A story about one employee’s tragic circumstances brought home the magnitude of last week’s 1,000 layoffs at Epic Games.
The layoffs that included Mike Prinke, an employee who has brain cancer. His wife worried in a post that they would lose health insurance and be unable to get new coverage. Because Fortnite hasn’t been growing fast enough, Epic Games laid off 20% of Epic’s staff.
After the news about Prinke’s dire situation broke on social media, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said in a post on Twitter that Epic would solve the healthcare problem for the former employee.
Jenni Griffin, who is married to former Epic employee Mike Prinke, wrote on Facebook on Saturday morning that he was laid off along with a thousand others at Epic Games.
“I never imagined I would be writing something like this,” she wrote. “My husband, Mike was recently laid off along with over a thousand others at Epic Games. What makes this different for our family is that Mike is currently fighting terminal brain cancer.”
She said that because of the layoff, they didn’t just lose income—they lost his life insurance.
“And because his condition is now considered a pre-existing condition, he can’t get new coverage,” she wrote. “So now, as I face the reality of losing my husband… I’m also facing the reality of what type of funeral/burial I can afford. How I will keep a roof over our heads. How I will protect our son and the life we built together. What will happen to our dogs?”
The post went viral on social media and the media wrote about it. Sweeney saw the post and then tweeted.
The company said that Epic employees who were impacted by the layoffs will receive a severance package that includes at least four months of base pay, with more based on tenure. Epic is also offering extended Epic-paid healthcare coverage. This includes 6-month coverage to U.S. employees.
A spokesperson said, “We are in touch with Mike directly and working to provide him extended insurance coverage.”