A thousand Activision Blizzard staff condemn the response to lawsuit via petition
Activision Blizzard has been put in the spotlight after the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit naming them due to the company’s “frat boy” culture that openly discriminated against women.
The company has been accused of a variety of things, including sexual harassment, female workers being looked over by their male co-workers in terms of promotion, unequal pay, and more. The California DFEH filing even claimed that “female employees almost universally confirmed that working for defendants was akin to working in a frat house” and that one female employee actually killed herself “due to a sexual relationship with her male supervisor.”
A spokesperson for Activision Blizzard has since denied all accusations, stating that the filing was not only unprofessional but “includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past.”
However, Activision Blizzard staff that still currently work for the company have not taken that sitting down and have, as reported by Bloomberg, signed a petition to condemn and decry the statement. The staff that signed the petition say that the statement from Activision Blizzard was both “abhorrent and insulting” and also creating “a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims.”
You’re able to read the full letter below:
“To the Leaders of Activision Blizzard,
“We, the undersigned, agree that the statements from Activision Blizzard, Inc. and their legal counsel regarding the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement from Frances Townsend, are abhorrent and insulting to all that we believe our company should stand for. To put it clearly and unequivocally, our values as employees are not accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.
“We believe these statements have damaged our ongoing quest for equality inside and outside of our industry. Categorising the claims that have been made as ‘distorted, and in many cases false’ creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims. It also casts doubt on our organisations’ ability to hold abusers accountable for their actions and foster a safe environment for victims to come forward in the future. These statements make it clear that our leadership is not putting our values first. Immediate corrections are needed from the highest level of our organization.
“Our company executives have claimed that actions will be taken to protect us, but in the face of legal action – and the troubling official responses that followed – we no longer trust that our leaders will place employee safety above their own interests. To claim this is a ‘truly meritless and irresponsible lawsuit,’ while seeing so many current and former employees speak out about their own experiences regarding harassment and abuse, is simply unacceptable.
“We call for official statements that recognise the seriousness of these allegations and demonstrate compassion for victims of harassment and assault. We call on Frances Townsend to stand by her word to step down as Executive Sponsor of the ABK Employee Women’s Network as a result of the damaging nature of her statement. We call on the executive leadership team to work with us on new and meaningful efforts that ensure employees – as well as our community – have a safe place to speak out and come forward.
“We 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. We will not be silenced, we will not stand aside, and we will not give up until the company we love is a workplace we can all feel proud to be a part of again. We will be the change.”
Activision Blizzard staff
As of this time of writing, the petition has over one thousand signatures from Activision Blizzard staff.
In other news, Activision Blizzard held an ‘all-hands on deck’ meeting yesterday that seemed to promise most of the same, with one of Activision’s executives – Joshua Taub – denying any effort of unionization, as well as confirming that Activision Blizzard do intend to fight the filing from DFEH. To read more about this, check out the full report over on Uppercut.
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