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Activision Blizzard Is Sued by California Over Workplace Culture (Published 2021)
The lawsuit says women at the gaming company were paid less and discriminated against, and it described a culture of sexual harassment.www.nytimes.com
A California state agency is suing Activision Blizzard, the video game maker that produces Call of Duty, over claims of sexual harassment and discrimination.
After a two-year investigation, the state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court that Activision fostered a “‘frat boy’ workplace culture.” Executives sexually harassed women, the agency said, and male employees openly joked about rape and drank alcohol while engaging in “inappropriate behavior” toward women at their cubicles during events known as “cube crawls.”
The lawsuit added that women were routinely paid less than men for similar work and were less likely to be promoted.
Activision’s workplace “is a breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women,” the agency wrote. “Female employees are subjected to constant sexual harassment, including having to continually fend off unwanted sexual comments and advances by their male co-workers and supervisors and being groped at the ‘cube crawls’ and other company events.”
In one case, the lawsuit said, a female employee died by suicide during a business trip, as a result of her sexual relationship with her male supervisor. Before her death, male colleagues allegedly shared explicit photos of the woman, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit, which was reported earlier by Bloomberg Law, said the company’s executives and human resources department failed to address misconduct when they were informed of it.
In a statement, Activision said the “picture D.F.E.H. paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today,” adding that the company tries to pay employees fairly and has worked to address its culture and improve diversity in recent years. Activision employees for years have undergone anti-harassment training, and the company said it had created a confidential reporting hotline and team that investigates employee concerns, among other changes.
It appears that Activision Blizzard, the game publisher/holding company behind World of Warcraft, Diablo III, the Call of Duty series, and Overwatch was possessed of a culture of rampant workplace abuse against female employees, to the point that after two years of investigation the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing is suing the company on behalf of its employees.
I must disclose that I have particular contempt for this company and its leadership because they are now openly bought and paid-for minions for the Chinese government, booting competition players declaring their solidarity with the Hong Kong protesters. I personally hope the Department of Fair Employment bankrupts them and better companies buy up the IP, or at least makes Activision Blizzard a radioactively toxic brand like that of The Weinstein Company. Unprincipled, Un-American, misogynistic scum.
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