Activision Blizzard Employees To Protest Against Workplace Harassment by Mass Walkouts, Strikes

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 27 July 2021, 05:07 pm

Activision Blizzard employees have had enough.

According to a report by Game Informer, members of the embattled AAA studio and publisher's workforce are staging a mass walkout and work strike. This is to protest against the company's alleged lack of action to deal with workplace harassment.

(Photo : Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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The allegations were detailed in a lawsuit that the California Department of Fair Employment recently filed. Activision Blizzard is being used for sexual harassment, labor abuse, and a slew of other mistreatments of its employees. Furthermore, other employees have also accused the company of maintaining a so-called "frat boy culture."

In a report by The Verge, the "frat boy culture" paints a very unsettling picture of how employees are treated in the company, especially women. Here is an excerpt of an employee's story:

"Female employees almost universally confirmed that working for "Defendants" was akin to working in a frat house, which invariably involved male employees drinking and subjecting female employees to sexual harassment with no repercussion. "Cube crawls" in Defendants' offices were common and male employees proudly came into work hungover. Similarly, male employees would play video games during work, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies, and make numerous jokes about rape."

It's also been reported that Activision Blizzard's female employees have also been subject to constant sexual comments/advances and unwanted groping/physical contact. PCGamer reports that it's the women who work in the "World of Warcraft" team who bear the brunt of the sexual and workplace misconduct, which mostly male members of the team purportedly caused.

This protest comes after a letter signed by over 2,500 people (all either former or current Activision Blizzard employees), surfaced and aired the grievances.

Activision Blizzard Top Brass Constantly Ignores Complaints: Employees

What's perhaps even worse is that according to the protesting employees, the company's top brass knows about the mistreatment but chooses to turn a blind eye.

In the letter, people have specifically named company president J Allen Brack, who, with the top management, is alleged to treat complaints in a "dismissive" manner. Furthermore, they also said that their grievances were never kept confidential. And it's not just them, but also the human resources department as well, which employees say chose to ignore their complaints due to being "close to the abusers," reports Game Informer.

Reaping The Fallout of Workplace Harassment Allegations

Here's a major result of this recent scandal. If you planned to buy Activision Blizzard stock right now, you won't be getting as much as you initially hoped. Earlier this month, you would have fared better, but now, the lawsuit has caused the company to lose a massive $8 billion in market value, reports Business Insider.

There's also the news of the federal government putting the company's Overwatch League under investigation, which, while not a direct result of the harassment lawsuit, is still enough proof that Activision Blizzard is not having a good few months.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by RJ Pierce