Activision Blizzard staff walkout today

I took the day off from playing today as well, felt like the right thing to do. I hope Blizzard can once again be a trusted company.
 
I certainly hope so but they are not very good at reading the room it seems.
 
Can't help but think what the original guys must be thinking of all this, the ones who left years ago. The Schaefer brothers, Bill Roper, Kenneth Williams, Matt Uelmen. Company culture must be unrecognisable to them. The rot started to set in long before now though.
 
They had a Cosby Suite at Blizzcon 2013. The atmosphere was like a frat boy college. They're claiming it was called that because of his awful patterned sweaters if you can believe that?

Alex Afrasiabi left last year with no announcement at the time but it turns out he was fired for this type of behavior.



blizzard sexcual harrassment image.jpg
 
They're claiming it was called that because of his awful patterned sweaters if you can believe that?
Well, to be fair, it wasn't until late 2014 that the allegations against him really hit the public square in a big way, so it's a believable excuse provided you assume they genuinely knew nothing about it at the time the room was named. Given all the other details coming out though, I'm finding it difficult to make that assumption. There's also the fact that in all of the photos of the room, it was reportedly decorated much like you'd expect from any other generic hotel room. Blank white walls, plain carpet, plain curtains, etc, etc. Which effectively pulls the foundation right out from under them on that explanation.
 
To me, this photo was in really bad taste; if it was as they claimed, it lacks context (why aren't they all wearing ugly sweaters?)...but unless the men in the photo actively engaged in bad acts (and by that I mean anything from sexual assault/harassment to workplace discrimination), I don't think they should be crucified for engaging in a tasteless photo. People do dumb things all the time (especially when alcohol is involved); If it turns out the allegations are true, anyone involved with those allegations should suffer the consequences of their actions, but if all they are guilty of is really bad taste...I'd hate to see someone lose their job over it.
 
To me, this photo was in really bad taste; if it was as they claimed, it lacks context (why aren't they all wearing ugly sweaters?).

Well, the claim is that it was so named because the decor looked like something Cosby would wear. If that were actually the case, I can see putting a photo of the guy in the room after a while just to accent the joke. You know, pre-scandal. You wouldn't have to have everyone wearing ugly sweaters or anything like that.

I can generally agree with you on the rest of what you said. There's really nothing wrong with, how should I put it, "guy fun"? Even if it's sometimes in poor taste. You know, just guys being guys. I don't want to say "frat behavior", because that's really not what I'm getting at. Drink some alcohol (not on the job), talk about attractive women, sports, etc. etc., but maintain a degree of professionalism. Women have their own brand of that as well, it's in no way exclusive to men. Casual, but still professional might be another way to describe it I suppose.

However, there is a line between that and outright harassment and discrimination. The allegations that have been made, if true, absolutely do cross that line. (I mean, "cube crawls"? Seriously? Nobody took two seconds to realize that would be taking things too far?) They'll have to be proven of course, as all accusations should and must be, but so far I doubt anyone could say Activision Blizzard has done a particularly stellar job of defending themselves.
 
I think it’s quite clear that the company had, and has, a serious problem in allowing all types of bad behavior to pervade the work environment. Of course not every employee and manager are complicit, and I believe everyone has a right to due process; get the lawsuit settled, get the transparency out there, and show us we can start to have faith in them again. But I don’t think we need to apply a blanket bludgeon to everything. It would be sardonic, actually, as I’ve always said Blizzard solves game issues with a sledgehammer when a scalpel would do.
 
I didn't see this before now.


Activision IT Worker Secretly Filmed Colleagues in Office Bathroom​



An Activision IT worker pleaded guilty to mounting a camera under the sink in a “manner to point at the toilet” in 2018, court records show.


 
It looks like that particular incident was more or less properly handled though. Once the cameras were discovered, they began investigating and notified authorities. When the person behind it was identified, their employment was terminated. The rest is in the hands of law enforcement. The only question brought up is specifically whether or not the employee that physically went to the police and notified them was acting on behalf of management or his own initiative.
 
Makes you wonder how many women may have been ruffied at these cons over the years.
 
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I'm generally against unionization specifically because they have this really nasty habit of frequently becoming the very thing they claim to oppose. Furthermore, in my experience union workers often leave a lot to be desired when it comes to their work ethics. Not all, but enough. Now don't get me wrong. Unions have done some good in the past and there are some decent ones out there. It's just that there's a lot of really bad ones out there too, and they wield an awful lot of power.

That being said, this situation does make unionization sound more appealing in a lesser of two evils sort of way. I don't mean just this one lawsuit against Activision Blizzard. Riot is being sued for similar problems. Ubisoft recently had troubles of their own with it as well. And then there's issues of excessive crunch and other unacceptably abusive behavior which drags in Gearbox, Rockstar, 2K, CD Projekt Red, Bioware and probably several other AAA developers and publishers.

Anyway, I guess what it comes down to is this. Unions are more akin to a nuke than a panacea. I see Bobby went and hired a union buster to deal with the issue. Good. I means they're scared and they should be scared. A good company would take it as a sign they really fouled up and need to treat their people better so they don't want to unionize.
 
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I honestly don't care enough about Blizzard to find this interesting.

I would be interested in finding to what degree this is obvious misconduct, like the "Cosby Suite" or the behavior of this Afrasiabi guy (I'm assuming he's C-level), versus the other article's parasites claiming they weren't hired because they're tranny, or that there were no employee nap rooms with coloring books, or what not.

Of course, if a company safeguards their reputation and a moral sense in their corporate culture, they often don't need to worry about the parasites or nuisance lawsuits. It's a hell of a lot harder to make a lawsuit stick against a company that doesn't tolerate misconduct.

The majority of places seem to think they can "make it up as they go along" and are therefore not equitable. Believing you can play favorites and not define policy only means you're opening yourself up to legal damages when you try to throw the book at a bad employee.
 
parasites claiming they weren't hired because they're tranny,
Not the kind of comment I expect in a community forum that likes to think of itself as being inclusive.
 
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