Activision Blizzard – Mass complaint from employees

Mass complaint from Activision Blizzard employees follows company’s response to lawsuit. An open letter has been drafted and signed by nearly 1,000 current and former Activision Blizzard employees openly accusing the company of “abhorrent” responses to the civil lawsuit.

Last week, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a civil lawsuit against Activision Blizzard describing a “frat boy” culture and serious incidents of sexual harassment against its female employees. While the ex-chief executive of Blizzard, Mike Morhaime publicly apologized for Blizzard, the company itself sent two explosive emails internally.

Blizzard President J. Allen Brack – who is accused of a number of things himself – sent out an email calling the allegations in the lawsuit “extremely disturbing.” In the other email, executive Frances Townsend claims that the details presented in the lawsuit are “unfounded,” “distorted,” and “untrue.” Now, for the first time, employees are speaking out, making it clear that they will not be silenced and that they do not reflect the views of company management.

The letter that garnered hundreds of signatures:

“To the executives of Activision Blizzard, We, the undersigned, agree that the statements made by Activision Blizzard, Inc. and its legal counsel regarding the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement by Frances Townsend, are abhorrent and offensive to everything we believe our company should stand for. To be clear, our values as employees are not accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.

We believe these statements have been detrimental to our ongoing pursuit of equality within and outside of our industry. The classification of the allegations made as “distorted and in many cases false” creates a corporate atmosphere in which victims are not believed. It also casts doubt on our organizations’ ability to hold abusers accountable for their actions and create a safe environment for victims who come forward in the future. These statements make it clear that leadership is not putting our values first. Immediate corrective action is needed from the highest levels of our organization.

Our leaders have claimed that actions are being taken to protect us, but in light of the legal action – and the troubling official responses that have followed – we no longer trust our leaders to put employee safety ahead of their own interests. The claim that this is an ” unfounded and irresponsible lawsuit” when so many current and former employees are speaking out about their own experiences with harassment and abuse is simply unacceptable.

We call for official statements that acknowledge the seriousness of these allegations and show compassion for the victims. We call on Frances Townsend to stand by her word and resign from her position as Executive Sponsor of the ABK Employee Women’s Network, as her statement is damaging. We call on the leadership team to work with us on new and meaningful policies that ensure employees have a safe place to speak out.

We stand with all of our friends, teammates and colleagues, as well as members of our engaged community, who have experienced mistreatment or harassment of any kind. We will not be silent, we will not just stand by, and we will not give up until the company we love is once again a workplace we can all be proud of. We will be the change.”

As can be read in the open letter, many employees are severely disappointed and also very angry. An official statement from Blizzard is still pending.