Workers at Nintendo’s third-party repair factory are reportedly facing “very stressful” work conditions due to a large number of Switch deliveries due to issues related to Joy-Con drift, according to reports from small house. Former NYC executive who worked with Nintendo to repair damaged equipment told . small house The extensive repair of the Joy-Con resulted in high turnover and “a lot” of errors.
United Radio is its own company—Nintendo just acts as a middleman, handling customer communications and leaving repairs to United Radio, which serves Nintendo customers in the eastern half of the United States.The former executive told reporters that the prevalence of Joy-Con drift resulted in “easily thousands” passing through United Radio’s Joy-Con in a week and prompted the company to build a workstation dedicated to Joy-Con repairs small house.
Joy-Con drift is a common problem that causes the controller to input movement when there is no movement, which usually manifests as your character moving around the screen when you are not touching the thumbstick. While many Switch owners hoped the newer OLED model would fix the Joy-Con drift, the problem persists, and Nintendo itself says it may never be fixed. In 2019, Nintendo started repairing Joy-Con drifts for free, even after the warranty expired.
Most casual employees stop working after two and a half months
according to small house, United Radio employs many temporary workers through the human resources firm Aerotek. Workers are reportedly eligible to be hired as full-time United Radio employees after three months on the job.However, the former supervisor told small house Most casual employees stop working after two and a half months, whether they just don’t show up or get fired. This reportedly makes it difficult to build a team of experienced workers, inevitably leading to mistakes. In one example of such a bug, a customer on Reddit said their Switch was returned with another person’s save data. There are many other complaints online, including repair errors, missing components, or broken systems.
High turnover rates aren’t the only problem leading to bug fixes — language barriers also pose challenges, the former executive told small house. Supervisors claim they are the only native English speakers at work, making it difficult to train employees. According to reports, bilingual workers often have to “act as a liaison” to pass information between trainers and trainees.
Tight turnaround times don’t help either.former supervisor told small house From 2017 to 2018, United Radio will simply replace any damaged Joy-Cons. After that time, workers were reportedly asked to repair 90 percent of Joy-Cons within four days of receiving them. It’s unclear if these policies are enforced by Nintendo. edge Nintendo was contacted for comment, but received no immediate response.
as small house Note that Nintendo doesn’t just rely on contract employees for repairs.Former and current employees at Nintendo’s Redmond, Washington headquarters told small house Nintendo hires temporary workers for an 11-month period, with a two-month (or longer) break in between, during which employees cannot access health care. Earlier this week, a former Nintendo employee filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming they were fired by Nintendo and human resources agency Aston Carter for trying to unionize.
