Compensation

Something I said in my Crunch article can be construed as being very insulting:
"A profit-sharing plan that ends up distributing no profits may get one game out the door but all your employees will quit before the second one is done. "
Am I saying that if you're working at, say, EA--where there's no profit sharing--or at Ubisoft on one of their less-money-making projects that you should quit, what are you doing, what are you thinking?
I did not mean to imply this.
I have seen projects where profit sharing was used as a carrot, and then when the product didn't sell, the employees started phoning it in and quitting. I've also seen projects where the product didn't sell and the employees kept right at it, strong as ever.
I think one of the differences between these two kinds of projects is in expectations - if you start talking royalties or bonuses the employees might start getting visions of Ferraris and when they see the actual results feel cheated. So if you have a royalty or bonus program, give somebody an idea of what they're in for. Don't let them think Ferrari when they're going to get Yugo. Or maybe just be like EA - don't give out royalties. Don't set up any false hopes at all.
I absolutely did not mean "nobody in their right mind would work on a project that didn't have a sweet bonus plan."