- A female Blizzard employee shared her story of being sexually harassed at the workplace
- She said the company ignored her complaints at first but then demoted her
- Her attorney demands harsher punishments
A female Activision Blizzard employee has come forward, claiming the company demoted her after she reported acts of sexual harassment, which included “unwanted sexual advances” and “invited to have casual sex” by supervisors.
An Employee Speaks Out
It seems Activision Blizzard cannot catch a break from the many scandals the company has been through this year. One of the most recent accusations that have been thrown on the company is the story of a female employee by the name of Christine (last name withheld for privacy reasons). On December 8 she, alongside attorney Lisa Bloom, made a long statement in front of the steps of Activision Blizzard’s offices in Irvine, California, sharing her story of sexual harassment.
Cristine is a current Blizzard employee and has been working on the company for four years, calling it her “dream job”. However, she has been a subject of inappropriate touching, rude comments about her body, and invitations to have sex with her supervisors. Naturally, Christine complained to HR about this, but she was told that people were “just joking” and that they “did nothing wrong by law.”
“I’ve been subjected to rude comments about my body,” said Christine, “unwanted sexual advances, inappropriately touched, subjected to alcohol-infused events and “cube crawls”, invited to have casual sex with my supervisors, and surrounded by a frat boy culture that’s detrimental to women.”
Christine’s Attorney Had Some Things to Say
Lisa Bloom is a celebrity lawyer known for representing survivors in high-profile sexual assault cases. She had a few things to say, criticizing the consent decree between Activision Blizzard and the EEOC. She pointed out that some of the parameters of the consent have not happened yet. She also pointed out that the $18 million victim compensation fund “is woefully inadequate”.
The attorney then outlined a few things she would like to see the company do, including a real apology from corporate leadership (some of which might have known about the sexual harassment but chose to ignore it), an investigation by a neutral third party into the damage Activision Blizzard’s culture of harassment has had on employees’ careers, and an increase in the compensation fund for the victims to $100 million.
Bloom ended her statement by urging other victims of sexual harassment to come forward and join the fight against Activision Blizzard. “We don’t want Christine to stand alone. I know she does not stand alone.”
Activision Blizzard responded by providing a statement for The Verge. “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.”
The company has been trying to clear up its name by any means, which include sacking employees found guilty of committing sexual misconduct crimes and setting up an ethics committee to look into such reports.
