Wow, this is like watching a horrible train wreck or something.
Jen Oneal announced her departure a little while back, and now I guess the other shoe s dropping. Because part of her reason for leaving was, in fact, a lack of faith that the company could turn things around in regards to Activision Blizzard’s corporate culture.
“it was clear that the company would never prioritize our people the right way”, alleging she had been sexually harassed earlier in her career at Activision, and that she was paid less than her male co-head Mike Ybarra. “I have been tokenized, marginalized, and discriminated against,” wrote Oneal.
That is in addition to allegations that she had been sexually harassed earlier in her career at the company. Not making things any better are at least two situations involving Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. The first being from 2006; Kotick is said to have left a voicemail for an assistant in which he threatened to have her killed. The matter was settled out of court, and Activision Blizzard spokesperson Helaine Klasky gave the following statement to the Wall Street Journal:
Mr. Kotick quickly apologized 16 years ago for the obviously hyperbolic and inappropriate voice mail, and he deeply regrets the exaggeration and tone in his voice mail to this day.
Far more recent and damaging in the current climate is an incident from 2019. Dan Bunting, then co-head of Treyarch (the studio responsible for the Call of Duty series), was accused of sexual misconduct against a female employee in 2017 after a night of drinking. Activision launched an internal investigation into the incident when it was brought to light in 2019, and the investigators recommended firing Bunting. Kotick personally intervened, and Bunting was kept on with mandatory counseling. while the Wall Street Journal tried to investigate this incident, Bunting had since left the company.
And oh how I wish that was all, but no. Kotick was aware of an accused rape incident involving Sledgehammer Games supervisor Javier Panameno. The female employee in question also alleged that Palameno had sexually harassed another female employee at the studio as well. The employee accusing him reported the incidents to police in 2017, but nothing came of them. The assaults were reported to Activision in 2018, however, and Palameno was fired two months later. The woman’s lawyer states that she hadn;t reported the incidents to Activision prior to leaving the company in November 2017, though she had reported them to Sledgehammer’s HR department.
What’s more, former Blizzard technology chief Ben Kilgore was accused of a number of incidents of sexual harassment over a significant stretch of time. He even lied about a relationship with a lower-level employee during an internal investigation. Kilgore was given the boot in 2018 with Kotick’s approval.
Which leads us to yesterday, which saw around 150 Activision Blizzard employees walk out, calling for Kotick’s resignation. They even tweeted out the following:
A few of these workers spoke to Polygon:
Honestly, [the weight of Bobby’s words] felt threatening in a lot of ways. He understands that he is in charge of the livelihoods of so many people who are trying to make our companies better, who are trying to foster the cultures that we want to see. And he’s up there saying, ‘If you don’t believe in me, then something’s wrong with you.’ His actions haven’t shown what he’s proposing.
Valentine Powell
Workers are just really tired. We’re just tired of being misrepresented, mishandled, mistreated. Something’s got to change. You can shift people around as you want, but if accountability isn’t coming from the top, it’s not going to change.
Jessica Gonzalez
Activision Blizzard, however is in damage control mode. A statement emailed to Polygon by an Activision Blizzard spokesperson:
[Activision Blizzard is] fully committed to fostering a safe, inclusive and rewarding environment for all our employees around the world.” The spokesperson said workers are free to “express their opinions and concerns in a safe and respectful manner, without fear of retaliation.”
Source: Polygon
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