Epic Games Boss Tim Sweeney has responded to the news that the recent layoffs in the company has hit an employee who’s battling terminal brain cancer and assured that they will “solve” the situation regarding his insurance. Sweeney has posted the following, behalf of Epic Games on his social media page:
“Epic is in contact with the family and will solve the insurance for them. There is high confidentiality around medical information and it was not a factor in this layoff decision. Sorry to everyone for not recognizing this terribly painful situation and handling it in advance.”
This surely sends a message of relief to the family of the employee and also makes it clear that the company wasn’t aware of his medical condition prior to the dismissals. And of course, the swift response from the CEO of Epic Games is also really commendable and a very human thing to do in a situation like this. Hopefully, Jenni Griffin, who had shared the present condition of her husband, programmer writer Michael (Mike) Prinke, has gotten Sweeney’s message by now which would no doubt help them dearly as a family.
Griffin wrote that Michael is currently battling terminal brain cancer and had life insurance as a benefit as long he was part of Epic Games. But as he has now lost his job, his benefit too, will go away cause his ailment will be seen as a “pre-existing-condition” by the insurance companies and he won’t be eligible for new coverage. Thankfully, his life insurance will now be taken care of by Epic Games which would do a great deal of help to all of them currently going through the harsh conditions.
The entire videogame industry is currently being hit with layoffs, which in some cases, are happening multiple times in a company and the recent 1000 job cuts in Epic Games are also a part of these extremely sad and unfortunate turn of events.
