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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Sandbox   >   Gamestop doesn’t discipline staff, it offers them “performance coaching”

Gamestop doesn’t discipline staff, it offers them “performance coaching”

By on April 13, 2009

Kotaku is running a story about GameStop letting staff play games and then selling them as new.

I’m struggling to get worked up about this.

But I loved GameStop’s corporate speak. Kotaku quotes the company policy regarding “checkouts” (the practice of staff members borrowing copies) as follows:

“Merchandise that leaves the store without being properly checked out or purchased is considered to be unauthorized removal of Company property and may result in performance coaching up to and including termination of your employment.”

Just to jam the point home: “performance coaching that may include termination of your employment” = the most ridiculous euphemism for disciplinary procedures I’ve ever seen.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com