Activision Blizzard employees reject company’s response to harassment cases in open letter

Activision-Blizzard recently got involved in a controversy over sexual harassment and bullying. Some leaders and employees of the company were accused of maintaining a toxic and extremely demeaning culture toward the women who worked there. Abuse, humiliation, bullying and sexual harassment… the package of accusations made by employees and former employees is complete.

In its defense, the company, through its legal representative, claimed the accusations were “distorcidas e falsas“, and after learning of this position, discontented employees wrote an open letter rejecting the company’s stance, asking it to take action and recognize the seriousness of the accusations. The letter was signed by about 1,000 employees. Read the letter in full:

To the leaders of Activision Blizzard,

We, the undersigned, agree that the statements from Activision Blizzard, Inc. and its legal counsel on the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement from Frances Townsend, are abhorrent and insulting to everything we believe our company should stand for. To put it clearly and unequivocally, our values as employees are not accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.

We believe these statements have damaged our ongoing quest for equality within and outside our industry. Categorizing the allegations made as “distorted and, in many cases, false” creates a corporate atmosphere that disbelieves victims. It also casts doubt on the ability of our organizations to hold abusers accountable for their actions and to foster a safe environment for victims to speak up in the future. These statements make clear that our leadership is not putting our values first. Immediate corrections are needed from the highest level of our organization.

Our company’s executives have claimed that actions will be taken to protect us, but in the face of the legal actions, and the troubling official responses that followed, we no longer trust that our leaders will put employee safety above their own interests. To claim that this is a “truly meritless and irresponsible lawsuit”, while seeing so many current and former employees speak about their own experiences with harassment and abuse, is simply unacceptable.

We request official statements that acknowledge the seriousness of these allegations and show compassion for the victims of harassment and assault. We ask Frances Townsend to keep her word to step down as executive sponsor of the ABK Women’s Employee Network as a result of the harmful nature of her statement. We call on the executive leadership team to work with us on new and meaningful efforts that ensure employees, as well as our community, have a safe place to speak up and come forward.

We support all of our friends, teammates and colleagues, as well as the members of our dedicated community, who have suffered mistreatment or harassment of any kind. We will not be silenced, we will not stand aside and we will not give up until the company we love is a workplace we can all feel proud to be part of again. We will be the change.

Source:GamingBolt