Activision Blizzard sued by California over \u201cpervasive frat boy culture\u201d Activision BlizzardActivision Blizzard, the giants behind titles like Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft, are being sued for fostering a \u201cfrat boy\u201d culture where women in the workplace are sexually harassed and are given unequal pay. The lawsuit, filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), comes after a two-year investigation into the gaming giants. DFEH\u2019s report into Activision Blizzard claimed working for the company \u201cwas akin to working in a frat house, which invariably involved male employees drinking and subjecting female employees to sexual harassment with no repercussion\u201d. \u201cIn the office, women are subjected to \u2018cube crawls\u2019 in which male employees drink copious amounts of alcohol as they \u2018crawl\u2019 their way through various cubicles in the office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees,\u201d it said. \u201cMale employees proudly come into work hungover, play video games for long periods of time during work while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies, and joke about rape.\u201d One example outlined how a woman committed suicide on a work trip after her male supervisor \u201cbrought butt plugs and lubricant with him\u201d. \u201cAt a holiday party before her death, male coworkers were alleged to be passing around a picture of the deceased\u2019s vagina,\u201d it said. The lawsuit also names former Senior Creative Director of World of Warcraft, Alex Afrasiabi. The legal document alleges Afrasiabi was \u201cpermitted to engage in blatant sexual harassment with little to no repercussions\u201d. \u201cAfrasiabi was so known to engage in harassment of females that his suite was nicknamed the Crosby Suite [sic] after alleged rapist Bill Crosby,\u201d the lawsuit said. Afrasiabi left Blizzard in June 2020. Women make up 20% of Activision Blizzard\u2019s workforce according to the report, but face challenges in breaking into the company\u2019s hierarchy. \u201cActivision Blizzard\u2019s double-digit percentage growth, ten-figure annual revenues, and recent diversity marketing campaigns have unfortunately changed little,\u201d the department alleged in their filing. \u201cVery few women ever reach top roles at the company. The women who do reach higher roles earn less salary, incentive pay and total compensation than their male peers.\u201d The lawsuit cited several instances of women being denied promotions over male counterparts, despite having more credentials, experience, and time in their role. It also outlined examples of women being offered lower base pay and less stock rewards for their work. Male employees were also cited as having delegated tasks to women so they could instead play games on the job. Women of color were disproportionately affected. Activision Blizzard have released a statement since the lawsuit being filed, claiming the DFEH report \u201cincludes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard\u2019s past.\u201d \u201cOver the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we\u2019ve made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams.\u201d An Activision Blizzard spokesman sent me a lengthy statement calling the allegations “”distorted, and in many cases false”” and referring to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing as “”unaccountable State bureaucrats.”” pic.twitter.com\/L9RINw0uZ9 \u2014 Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) July 22, 2021 The Activision Blizzard lawsuit is similar to claims filed against other gaming giants Riot Games and Ubisoft. The makers of League of Legends originally agreed on a $10 million settlement to as many as 1,000 employees after a class-action lawsuit was filed in 2018. It alleged that Riot had facilitated a \u201cbro culture\u201d that led to the harassment of women in the workplace. A third-party investigation cleared CEO Nicolo Laurent of any wrongdoing in 2021 after the company forced the case into arbitration. Ubisoft were put under the spotlight in 2020 after executives at the company were investigated for sexual harassment. A new lawsuit was filed in France just a week ago by the Solidaires Informatique union, claiming CEO Yves Guillemot enabled \u201cinstitutional sexual harassment\u201d at the company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Activision Blizzard sued by California over \u201cpervasive frat boy culture\u201d Activision BlizzardActivision Blizzard, the giants behind titles like Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft, are being sued for fostering a \u201cfrat boy\u201d culture where women in the workplace are sexually harassed and are given unequal pay. The lawsuit, filed by the California Department […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}