A Blizzard employee recently held a press conference speaking out against the, “alcohol-soaked culture,” and numerous accounts of harassment she apparently received at the company.
The press conference was held outside of Blizzard’s Irvine headquarters, and is available to watch on Instagram. Please take note that the video makes for an incredibly difficult watch.
The employee, named Christine, held the press conference alongside high-profile lawyer Lisa Bloom. Christine, who is still currently employed at Blizzard, spoke about her history of sexual harassment at the company in her four years there at the press conference. She spoke about the alleged frat boy culture mentioned in the original lawsuit, explaining that she herself has been subjected to rude comments about her body, unwanted sexual advances, and has been invited to have casual sex with her supervisors.
activision blizzard’s frat boy culture
When she complained to her supervisors about these unwanted advances, she was allegedly told, “they were just joking,” and that she should get over it. Christine went on to say that after filing her complaint, she was demoted, then further harassed. She has also been denied profit-sharing, and has had minimal raises in her four years at the company.
Bloom and Christine’s demands of Blizzard include a, “streamlined, fast, [and] fair process for victims,” as well as a vast victim compensation fund. And they’re also asking for a neutral third party to review the discrimination.
Bloom is best known for representing victims in the Bill Cosby and Bill O’Reilly cases. But she has also previously served as an advisor to Harvey Weinstein.
when will change take place?
A representative of Activision Blizzard provided Polygon with the following statement:
“We appreciate the courage of our current and former employees in coming forward with reports of misconduct, and we are truly sorry for any victims of people whose conduct did not live up to our values. As we have continued to reaffirm in our recent communications, such conduct is not consistent with our standards, our expectations, and what the vast majority of our employees meet on a daily basis. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct, harassment or retaliation of any kind. We will not tolerate any behavior that is not aligned to our values and will hold employees accountable who fail to live up to them.
The company is committed to creating an environment we can all be proud of. We are in the process of implementing significant changes and improvements to the scope, structure and efficiency of our compliance and human resources teams, reporting systems, and transparency into our investigation process. The safety and support of our employees, especially those who have suffered, remains our top priority.”
Activision Blizzard has had a series of allegations and controversies against the company over the last few months. They are currently still engaged in a lawsuit against them from the state of California. Over 1300 employees called for CEO Bobby Kotick to resign. And more recently, multiple state treasurers have added pressure to make Activision Blizzard take action.
Featured Image Credit: Activision Blizzard