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More than 1,000 current and former Activision Blizzard employees have signed a letter berating the company’s response to serious allegations of harassment and abuse. Last week, it emerged that the California Department of Fair Housing and Employment (DFEH) was suing Activision Blizzard over an alleged culture of sexual harassment and discrimination. At the time, the company issued a statement claiming that the lawsuit contained “distorted and, in many cases, false” information. But now staff, past and present, are calling for new official statements “that recognize the seriousness of these allegations and show compassion for the victims of harassment and assault.”
After a two-year investigation into the company, the DFEH lawsuit alleges Activision Blizzard nurtured a “frat boy” culture that involved “male employees drinking and subjecting female employees to sexual harassment without repercussions.” The dossier also includes a number of troubling allegations, and Activision Blizzard’s response suggests these behaviors are a thing of the past.
Now, in a letter signed by Blizzard employees, which was shared with Bloomberg (watch out for the paywall), staff say the statements made both publicly and internally about the lawsuit are “heinous and insulting,” creating “A corporate atmosphere that does not believe the victims”.
In particular, he asks Activision Blizzard executive Frances Townsend to step down as executive sponsor of the company’s employee women’s network, after a leaked email that she sent to internal staff dismissed the claims of the trial, calling it “baseless and irresponsible”.
Here is the employee letter in full:
“To the leaders of Activision Blizzard,
“We, the undersigned, agree that the statements by Activision Blizzard, Inc. and their legal advisors regarding the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement by Frances Townsend, are odious and insulting to anything we believe our company should. defend. To put it plainly and unequivocally, our values as employees are not accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leaders.
“We believe that these statements have undermined our continued quest for equality inside and outside our industry. To categorize the claims that have been made as ‘distorted, and in many cases false’ creates an atmosphere of ‘company that does not believe victims. It also casts doubt on our ability of organizations to hold perpetrators accountable and foster a safe environment for victims to come forward in the future. These statements make it clear that our leadership does not put our values first, immediate corrections are needed at the highest level of our organization.
“Our company executives have said action will be taken to protect us, but in the face of lawsuits – and the troubling official responses that followed – we no longer believe our leaders will place employee safety above their own. To claim this is a “truly baseless and irresponsible trial” when seeing so many current and former employees talking about their own experiences with harassment and abuse is simply unacceptable.
“We call for official statements that recognize the seriousness of these allegations and show compassion for the victims of harassment and assault. We call on Frances Townsend to keep her word to step down as executive sponsor of ABK’s Women Employees Network following the We call on the management team to work with us on meaningful new efforts that ensure employees – as well as our community – have a safe place to speak out and come forward.
“We stand behind all of our friends, teammates and colleagues, as well as members of our dedicated community, who have experienced abuse or harassment of any kind. We will not be silenced, we will not stay there. ‘gap and we won’t give up until the company we love is a place to work that we can all be proud to be a part of again. We will be the change. ”
Since the allegations first came to light last week, Blizzard employees past and present have also taken to social media to criticize the company’s response to the lawsuit, including the co-founder and former president of Blizzard. , Mike Morhaime.
Fans of the company’s games have also raised awareness of the lawsuit, with World Of Warcraft players staging virtual in-game protests, expressing support for the victims, calling for change and raising funds for the Black Girls Code.
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