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The Courts Games

Activision Blizzard Employees To Walk Out Following Sexual Harassment Lawsuit (theverge.com) 91

Posted by BeauHD from the latest-developments dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Activison Blizzard employees are staging a walkout on Wednesday, July 28th in response to the company's handling of sexual harassment allegations brought by the state of California. Employees will meet outside Blizzard's main campus in Irvine at 10AM PST. "We believe that our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership," the organizers said in a statement.

The news comes after California sued the renowned gaming studio and its publisher, saying women were subjected to constant sexual harassment and discrimination at work. One female employee allegedly died by suicide after having nude photos of her passed around the office. Following the suit, numerous employees took to Twitter to detail additional examples of harassment and discrimination. Former Blizzard president Mike Morhaime also issued a statement saying "I am extremely sorry that I failed you." The company denied the allegations, saying the lawsuit was merely "irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State's best businesses out of California." Employees are putting forward four demands as part of the walkout: end forced arbitration clauses in all employee contracts; implement new hiring and promotion processes to increase representation across the company; publish salary and promotion data "for all employees of all genders and ethnicities at the company"; and allow a diversity, equity, and inclusion task force to hire a third-party organization to audit the executive staff.
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Activision Blizzard Employees To Walk Out Following Sexual Harassment Lawsuit More

Activision Blizzard Employees To Walk Out Following Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

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  • Maybe they just suck. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by smokinpork ( 658882 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @08:12PM (#61627843)
    "The company denied the allegations, saying the lawsuit was merely "irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State's best businesses out of California." Yes those same state bureaucrats who are ruining the state business climate so much that California is kicking the rest of the states ass: https://www.bloombergquint.com... [bloombergquint.com]

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by sid crimson ( 46823 )

      I'm a Californian living in Los Angeles.
      I'm glad CA is doing well, but the article focuses on a narrow type of business. About half of the restaurants within 5 miles of my home are shuttered - most of them are ones that I will miss, but couldn't compete with the bigger chains that were quicker to deal with COVID nor could they compete with the street vendors that LA Police and LADPH ignore because they don't have time to deal with permit issues. So, while the article makes a good case for the economy, it's

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sheph ( 955019 )
        Maybe they'll return but the underlying issues that make it hard for small businesses remain. Taxes are very high and the political climate does nothing to ease the burden on those people. Those restaurants that closed had people behind them that poured their heart and soul into their business just to watch it wither and die in part due to bad political decisions. In some places they're allowing groups of people to burn and loot businesses. No one is really looking out for these people.

    • Considering how terrible their debt to income ratio is I wouldn't think your argument has much merit. They have a lot of people and a lot of industry that relies on internet/digital distribution so the income is certainly higher than places without those income streams and they're still unable to meet the demands places upon the economy to a higher degree than most other places. Individual ratios are highest in California and at the state level Cali is top 10 or 11 worst.

  • Unionize (Score:4, Interesting)

    by inode_buddha ( 576844 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @08:13PM (#61627847) Journal

    Looks like the tech sector is finally discovering the concept of unionization. That would cover *all* of the employees issues mentioned. But if they try to bargain as individuals, they're screwed. And what's to stop the company from hiring scabs?

    • Re:Unionize (Score:4, Insightful)

      by chispito ( 1870390 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @08:30PM (#61627893)
      This doesn't appear to be a workers vs management thing, but a minority vs majority workers thing so I'm not sure how you pitch the union to the majority.

      • This doesn't appear to be a workers vs management thing, but a minority vs majority workers thing so I'm not sure how you pitch the union to the majority.

        Why do you assume the minority is the one complaining?

        In my experience most people are decent, and I suspect Blizzard employees, regardless of gender, are no different.

        Unfortunately, bad apples, particularly ones in management, can create an unhealthy culture. And when that happens even decent folk can end up ignoring, enabling, or even engaging in behaviour they'd typically try to prevent.

        I don't know if a union is part of the answer, but I don't think the (female) minority is to blame. Rather, a minority

        • Rather, a minority of the male employees are causing a problem and Blizzard management seems to be resisting efforts to fix it.

          It's worth noting that the good old boys aren't always boys. It could be there are women in positions of power in the company that have circled the wagons to prevent any disruption to the management that got them where they are.

          • Re: Unionize (Score:5, Insightful)

            by ToasterMonkey ( 467067 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @12:37AM (#61628475) Homepage

            Rather, a minority of the male employees are causing a problem and Blizzard management seems to be resisting efforts to fix it.

            It's worth noting that the good old boys aren't always boys. It could be there are women in positions of power in the company that have circled the wagons to prevent any disruption to the management that got them where they are.

            Why is that worth noting? Your first comment tried to make this into women vs. men, then someone above pointed out how unlikely that is because a majority of male professionals don't stand for that frat house crap either, and you feel it's worth noting that maybe the fault still lies with women somehow. I guess I'm secure enough with my manhood I can't relate to this blame the women crap.

            • It is the HR departments that often fail to act on these issues when reported. They can't have all been headed off by managers.

      • This doesn't appear to be a workers vs management thing, but a minority vs majority workers thing so I'm not sure how you pitch the union to the majority.

        LOL.... 2600 people isnt the minority, LMFAO.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by xevioso ( 598654 )

          Don't they employ around 15,000 people? SOmething like that? I think they are a minority.

          I'm more interested in how many people actually work on-site rather than remotely.

        • Oh, I meant I don't see the majority of employees forming a union to protect a harassed minority. A letter/walkout/hashtag and voting to unionize are pretty far apart. That is a lot of people though and none of the demands seem unreasonable or overly burdensome, so we'll see.

        • I mean technically they have 9500 employees so they are a minority. But what they aren't is an ignorable minority. When such a significant portion of your employees support a cause you typically should pay attention.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            Yes. And then start preparing pink slips.

  • I'm canceling my WoW account as another reasonable response.

    Consumers rule.

    And when we go on strike, corporate greedheads listen.

    • The article says that 2,600 employees (so far) have signed an open letter in which they voice their disapproval of the company's statements about the allegation. That's a lot of people. It suggests that there isn't just one or two angry people making a lot of noise, but a whole lot of angry people demanding action.

      Handling accusations like this is difficult. On the one hand, someone may be an abuser that should suffer legal consequences and/or be fired. On the other hand, people can and do falsely accus

      • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

        by uncqual ( 836337 )

        If these 2,600 people all say they have witnessed harassment or abuse at their workplace

        The letter [theverge.com] does not assert that the undersigned have personally witnessed such harassment or abuse, just that they

        stand with all our friends, teammates, and colleagues, as well as the members of our dedicated community, who have experienced mistreatment or harassment of any kind.

        and

        while seeing so many current and former employees speak out about their own experiences regarding harassment and abuse, is simply unacceptabl

  • Point one should be a given.

    Point 4 just sounds like a call to introduce more administrative bloat, especially considering point 3.
    Hiring more middle management micromanaging busybodies isn't the only solution.
    Here's an idea - Unionize!

  • 80's Activision women: Carol Shaw pioneering as the first female game developer, made River Raid, a historic game that helped project the company as one of the most important of the industry.
    Nowadays' Activision women: sexually harassed, discriminated, objectified and humiliated to death.

  • Good luck with that 4th demand (Score:3, Insightful)

    by memory_register ( 6248354 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @08:27PM (#61627887)
    DEI task forces are just "find racism in everything" consultants. If you subject the entire c-suite to it, you'll lose the trust and morale of your leaders. If you want to build a better leadership culture and weed out toxic members of the team, how about bringing in a real, honest, and principled CEO instead of empty suits that play "find the racism in this bowl of cereal" games.

    • a real, honest, and principled CEO

      Do you often go hunting for unicorns?

    • DEI task forces are just "find racism in everything" consultants.

      Sure. If you send someone to the ocean to find water, they will find water everywhere. There's a reason they find racism in everything, mainly because how corporate culture has developed over the years.

  • PR WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @08:30PM (#61627895)

    I actually went looking around for the original statement because this line was so bizarre:
    The company denied the allegations, saying the lawsuit was merely "irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State's best businesses out of California."

    It comes from here [theverge.com] where it was unironically written after a claim the investigators were "disgraceful and unprofessional".

    Basically, it was the climax to a long paragraph whining that the investigation made up a bunch of problems, followed immediately by another paragraph claiming those non-existent problems have been fixed.

    Statements like that do not give me confidence that management is in a healthy state of mind.

    • Basically, it was the climax to a long paragraph whining that the investigation made up a bunch of problems, followed immediately by another paragraph claiming those non-existent problems have been fixed.

      They are saying the problems were solved in the past and so are not current problems. That may or may not be truthful, but it is consistent. Overall I agree, Blizzard should have hired an outside law firm to write a simpler statement and left it at that until the matter is resolved completely. This response is emotional and unhelpful, to say the least.

      • Basically, it was the climax to a long paragraph whining that the investigation made up a bunch of problems, followed immediately by another paragraph claiming those non-existent problems have been fixed.

        They are saying the problems were solved in the past and so are not current problems. That may or may not be truthful, but it is consistent. Overall I agree, Blizzard should have hired an outside law firm to write a simpler statement and left it at that until the matter is resolved completely. This response is emotional and unhelpful, to say the least.

        Kinda, that statement involves a lot of denial that problems ever existed with vague claims of facts being misrepresented and statements that investigators "refused to inform us what issues they perceived".

        The overall vibe is "we didn't have a serious problem, but we fixed it anyway", which suggests the changes were largely window dressing which is probably why employees are staging a walk-out.

    • Statements like that do not give me confidence that management is in a healthy state of mind.

      They're making the news because of culture war bullshit instead of making games, a product nearly everyone is addicted to in some form. Yes, their management are atrocious to allow that to happen without firing them all.

      • Re:PR WTF? (Score:5, Informative)

        by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2021 @10:57PM (#61628247)

        Statements like that do not give me confidence that management is in a healthy state of mind.

        They're making the news because of culture war bullshit instead of making games, a product nearly everyone is addicted to in some form. Yes, their management are atrocious to allow that to happen without firing them all.

        Does this sound like "culture war bullshit"?
        Alex Afrasiabi, the former Senior Creative Director of World of Warcraft at Blizzard Entertainment, was permitted to engage in blatant sexual harassment with little to no repercussions. During a company event (an annual convention called Blizz Con) Afrasiabi would hit on female employees, telling him he wanted to marry them, attempting to kiss them, and putting, his arms around them. This was in plain view of other male employees, including supervisors, who had to intervene and pull him off female employees. Afrasiabi was so known to engage in harassment of females that his suite was nicknamed the “Crosby Suite” after alleged rapist Bill Crosby.

        • Yes, it does. You can't just say words and have them believed, that's the literal definition of "culture war bullshit." Courts exist for a reason.

          • Even in court it's hard to defend against being accused of not doing enough when there is no definition of what that constitutes.

            • That's why it would rightfully be thrown out. "Innocent until proven guilty" is a thing for a reason, the cancel culture people want "guilty until proven innocent" so they can remove anyone they dislike and take their jobs for themselves, it's a power grab, plain and simple.

        • Re:PR WTF? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Kaenneth ( 82978 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:32AM (#61628689) Journal

          I remember interacting with Afrasiabi back when he was Furor on the EverQuest 'Veeshan' server.

          He's always been an ass, no one who knew him in EQ is surprised at this.

        • That ain't culture war. That's a guy that needs to be locked up. (where I came from, they simply beat the shit out of guys like that in the parking lot, and nobody saw anything)

  • Their list of demands are absolutely insane, point number 4 especially. At this point they should just let fold up and sells off their IP. There is no way the company can bounce back when it's that full of radicals.

    • Those are not "their" demands. The shrillest make the demand, everyone else is just desperate to value signal because they fear for their social standing and employability if they don't.

      • Or they ignore the shrill idiots and try to get back to work. Either way, the wrong people end up with all the attention.
  • Cancel in-development game project: "Sexual Harassment Simulator".

  • Time to sell WoW to Tencent and move development somewhere where everyone who will work for cheap is represented and no one has time to harass anyone.

  • I have to admit.... I haven't really followed the details of all of this. But it seems to me that sexual harassment type claims really have to be dealt with on an individual basis.

    If you try to change "corporate policy / culture" on the level of having rank and file employees protesting and staging walk-outs? Sure, you might generate a lot of media attention and some scrutiny about what's really going on there. But these people are ALSO fighting their own images in mirrors.

    I mean ... I can't think of ANY

    • If they have the nude photos on their phone they're part of the problem, end of story. Go scorched-earth on everyone. Hand in all phones and allowed deep dive phone access and social media access or get fired. No exceptions. Everyone from bottom to the top. Someone committed suicide and people are treating it like it's nothing. That's revolting.

  • "We believe that our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership,"

    So? You work for a company. That's a top-down structure and you are at the bottom. Company values are set at the top, not by the rank and file. Should employees have input? I don't know, that's not a question for me it's a question for the owners/executives on a company by company basis.

    For example, if it were up to me, my company would not have any of that "diversity, equity and

  • If Blizzard goes under, will anyone even notice?

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