A new lawsuit for sexual harassment has shaken Activision Blizzard. The company acquired by Microsoft has been sued by a current employee, for allowing severe misconduct that has led to what has been defined as “unbridled sexism”.
As published Bloomberg Law, the lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of a worker who still works at the company, who has chosen to remain anonymous. It not only exposes the toxic culture that already last year she had put the video game studio under fire; It also mentions the reprisals suffered by the complainant for speaking publicly on the subject.
The document, signed by attorney Lisa Bloom, accuses Activision Blizzard of forging a “fraternity” fueled by sexism, harassment and discrimination. The employee even mentions that she was pressured to drink alcohol at work, and to participate with other women in tours of office cubicles, where they were exposed to sexual comments and groping, among many other misconduct. And all this, apparently, under the knowledge of Bobby Kotick, CEO of the firm.
The plaintiff assures that she has experienced situations of this type since she joined Activision Blizzard in 2017, as a senior administrative assistant for executives in the IT department. She also indicates that she applied for positions in other areas of the company in search of escaping the toxic behavior of her superiors; However, their requests were always refused. He was only able to change jobs after sending a letter to Allen Brack—at the time president of Blizzard—complaining about the situation; however, he had to settle for a job of a lower rank and, therefore, a lower salary.
Activision Blizzard, again in the eye of the storm
This lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment is not too surprising in terms of its claims. But it does warn again about the harmful work environment that many of the women who have worked in the company must endure.
Without going any further, the employee behind this new complaint claims to have suffered various reprisals ever since he started talking about it. From an increasingly hostile work environment and “recommendations” for her to keep her complaints to herself, to the rejection of her request to apply for an executive assistant position. In the latter case, she refused her request after speaking publicly at a press conference last December in front of Blizzard’s offices.
According to the legal document, the plaintiff claims financial compensation for lost income and medical expenses. It also calls for various internal changes to be implemented at Activision Blizzard, such as the departure of Bobby Kotick as CEO and the implementation of a rotating team in the Human Resources area to avoid conflicts of interest.
More challenges for Microsoft
That sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits continue to surface against Activision Blizzard represents a growing challenge for Microsoft. Those of Redmond have not escaped the scandal, and have promised to face the growing controversy surrounding the video game studio.
Recently, Brad Smith, vice president of Microsoft, assured that they closely follow how the current directors of Activision Blizzard respond to the complaints of the workers; and did not rule out the possibility of making changes to the directive. “We want to see that the culture [de trabajo] evolve, and we’ll look at how people perform from now until the day the deal closes […]and then we’ll have an opportunity to make sure we have the right people in the right position,” he said.
However, after these statements, a lawsuit was filed against Activision Blizzard for the suicide of an employee who had suffered sexual harassment. And to that has also been added the growing difficulty of the company to retain employees and attract new talent, due to the bad reputation it has earned.