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On July 23 2021 22:39 Manit0u wrote:
The only surprising thing is that this hasn't come up until now. We're talking "constant harassment" that went on for years, there are people citing horrible things that go on in the offices and that they have PTSD even when driving next to the offices despite not being employed there any more.
Are people so insecure about their job opportunities or their personal abilities that they put up with this shit for years without quitting on the spot or recording it and blowing the whistle?
If I joined a company and saw such shit going down I'd immediately demand people be fired or quit myself and went to the press. That's assuming I only saw that, were I being harassed like that I'd bring hell down on their heads.
Perhaps it's just the US/corporate employment issue in general, where people are not inclined to fight for their own rights and dignity as an employee.
Developers worldwide should definitely unionize and stick it to the corps.
I am never in the camp of blaming people for not talking sooner. A hallmark of any abusive situation is making the victims feel completely powerless to do anything about it, even if it's not true. And yes, America has huge problems with employees being forcibly overdependent on their employers for everything from their pay to their right to have health insurance. People put up with way more than they should have to, because their right to live is being softly held hostage. If more people had the ability to quit their job to speak out without fear of getting blackballed by other similar employers, they might just do so. It's not a simple thing, unfortunately, and it's deeply fucked up from top to bottom, as the investigation has shown.
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Agreed with all the above, it's hard for a victim to come forward, especially if the abuse is considered normal behavior by the higher ups.
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I am in no way putting blame on the victims here. The whole situation just seems absurd and bizarre to me and that's why I'm attributing it to the work culture in the corporate US. I guess you're right that if there's no real public healthcare, mandatory severance packages etc. it's much easier to hold people hostage at work.
I'm trying to compare it to situations I've encountered myself, like CEO having an office romance/affair with the girl from HR department (consensual on both sides so at least that's different) who got caught having sex in the office. They both got fired the next day and it was the talk of the week in all the IT community in the city.
From my experience people tend to gossip a lot about their situation at work but maybe in the US people don't meet so often outside of their office. So far in Poland and in Germany I've found it pretty common for people to go grab a casual beer or a meal, have informal parties quite often etc. And if people from different companies meet in a bar there obviously will be some info sharing as people are eager to know if the grass is greener somewhere else and such.
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I see Activision really doesn't want to be outdone by Ubisoft.
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Work culture is pretty awful in the US, and the more revered a company is the more people are willing to put up with to work there. For example, many people put up with living in their cars just to work at Disneyland. Why? Because working for Disney is their dream and they're willing to sacrifice some of their dignity and standard of living for the opportunity to do so.
https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/shocking-dark-truth-working-at-disneyland.html/
For many, working at Blizzard is like working at Disney, and they're willing to endure so much to make their dream come true and there will always be more people happy to take their place once they get fed up or break from their working conditions. It makes these places perfect for workplace abuse and harassment.
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Being a shit disturber in games is rough, you're very very liable to get blacklisted given how incredibly interconnected the game development world is. If word gets around you dont like being sexually harassed thats going to potentially end any career you may have in games.
Unfortunately power is entirely in the hands of the already powerful in these situations.
EDIT: Fran Townsend, a current ActiBlizz executive and former... let me see... Homeland Security Advisor to George W. Bush... sent an email to Blizzard staff doubling down on their gas lighting public statement.
https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1418619091515068421?s=20
email here for you,
+ Show Spoiler +Everyone,
As the Executive Sponsor of the ABK Employee's Women's Network and our Chief Compliance Officer, I wanted to reach out to you. I know this has been difficult for many of us. A recently filed lawsuit presented a distorted and untrue picture of our company, including factually incorrect, old, and out of context stories - some from more than a decade ago.
The Activision companies of today, the Activision companies that I know, are great companies with good values. When I joined the Executive Leadership Team, I was certain that I was joining a company where I would be valued, treated with respect, and provided opportunities equal to those afford to the men of the company. For me, this has been true during my time. As a leader, I am committed to making sure that the experience I have is the same as the rest of the organization. We have a leadership team that is committed to these principles in every way.
I am proud to be part of a company that takes a hard-line approach to inappropriate or hostile work environments and sexual harassment issues. Our Speak Up campaign reinforces out zero tolerance for retaliation against those who do speak up. We've made significant investments to foster inclusive behvaiors, and to reflect reater diversity within our leadership teams including:
Investing in and strengthening out DE&I Employee Networks; creating global networks to bring together the efforts in all of our business units and the introduction of Executive Sponsors.
Introducing learning and development programs, including inclusive hiring training.
Amplifying internal programs such as the Way2Play Heroes and the recurring Speak Up campaign.
Reinforcing channels for employees to report violations including the "ASK List."
Introducing an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns.
Continuing to require all employees to take Equality & Diversity training and including anti-harassment training (and we have done so for many years.)
We put tremendous effort into creating fair compensation policies that reflect out commitment to equal opportunity. We review compensation regularly and feel confident that we pay all employees fairly for equal or substantially similar work. We take proactive steps to ensure that pay and advancement are driven by merit. We reward performance, and we conduct extensive anti-discrimination trainings, including for those who are part of the compensation process.
We work at a company that truly values equality and fairness. Rest assured that leadership is committed to continuing to maintain a safe, fair, and inclusive workplace. We cannot let egregious actions of others, and a truly meritless and irresponsible lawsuit, damage our culture of respect and equal opportunity for all employees. We aspire in our company to do great things in our games, in our impact on society, and in our work environment. We continue to hold firm to our principles and invest, as we have in the past, the resources to ensure quality opportunities for all employees. We remain committed as a leadership team to doing what is right.
In contrast to an email from JAB,
+ Show Spoiler +Hello Blizzard,
I personally have a lot of emotions coming out of yesterday, and I know you do, too. The allegations and the hurt of current and former employees are extremely troubling. I know many of you would like to receive more clarity. While I can't comment on the specifics of the case as it's an open investigation, what I can say is that the behavior detailed in the allegations is completely unacceptable.
It goes -with saying- it is completely unacceptable for anyone i nthe company to face discrimination or harassment.
It goes - with saying- that everyone should feel safe working here, whether we are on campus, at BlizzCon, or working from home.
It goes - with saying- it takes courages to come forward, and all claims brought to the company are invested by internal and (when needed) external investigators. We take these claims very seriously. Claims can be made without fear of retaliation, and many times, I attend to them personally, along with other leaders.
Stepping back - when I talked with Bobby about taking this job, one of the first things I mentioned was a revered saint of the Brack household - Gloria Steinem. Growing up, the value of women as equals, understanding the work that had been done for equal treatment, and the fact that there ws still much to do, were common themes. This is just one of the reasons the fight for equality is incredibly important to me. People with different backgrounds, views, and experiences are essential for Blizzard, our teams, and our player community. I disdain "bro culture," and have spent my career fighting against it.
Interating on our culture with the same intensity that we bring to our games is imperative, with our values acting as our north star. This is some of the most important work that we do, both as professionals and human beings.
A company is more than a legal construct that exists as a piece of paper in a filing cabinet in Delaware. The people that work at the company make it what it is, through their actions and creations. Each of us plays a role in maintaining a place of safety for one other. And it is also up to each of us to continue to craft the Blizzard we want - and commit to doing our part in keeping Blizzard great, but always aspiring for more.
The leadership team and I will be meeting with many of you to answer questions and discuss how we can move forward. In the meantime, I want you to kno that you can talk to any manager, any HR partner, any member of the legal team, or to anyone one the executive team [including, Hey J]. If you feel more comfortable talking to someone outside of Blizzard, or prefer to be anonymous, you can contact the Way2Play Integrity Line.
I feel angry, sad, and a host of other emotions, but I also feel grateful to work alongside a set of leaders and thousands of employees who join me in their commitment to continuous improvement.
Thank you Blizzard,
JAB
that doesnt seem to think that the allegations are meritless.
Naturally, Blizzard employees are pissed off, and to be honest I wouldn't feel safe about talking to any manager, HR partner, definitely not the legal team, or any executive (especially not Fran Townsend!) about sexual harassment given the companies statements on whats happened.
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Given the part that JAB has played in the picture on the Blizzard side, he definitely has nicer words that contrast with Activision's account, but I wouldn't be in a rush to see them as any better. Both the ogre's heads were and are complicit.
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Iterating on our culture with the same intensity that we bring to our games is imperative.
They are just incriminating themselves at this point.
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Don't you just love the mambojumbo corpo-speech in those emails? A lesson in how to use so many words to say practically nothing, mostly just re-iterating company slogans and re-introducing names of gazillion programs (why do you even need multiple channels to report violations?) and initiatives with silly names.
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Mike Morhaime posted his thoughts on the matter:
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Mexico2170 Posts
I trust Morhaime, and his statement feels very honest.
It's hard to say how much he would know. As someone who has worked in big companies, you barely ever see the CEOs/Presidents if ever. They are just busy and going from here to there all the time. You mostly work in your group, your direct boss, and then you sometimes have meetings with other groups or the boss of your boss. And when issues come up and you CC them, often times they just re-direct it to another person and say "check this" "please fix." Etc. Even higher management rarely gets together except for very specific meetings. I'm sure the experience of others here will be similar.
So I don't doubt that he didn't knew the extent of it. Specially if the HR department was as incompetent as it seems. If the HR department doesn't scale issues or solve them it's hard for higher ups to become aware. And we know for a fact that HR was incompetent because their work is to protect their company, and they are being sued so clearly they didn't do their job very well.
That being said, he should have been aware of some of it. Specially as some of the people involved were kind of higher magnament, and it's responsibility of the CEO to set a good company environment, even if he does not oversees it directly on a day-to-day basis.
One that would have a much more harder time of plausible deniability in terms of knowing what was going on is Chris Metzen.
He worked very closely with Afriasabi with is directly accused here, and it seems they were friends. He was basically his successor in terms of lore for wow. He must have known his friend wasn't very respectful of women.
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I was pondering writing something similar. In the company I work for, the location boss is constantly absent, either traveling or talking to customers. It's the middle management that is setting the example and work culture, and that differs from manager to manager, obviously. I only know people working for my project or people with whom I worked previously. If someone was doing some shitty stuff behind closed doors I can't even open (lack of access due to customer secrecy/confidentiality, NDA, R&D etc.) I wouldn't even know. So the question of how many people know such things is highly dependent on work organization, buildings layout and organizational structure of company.
That being said, if the highest management sets clear policy (as they should) and communicate clearly that they strongly against it, and they set channels for reporting such issues then employees shouldn't be worried about reporting abuse, and perpetrators should be scared of consequences.
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Russian Federation40186 Posts
Well, as per usual, i will take out my popcorn and wait how it ends. Because while some of things in complaint are genuinely disturbing, some inclusions are questionable (from ethical point of view, ianal to see how it works with California state/Federal laws), and if i learned anything in recent years, is that nobody is trustworthy.
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Canada8988 Posts
Apparently there has been some talk that Morhaime was told multiple times about what was going on.
https://mobile.twitter.com/devolore?lang=fr
Obviously it's hard to know the ins and outs of the discussion and what he has been told and not and in what way, but it look like there may have been some volontary blindness going on. I want to believe that there's isn't a mean bone in Morhaim himself (altought what do I know I guess), but you can't ignore those kind of behavior, especially if you are a CEO.
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On July 24 2021 16:06 [Phantom] wrote:
I trust Morhaime, and his statement feels very honest.
It's hard to say how much he would know. As someone who has worked in big companies, you barely ever see the CEOs/Presidents if ever. They are just busy and going from here to there all the time. You mostly work in your group, your direct boss, and then you sometimes have meetings with other groups or the boss of your boss. And when issues come up and you CC them, often times they just re-direct it to another person and say "check this" "please fix." Etc. Even higher management rarely gets together except for very specific meetings. I'm sure the experience of others here will be similar.
So I don't doubt that he didn't knew the extent of it. Specially if the HR department was as incompetent as it seems. If the HR department doesn't scale issues or solve them it's hard for higher ups to become aware. And we know for a fact that HR was incompetent because their work is to protect their company, and they are being sued so clearly they didn't do their job very well.
That being said, he should have been aware of some of it. Specially as some of the people involved were kind of higher magnament, and it's responsibility of the CEO to set a good company environment, even if he does not oversees it directly on a day-to-day basis.
One that would have a much more harder time of plausible deniability in terms of knowing what was going on is Chris Metzen.
He worked very closely with Afriasabi with is directly accused here, and it seems they were friends. He was basically his successor in terms of lore for wow. He must have known his friend wasn't very respectful of women.
It's what I think is going on too.
I've met Mike. He is as genuine of a guy as I can ever expect a major CEO of a company to be.
Is it possible that he knew and did nothing? Of course it is. Do I think it's likely? Of course not.
Whoever is in charge of HR is to blame first and foremost. That's their fucking job, to police shit like this. Even if Mike did hear a plea here and there from someone under him, the most likely thing he would have done is gone to HR about it and instructed them to do something about it.
If he has committed a sin, it's hiring and or trusting whoever he had in charge of HR. If Chris Metzen is also involved that only makes it worse because he and Mike are friends.
It's really common in these kinds of situations to go after the big boss. But the reality is here that it's very likely that Mike had no idea what was going on underneath his feet. I've seen it in every place I've worked at. Big boss, comes around, everyone straightens up and stops fucking around until he passes by, only to go back to business as usual when his back is turned.
Is it possible he knew? Yea it's possible. Is it likely? I don't think so. Not to this extent.
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"Some of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment"
Too soon?
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On July 25 2021 02:03 Charoisaur wrote:
"Some of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment"
Too soon?
That is hilarious!
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Russian Federation40186 Posts
On July 25 2021 02:03 Charoisaur wrote:
"Some of the coolest moments in sc2 happen due to worker harassment"
Too soon?
I believe it's called foreshadowing.
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On July 24 2021 09:56 Manit0u wrote:
Don't you just love the mambojumbo corpo-speech in those emails? A lesson in how to use so many words to say practically nothing, mostly just re-iterating company slogans and re-introducing names of gazillion programs (why do you even need multiple channels to report violations?) and initiatives with silly names.
Yep, everytime i read a statement like that, i'm taken back to the first book of foundation. Lots of words, nothing in it.
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Kind'a disappointed by how deep below the fold this issue is buried here.
The company and people behind the game this site is mainly dedicated to are being sued over what appear to be horrendous acts. People who made this game, interacted with this community.... how is this not a featured discussion?
Does anyone here really think that "Nice joins Good Game Gaming after leaving Alpha X" is more important community news then THIS?
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EPT
