The last few weeks have been really hard for Blizzard, due to the alleged cases of abuse of women committed in the past, but the situation is also becoming rarefied in Paradox Interactive. A few days ago we told you that a good number of employees had suffered inappropriate treatment in the company. Now the new CEO is has apologized for an episode from the past.
Fredrik wester He has been CEO of Paradox for a couple of weeks, following the departure of Ebba Ljungerud. Wester has published on his personal Twitter account (tweets collected by PC Gamer, because the has private at the moment) some messages talking about a bad behavior that he had in 2018 with an employee and he wanted to publicly apologize for it.
“At the beginning of 2018, we held a company-wide conference and, during this meeting, a Paradox employee was the subject of inappropriate behavior for me. […] I immediately and sincerely apologized in person the following Monday in a process reviewed by Human Resources, “explained the manager.
“Everyone should have the right to be comfortable and safe, especially around a person in a position of power like me, something I said then and repeat now. It has never been my intention to make anyone feel uncomfortable around me, but […] it happened, to my great regret“, has indicated remorse. Wester has acknowledged that he has worked to” better understand the impact “of his behavior.
The leak of that survey of workers that has detailed the abuses in the company spoke of a specific case of Wester in 2018. At that time, he was also the CEO of the company and wanted to contribute his vision of the events. According to Wester, the change of CEO in that year (in which Ljungerud entered) did not have nothing to see with that isolated incident.
Wester will stay out of the internal investigation
Ljungerud’s recent departure is also not related to the poll, or so has been commented. Wester has further indicated that will not intervene in the solution of the problems that have been detected in case someone thinks it is worse, looking at this background. The manager is being transparent, but it is true that staying on the sidelines helps.
“I understand that this makes my cause is less credible when it comes to handling these issues internally and therefore I will not be directly involved, it will be Paradox Human Resources with outside help, but of course with my full support if necessary “, assured the manager. Paradox continues to work on different projects, being that of Win 3, the return of the saga, one of the most anticipated.