management to reflect on their personal responsibilities in the present situation, during the general “bi-monthly exchange space” meeting which we will not be attending.

At Don’t Nod, the only plans for the future are layoffs

Today, on October 16, Don’t Nod presented its plan to reduce its headcount, which could go as far as eliminating 69 permanent contract jobs (29% of the Paris studio workforce). This announcement is the climax of a series of catastrophic decisions, denounced for a long time by workers’ representatives.

A layoff plan thrown at us with a sweep of the hand

On September 30, in front of the whole Paris studio, CEO Oskar Guilbert mentioned a future announcement about the company, which had to be presented to workers’ representatives before the rest of the company. Just one week after a financial communication by the company relating huge financial losses, this announcement stoked the fears about the economic situation of the studio, and therefore about jobs.

Today’s meeting, after 2 weeks of waiting in anguish, was revealed as the starting point of a layoff plan (« plan de sauvegarde de l’emploi » or jobs saving plan as it is officially called). Workers’ representatives were not told in advance about the meeting’s topic, and were not provided with any documents and information before the it, which goes against the law.

We fear the amateurism already displayed in following the process will jeopardize its implementation, and worsen the distress of our colleagues.

A concerted and organised denial

Workers’ representatives at Don’t Nod have been raising alarms for more than a year about the company’s economic situation, which is the reason cited to justify the layoffs. Last summer, the head of HR Matthieu Hoffmann was still claiming in front of representatives’ that layoffs were unimaginable. Yet 3 months later this is what we end up with. Mr Hoffmann conveniently left the company in the meantime.

Alarm bells have been ringing for months : the termination of the Jusant production line and the dispersion of its team on other projects, the « undefinite pause » imposed on unannounced projects, the increasing amount of workers, including executives, leaving the company, the commercial failure of the last games…

All of these had been questioned in workers’ representatives’ notices about the company’s situation, which had been left unanswered for many months. What’s left to say about a company living on public subsidies, yet not even complying with the most basic processes dictated by law ?

Management is hiding being « the state of the economy » and « a very competitive market » as excuses for its failures, without ever questioning its inconsistent decisions, which have been harmful to the studio and its workers.

Concerns raised in our last statement have been ignored

In our statement on February 7, we were denouncing the permanent reorganisation at the company, which left whole teams behind. Eight months later, this reorganisation has been forsakend and is revealed as useless, exactly as we predicted.

We were also denouncing the absence of social dialogue, the increasing consequences on workers’ health, the obstacles to workers’ representatives exercing their mandate, or the chaotic productions. Nothing has changed, except for the addition of planned layoffs.

The Don’t Nod union section, as well the whole of the STJV, cannot tolerate the company rejecting the responsibilities of its own failures on its workers. We warned them long ago, but they ignored us and accused us of being too agressive to speak with. With this layoffs plan, they are creating an atmosphere of extreme violece. We are calling on all workers at Don’t Nod to mobilise to save their jobs and working conditions.

Faced with executives who have decided to mock their workers, a social movement like the one currently happening at Ubisoft is necessary. It is up to us to establish the necessary balance of power to save our jobs. We will not pay for our bosses’ mistakes.

DON’T NOD: Ascension or free fall?

Don’t Nod is known for its narrative games tackling issues of inclusion and diversity. Its official website goes even further, claiming that “caring about one another is at the heart of everything we do and is the central theme of our values”. Unfortunately, as often in the video game industry, these values are not put into practice despite being frequently highlighted in corporate communications and in the press.

On May 31, 2022, while revealing its new visual identity, Don’t Nod announced 6 new games were in development, of which 4 in-house production lines and 2 produced externally. Just over a year later, on October 19, 2023, Don’t Nod went further, announcing « a 10.3% increase in sales, a record balance sheet (€60M cash net of debt), and a pipeline of 8 games in production » (« une activité en hausse de 10,3%, un bilan record (60M€ cash net de dettes), et un pipeline de 8 jeux en production ») while unveiling its half-year results (“H1 2023”).

We’re sounding the alarm on the situation of Don’t Nod employees.

The STJV is concerned that the company will not be able to manage these multiple parallel productions:

  • deadlines change very frequently
  • information and directions given to teams are contradictory
  • employees are moved from one team to another with no long-term vision of projects
  • a grueling reorganization, which took over a year to be fully implemented, is leaving entire teams out in the cold.

In a studio where each project erratically follows another, time and long-term vision required for the employees’ welfare is disappearing, leading to more stress among workers and creating boreout/burnout situations by leaving us all waiting for decisions to be taken by management.

The STJV is concerned about the psychosocial hazards Don’t Nod’s workers are facing, in view of the significant number of reports of ill-being and sick leaves.

Tumultuous releases

Jusant was released on October 31, 2023.

A success with critics, the game apparently failed to meet the commercial expectations of the company’s management, who simply shut down its production line and dispersed its team members to other projects. No justification was given for this sudden decision, despite the Social and Economic Committee’s (CSE) insistence.

Jusant’s developers were left in the dark about their future, many without any work to do, for over 2 months.

Banishers, originally scheduled for November 7, 2023, was belatedly postponed to February 13, 2024, prompting strong questions internally, as workers learned of the change of schedule mere 30 minutes before the public announcement.

This postponement comes in a context of crisis for the international job market in the video game sector, with massive layoffs, especially at studios that have been looking for investment in recent years, such as Don’t Nod.

All our teams are understaffed, yet we let go people that were on temportary contracts, internships or work-study apprenticeships. Some are occasionally called back to deal with production emergencies, but always on precarious contracts.

This situation is a danger to the health of the workers, and imposes enormous pressure on teams who are increasingly struggling to meet deadlines.

A silenced union section

Management refuses any means of direct communication between our STJV section and employees. It has even gone back on the meager rights granted in the past when the section was not yet representative (an electoral milestone for unions in France). We have since won the 2023 CSE election by a landslide, making the STJV broadly representative, which should have led to more communication. Specifically, Don’t Nod management considers that a notice board hung at the studio’s office (the minimum effort to fulfill their legal obligations) is enough to inform 300 employees… despite 75% of employees being fully remote.

Since last autumn, we have been trying to obtain the organization of mandatory annual negotiations (“Négociations Annuelles Obligatoires”, or NAO) that are due. Dialogue is impossible, with management going as far as pretending not to understand emails to scupper the NAO, or force our hand.

A scoping meeting was held on January 16, 2024 but did not follow the procedure set out in the French Labor Code, and we couldn’t even bring up the topics to be addressed at the NAO or discuss the timetable of the negotiations. On top of this, we have been denied any means in terms of time, documents or information channels to prepare properly for the negotiations. This is the opposite of « fair and serious » (« loyales et sérieuses », French Labor Code) negotiations.

An obstructed CSE (Social and Economic Committee, or workers’ council)

These concerns have been observed and reported internally to the new CSE, elected in June 2023 under the STJV banner.

However, the CSE itself is in great difficulty due to the management of Don’t Nod, and notes :

  • the gradual disappearance of opportunities for discussion between workers and top management
  • numerous obstacles and obstructions to the exercise of their CSE mandate
  • workers in distress, leading to sick leaves and departures
  • a lack of legal means to inform employees of their rights, and of the situation of their colleagues in other divisions or projects.

Management’s response to this is to bury its head in the sand and mistreat the CSE’s elected officials, refusing to inform them of matters that do concern the CSE, and refusing to be held accountable. As it stands, « social dialogue » is non-existent.

In addition to these difficulties for the CSE, worrying testimonies from many employees have been piling up for months, echoing the survey on quality of life at work carried out in 2023.

Dissonance and stubbornness

In September 2023, Don’t Nod management presented the results of its Quality of Life at Work survey, to which two-thirds of employees responded. It should be noted, though, that the survey contained almost no explicit points on quality of life and working conditions.

It does, however, present overview of various topics, and employees can learn that :

  • 28% say they receive no recognition for their work
  • 30% would discourage acquaintances from applying to Don’t Nod
  • 39% feel the workload is too heavy (or that teams are too small)
  • 50% disapprove of corporate’s strategy

When presenting the survey results, some 6 months later, Don’t Nod management was full of praise for the studio (and therefore for itself) when the figures looked good.

However: the scores were averaged, making it impossible to study results by division or team, thus concealing potential disparities in perception, or even warnings. Faced with the figures, management shaped the results to only talk about what would be interpreted as positive.

Following the results, the CSE questioned management on its intended measures to address the apparent issues: rather than proposing real solutions, the company prefers to explain to its employees that they simply haven’t fully understood its ambitions, and that the company needs to explain itself better in its internal communications. When can we expect a toll-free number to explain Don’t Nod’s complex thinking?

We also note that 90% of survey respondents say they like their colleagues and enjoy working with them. The source of the problems is therefore systemic and structural.

Don’t Nod, but Do Better

The STJV is concerned about the future of the studio, of its productions and working conditions, and notes the absence of social dialogue.

Because Don’t Nod is one of the rare companies to offer full-time remote working and has been able to offer permanent contracts and defend a more progressive editorial line than its competitors, we urge management to take concrete measures to resolve all the problems identified in this press release, to listen to the legitimate concerns of its employees and its union section, so that the company’s values reach the height of its ambitions.

The Don’t Nod STJV union section