One of the largest companies in the video game industry, ActivisionBlizzard, has been in the news in recent months for many reasons. The acquisition by Microsoft has been the most mediatic, but the truth is that the North American corporation is also being sued for the work environment that has been experienced in it in recent years. In that sense, we have now known that Activision Blizzard faces a new lawsuit for sexual harassment and discriminationas has informed Bloomberg Law. It was attorney Lisa Bloom who filed the lawsuit on March 23 in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of a current employee of the firm known as Jane Doe (a name given to people who want to keep their identity in the anonymity).
“For years, Activision Blizzard’s frat boy environment fostered rampant sexism, harassment and discrimination with 700 reported incidents occurring under the supervision of CEO Robert Kotick”, states the recently filed lawsuit. The plaintiff joined Activision Blizzard in 2017 as a senior administrative assistant and alleges that she was regularly pressured to drink alcohol and engaging in “lewd games.”
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Likewise, the plaintiff indicates that the employees of the company were habitually object of sexual comments and were groped by their male peers. Doe comments that supervisors at Activision Blizzard viewed these behaviors as an effort by male employees to be polite and a attempt to befriend the workers. After trying to be relocated to another department, Doe was finally offered a lower status job with reduced pay. Now we just have to wait to see how this court case progresses, one more open within an Activision Blizzard that continues to be in the eye of the hurricane and that continues to be commanded by Bobby Kotick, at least until the purchase by Microsoft is take effect next year.