I'd been working for this game studio for more than 10 years. A few years ago it was bought by a group company, but the CEOs kept their independence in leading and decision making. The bosses were always more or less authoritarian and paternalistic, but the pay was alright and it was really convenient for me because my husband also works there. We are (were) both very efficient, with unique skills for our department, but he is way more appreciated, be it for being a man, be it for being more diplomatic than me.
With the recent advancements in AI, the CEOs rushed to ride the wave of AI generated game content and ordered us to use Stable Diffusion for anything and everything and to buy the premium version of ChatGPT – with our own money. They told us indirectly that if we didn't follow the orders we'd be let go (very illegal here in Europe). They wanted us to use ChatGPT for 1 hour daily outside of work and report at the meeting the following day. I silently refused to buy ChatGPT, but did ask the HR what would be the consequences of not buying it, he said he didn't know of any. 🙂 Yet, I dug deep into Stable Diffusion despite my dislike of using it, and made a thorough guide for the others to use, I even shared my findings with one of the bosses who was constantly keeping an eye on us. Meanwhile the CEOs promoted AI content to the group directors and promised them very high quality and quantity for a reduced amount of working hours. That wasn't really achievable, so they put more and more pressure on the whole team, even making some of the people come to work on Sunday.
About a month later, the group company made a poll regarding our satisfaction at work and seeing the answers were anonymous I shared my discontent with my bosses' behavior. Another month passed by and I (and 2 more colleagues from my dept) got suddenly laid off, in the middle of a few very busy projects, with nobody to cover for us. I got told the group company ordered the staff reduction due to reduced amount of work. By the end of the day I had to finish what I'd started (being in shock, I did) and all my accounts got suspended and deleted. After 10 years. The HR didn't even approach me directly, he first called my husband to tell him the news and asked him to keep it from me. He then basically warned me not to sue and showed concern that the lay off may cause turmoil between me and my husband (wtf?!).
On the next day, CEO1 called my husband to ask him whether he's bitter I got laid off because they don't want to lose him and explained to him why I was one of the chosen ones. The group company had apparently showed them the anonymized answers to the poll and scolded them, so the CEOs suspected me of being the whistleblower.
I found it cumbersome and useless to file a lawsuit or report to the Labor inspectorate, but I did use the whistleblower platform of the group company and asked them for the reasons of being laid off, while further describing the studio's attitude toward me. I haven't yet received an official answer to my report, but I got the news that last week the CEOs had to unexpectedly cancel their vacations because a group company representative had come to the studio and had them both fired.
This was way more than I expected and just made my day!