The sexist workplace culture needs to be stamped out.
Activision Blizzard is currently being sued by the state of California for its ‘frat boy’ workplace environment, which allegedly includes harassing female employees, passing naked photos of female employees around at a staff party, and micromanaging female employees while male employees were allowed to play video games and drink alcohol at work. Certain sections of the lawsuit detail that the micromanagement - and subsequent lack of full-time employment or promotion, despite having greater experience compared to male co-workers - was particularly prominent with women of colour. These allegations are shocking, in that they include some incredibly disturbing allegations, and it's harrowing to read about such things. But sadly, they shouldn’t be surprising.
RELATED: If We Want To Talk About Diversity In Gaming, We Need To Be Intersectional
We should be beyond these questions by now. Even just in gaming, several other studios have faced allegations of a toxic, sexist work environment, not to mention that there is still a loud and dedicated section of the gaming audience determined to push women out with its misogynistic abuse. Just last month, the E3 journalists portal used the pronoun ‘he’ for everyone. Yes, this was a minor tech snafu, but it’s hard to imagine that it would have been released if the portal used ‘she’ by default, because it likely would have been caught during testing.
Gaming is not the only industry rampant with toxicity, of course. Hollywood recently tried to expel its most abusive predators as part of the MeToo movement, and sexism extends beyond million dollar creative industries into every single workforce. Not every male boss or male dominated workspace is a cauldron of misogyny, but while men continue to hold a disproportionate amount of leadership roles and in many cases have unchecked power over the progression of the women in their workforce, the conditions are consistently in place for abuse like this.
This is not to excuse Activision Blizzard’s culture - quite the opposite. That this sort of thing happens elsewhere does not mean it should be accepted, nor forgiven. But it does mean we should stop acting so surprised. It’s important to keep this particular case under the microscope, to grill Activision Blizzard into meaningful changes and to ensure that those accused are investigated and suitably face consequences. Still, Activision Blizzard is not the only example - acting as if this is an isolated case, as if the problem will be eradicated with this lawsuit, is unhelpful at best and wilfully ignorant at worst.
Of course, some of the details within the lawsuit are extreme. The lawsuit accuses male Activision Blizzard employees of regularly engaging in a "cube crawl" - this is described as an activity where male employees drink "copious amounts of alcohol as they crawl their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees." In another incident, a female employee suffered ongoing sexual harassment at work, including having naked photos of her passed around at an office party. During a business trip with a male supervisor, the woman took her own life. The male supervisor was “found by police to have brought a buttplug and lubricant on this business trip.”
As it often is, the lawsuit also alleges that racism was mixed in with the misogyny at Activision Blizzard. Two African American employees allege that they were micromanaged beyond belief, one being forced to explain her decision to go for a brief walk while her male co-workers sat around playing video games, and the other being singled out to write a one-page report when she requested time off work - something other employees were not subjected to.
Many people will be reading the Activision Blizzard report and will be shocked and upset by what they read. But many will find it all too familiar, both the more standard sexism and in some cases, the more extreme incidents. We need to move beyond ‘How?’, because we know how. Women, especially women from minority groups, rarely get the opportunities they deserve in leadership roles, partially because they’re never offered the progression and partially because when they are, they’re expected to double up as an educator, and end up burning out from exhaustion. We need to do better, and we know how. It’s not just about stopping the cube crawls, it’s about stopping the rot at its roots by calling this behavior out, and restructuring to ensure that there are viable pathways for the culture to be changed, not be exhausted individuals, but by a concerted effort from every well-meaning worker to ensure this racism and sexism is no longer tolerated.
Activision Blizzard harassment scandal: 'As bad as described,'
ex-employee says
Former female employees of Activision Blizzard (ATVI) are coming forward to share their experiences at the company after a California state agency filed a civil rights lawsuit against the gaming giant alleging widespread sexual harassment and gender and racial discrimination.
The suit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as unpaid wages, has kicked off a firestorm against the “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft” maker, with users across social media platforms lambasting the company for its alleged behavior and several employees claiming they were also discriminated against at Activision Blizzard.
“I was there from 2015 to 2016, and it was as bad as described in the documents then,” Cher Scarlett, a former software engineer for Activision Blizzard’s Battle.net, told Yahoo Finance.
In response to the suit, Activision Blizzard said it takes allegations of misconduct and harassment seriously and that action was taken in cases related to the suit. But the company also moved to discredit the allegations made by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH).
“The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past,” the company said. “We have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform us what issues they perceived.”
Activision Blizzard's 'frat house' atmosphere
The suit portrays a company that allowed unchecked harassment to fester for years, with men groping female colleagues and women being denied promotions and raises. One woman died by suicide due to a relationship with a male supervisor, the complaint alleged. The same woman was also allegedly harassed by other coworkers who shared a nude image of her at a holiday party.
The suit, in particular, alleges Scarlett’s former team fostered a “frat house” atmosphere.
According to the suit, one employee noted that “women on the Battle.net team were subjected to disparaging comments, the environment was akin to working in a frat house, and that women who were not ‘huge gamers’ or ‘core gamers’ and not into the party scene were excluded and treated as outsiders.”
Jennifer Klasing, who worked for Activision Blizzard from 2013 to 2020, tweeted that she experienced similar gender discrimination to those mentioned in the suit.
“I would get told I was ‘too direct’ with my manner of speaking, while male coworkers were never similarly chastised. I was called emotional, unreasonable, and unprofessional,” she wrote.
“I have heard of male coworkers getting in screaming matches with their manager, and [getting] promoted after.”
Racial discrimination was also a problem, according to the suit. When one African American female employee asked to take time off, she had to submit a one-page summary of how she would spend that time— something her colleagues didn’t have to do, the complaint alleged.
Sexual harassment and gender discrimination pervade the gaming industry. French gaming giant Ubisoft faced a similar reckoning in 2020, leading to the resignation of five executives, while a 2018 Kotaku report found women at Riot Games, creator of the popular “League of Legends,” experienced widespread harassment and discrimination. The company acknowledged the matter and developed its own diversity and inclusion team.
The roughly half of women who are gamers have faced discrimination, as well. Notoriously, a misogynist movement known as Gamergate began in 2014 and targeted female game developers and gamers under the guise of ethics in games journalism.
The California case will likely take time to wind its way through the courts, but it’s unlikely to be the last time a gaming company finds itself under fire for its treatment of women.
For Scarlett, there’s only one solution to the industry-wide problem.
“Legal repercussions would be the only way to stop this form being so pervasive,” she said.
Lowey Dannenberg, P.C.
Thu, July 22, 2021,
NEW YORK, July 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lowey Dannenberg P.C., a preeminent law firm in obtaining redress for consumers and investors, is investigating potential breach of fiduciary duty claim involving the board of directors of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (“Activision Blizzard” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: ATVI).
On July 20, 2021, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) filed a lawsuit against the Company alleging rampant sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
If you are a long-term shareholder of Activision Blizzard and wish to participate, learn more, or discuss the issues surrounding the investigation, please contact our attorneys at investigations@lowey.com or by calling 914-733-7256.
About Lowey Dannenberg
Lowey Dannenberg is a national firm representing institutional and individual investors, who suffered financial losses resulting from corporate fraud and malfeasance in violation of federal securities and antitrust laws. The firm has significant experience in prosecuting multi-million-dollar lawsuits and has previously recovered billions of dollars on behalf of investors.
Contact
Lowey Dannenberg P.C.
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White Plains, NY 10601
Tel: (914) 733-7256
Email: investigations@lowey.com
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