A Polish developer has come under fire for expecting his employees to agree to mandatory sauna sessions.
In a now-viral LinkedIn exchange, Jacek Piórkowski, creative director of Spectrum Studio, approached narrative designer and writer Aleksandra Wolna about working for his studio. Wolna responded that Piórkowski had previously approached her for a job, but she had declined because it required her to agree to mandatory and reportedly naked sauna sessions.
“Jacek started a conversation with me under a message about me looking for a job. I researched him and his studio and politely declined because of the sauna thing,” Wolna told Eurogamer. “Later I posted about the situation surrounding All In Games employees who were not getting paid and are now looking for a job, as I am also owed a lot of money from this company. Suddenly Jacek appeared offering me a job again.”
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“I reminded him that I refused and told him why, which can be seen in the viral screenshots,” Wolna continued. “Jacek began to convince me and others that there is nothing wrong with what he expects from his employees.”
Publisher All In Games has reportedly not paid its employees for six months due to the “temporary” financial crisis.
Piórkowski has edited some of his comments on LinkedIn since his first post at Wolna, but still defends the decision to ask employees to participate in sauna sessions, saying the requirement is in place because the studio’s game is about it go. “I don’t want to waste my time explaining the difference between Ruska Bania or Dry Sauna. You have to feel it,” Piórkowski wrote.
A job posting for the game that Piórkowski references reads:
Spectrum Studio is working on a new groundbreaking game: mix of Life is Strange (narrative), Final Fantasy (story, characters), Heart of Darkness (adventure levels with dog), The Turyst (exploration and quest) and THPS2 (tricks and specials).
“The main character will be a sauna master and will be responsible for performing in different saunas (scents, music, choreography, everything).”
The studio then lists the requirements of the role, and this is where mandatory sauna sessions are specified (no mention of nudity here). Spectrum Studio also said it would provide “free sauna schedules” in this post.
In a separate LinkedIn thread, Piórkowski said this mandate is “not about getting naked,” but rather about experiencing different types of saunas. The developer said the “wetness level” can get very high in certain saunas, and if someone uses a towel it could be “the result of a fungal infection.” Therefore, participants are sometimes advised to go naked.
In a further comment, Piórkowski asked Wolna if she would hire an engineer to build an airplane if they did not understand the mechanisms that make an airplane fly. This is something he wouldn’t do, Piórkowski said. ‘You have to understand [the] assignment and it is very specific…” he wrote. Wolna pointed out that there is a big difference between ensuring that a candidate is suitable for a particular job, and an employer expecting his staff to be naked during work-related activities.
“You had a lot of time to prove me wrong. To write [a] scene [a] sauna without being in the sauna… Instead we waste time on social media,” Piorkowski replied. ‘My Narrative girls had to go to [the] sauna [an] great script for proof of concept… Technically it’s possible to do without, but I absolutely love that they were able to use their sauna experience to write great scenes.
Piórkowski has now released a full statement on Spectrum Studio’s sauna mandate. In a video shared on the studio’s LinkedIn page, he apologized to Wolna. “It was not my intention to embarrass, hurt, offend or show disrespect to Ms. Wolna. My choice of words was poor. I did not clearly state my intentions. I did not explain why taking a sauna is so important and practical.” essential for me,” he said (thanks to Magdalena Kluj for translating).
“I didn’t expect it to be received as pretentious and create a negative connotation.” He noted that his use of “narrative girls” was wrong, and was only intended to indicate that the narrative team at the time was all women.
Piórkowski went on to talk about how “passionate” he is about the sauna experience. “When recruiting, I followed an iron rule about talking about saunas and people’s openness to this experience,” he stated. “I am looking for people who are equally passionate about sauna culture and who are open to experiences that are part of that culture. I believe personal experience of a subject helps in understanding sauna culture.”
Piórkowski continued: “I agree that the words I chose could be interpreted as encouraging to take a sauna session with the company boss; it was not my intention. I have proposed and am still introducing candidates [experience] the sauna session only for women and only for men, as long as it reflects the real sauna experience.”
Piórkowski said he “will be more careful with the choice of [his] words in the future to avoid shame and doubts about it [his] He stated that he also “consulted with an HR specialist about this matter.”
“Once again I would like to apologize to Miss Aleksandra,” he concluded.
Reflecting on the ordeal, Wolna told Eurogamer that she “feels a little bit that this is the only thing that went viral, when it all started with a post mentioning the recent situation where All In Games employees weren’t getting paid.” However, she is “glad that the sauna man was called out and that the situation sparked an important discussion about terrible recruitment practices.” Wolna said she accepted the apology.