Major game developer investigated for toxic work culture

Game developer giants Activision Blizzard are under investigation over reports of toxic workplace culture.

The developers behind Call of Duty & World of Warcraft have received severe backlash over the handling of a “frat boy” work culture that has victimised its female employees.

Roughly 2,000 current and former employees have signed an open letter to company leadership denouncing the “abhorrent and insulting” response to the ongoing behavior and a walkout has been planned. Social media has been alive with accounts of mistreatment and stories of disgraced employees participating in on-the-job drinking, sexual harassment, and troubling stories which have raised questions around how this has gone on for so long.

THE ALLEGATIONS SPAN COMPANY PRACTICE MORE BROADLY

The legal allegations also include the company of gender pay discrimination and allowing sexual harassment complaints to go unresolved.

Employees have planned a walkout in protest of the company’s response as the gaming community takes to social media to expand the allegations against the company.

The “Walkout for Equality” is to protest the feeling that – “our values as employees are not being accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.”

Organizers reportedly asked management to cooperate with them and develop new recruiting practices and encouraged them to publish employee pay rates, undertake third-party audits to improve staff diversity and prevent harassment.

The gaming community has stood by the employees, signal-boosting the hashtag #ActiBlizzWalkout and donating to a series of charities on social media.

This isn’t the first time Blizzard employees have walked off the job – in 2019 efforts were made to protest the company’s handling of a Hearthstone player who made pro-Hong Kong statements during the protests that occurred throughout the city.