California sues Activision Blizzard over sexual harassment and bullying

[DisturbedSwan]

Bloomberg: Activision Blizzard Sued Over ‘Frat Boy’ Culture, Harassment

 

Quote

Video game giant Activision Blizzard Inc., maker of games including World of Warcraft and Diablo, fosters a “frat boy” culture in which female employees are subjected to constant sexual harassment, unequal pay, and retaliation, according to a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

 

A two-year investigation by the state agency found that the company discriminated against female employees in terms and conditions of employment, including compensation, assignment, promotion, and termination. Company leadership consistently failed to take steps to prevent discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, the agency said.

 

According to the complaint, filed Tuesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court, female employees make up around 20% of the Activision workforce, and are subjected to a “pervasive frat boy workplace culture,” including “cube crawls,” in which male employees “drink copious amounts of alcohol as they crawl their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees.”

 

The agency alleges male employees play video games during the workday while delegating responsibilities to female employees, engage in sexual banter, and joke openly about rape, among other things.

 

Female employees allege being held back from promotions because of the possibility they might become pregnant, being criticized for leaving to pick their children up from daycare, and being kicked out of lactation rooms so male colleagues could use the room for meetings, the complaint says.

 

Female employees working for the World of Warcraft team noted that male employees and supervisors would hit on them, make derogatory comments about rape, and otherwise engage in demeaning behavior, the agency alleges.

 

The suit also points to a female Activision employee who took her own life while on a company trip with her male supervisor. The employee had been subjected to intense sexual harassment prior to her death, including having nude photos passed around at a company holiday party, the complaint says.

The agency seeks an injunction forcing compliance with workplace protections, as well as unpaid wages, pay adjustments, back pay, and lost wages and benefits for female employees.

 

“We value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind,” a spokesperson for Activision Blizzard said in a statement. “We take every allegation seriously and investigate all claims. In cases related to misconduct, action was taken to address the issue.”

 

“The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past. We have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform us what issues they perceived,” the statement continued.

 

“The picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today,” the company said.

 

 

[HandsomeDead]

I don't know much about legal stuff but isn't it pretty bad if it's the actual state that is investigating and filing the lawsuit?  

But that's some horrendous shit, the suicide being particularly ghoulish.  

 

Bobby Kotick has been pretty happy giving himself massive bonuses over the goings on in the company, too.

[one-armed dwarf]

Shit like this makes me instantly disregard any corporate statement that includes the sentence 'we value diversity and inclusion at ${CORPORATION}'

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[Sly Reflex]

Stop playing the games. Simple.

 

Same goes for the other shitehouse companies as well. Fuck them all and their terrible practices.

[one-armed dwarf]

Tbh, that is a very easy boycott cause their games are shit now

 

Blizzard and Ubisoft, easiest boycotts ever 

[HandsomeDead]

If game companies want to be like Hollywood they should be like them by getting unionised.  It'd be a start and it's easier to fight for accountability.  If they can organise a walk-out then it shouldn't be too hard.

[Maryokutai]

There are probably a lot of companies with stuff like that going about internally. Will you also boycott the next Naughty Dog game, or Insomniac game? And what about more "closed-off" studios like Retro Studios, Rocksteady, Playground Games, Bethesda, Sony Santa Monica -- all fan-favourites but we don't really know what's going on there.

 

The Activision-Blizzard stuff is probably on an entirely different level, but is ignorance protecting us from more boycotts or are we supposed to draw a line somwhere? Because after UbiSoft and this, I get the feeling that this is the rule rather than the exception. The only safe place are most likely smaller indie studios or studios with indie roots, like Ninja Theory or Double Fine. 

[HandsomeDead]

Rockstar, too.  I'm getting less and less convinced that using the market to cause systematic change does anything meaningful, especially with global companies like these.  More localised efforts, sure, but unlikely in this case.  I know the stakes aren't the same but remember this:

 

 

Not the most principled bunch.

 

But I get still making the choice to not support these companies and I still think it's a good thing to do, and seeing the company splash screen on these games may be too much of a bummer for some and they'll choose not to buy them anymore.  I understand this quite a bit aS a VeGeTaRiAn.

But consumer activism has a very limited affect.  As harsh as it is to put the responsibility on the devs / victims though it will be more affective if the industry gets together and unionises rather than relying on some Gamer's purchasing decisions.

[mmmark]

I don’t think the answer is ever to boycott an entire company. What’s the best to come of that? If it closed down the 99% not involved are out of a job and the 1% that were are normally in high positions and leave with wealth in their pocket for the next venture. Nothing is learnt and the wrong people are punished.

 

Also California sues Activision is a very kind title for what’s involved, has happened and what they have gone through. 

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Not buying any new Ubisoft or Acti Blizz games until this is properly sorted and addressed. 

[Maryokutai]

 

Wonder what percentage of the Blizzard workforce that is but it's still a decently large group.

[mmmark]

 

[one-armed dwarf]

https://www.promethean.news/news/activision-hires-notorious-union-busting-firm-wilmerhale

 

Quote

Activision has called in the experts to put down the claims of sexual harassment and discrimination and stop the protests by workers. Activision has hired WilmerHale. WilmerHale has been hired to “review” Activision’s policies. Wilmerhale’s own site advertises its expertise as “union awareness and avoidance.” They use attorneys and experts to develop “union avoidance strategies and union organizational campaigns.” WilmerHale was used extensively by Amazon to spread anti-union misinformation and propaganda to “sow doubts about the unionization drive.” WilmerHale was the firm that killed unionization efforts at an Amazon center in Bessemer, Alabama. 

 

[mfnick]

Utter wankers. Knew they’d just spend time and money to try and follow Amazons lead in how to stop Unionisation rather than try and sort the core issue. Twats. 

[Maryokutai]

How is that even legal or to phrase it differently, why is it illegal to murder these people?

[Maf]

Activision got tired of EA winning worst video game company every year 

[retroed]

 

 

 

[Maryokutai]

People have been pointing out that this might actually be a really bad thing, as they basically replaced a president with two co-presidents, meaning that Bobby Kotick now has even more power over Blizzard.

 

I wonder if the name Blizzard will still exist on five years or so or if everything will just be released under the Activision banner.