Activision Blizzard employees are asking the company to issue a new statement in response to the lawsuit it has been facing since . If you’ve been following the saga since it broke out earlier this month, you may recall that the company played down allegations that it had fostered a “frat boy” work culture, claiming the lawsuit included “distorted descriptions and, in many cases, fake from Blizzard’s Past. “
Now in a , a group of more than 800 Activision Blizzard employees say the statement the company issued was “abhorrent and insulting” and are demanding that leaders take “immediate” corrective action. “Categorizing the claims that have been made as ‘distorted, and in many cases false’ creates an atmosphere of a company that does not believe in the victims,” the letter says. “Our company executives have affirmed that steps will be taken to protect us, but in the face of the legal action and troubling official responses that followed, we no longer trust our leaders to place the safety of employees above their own best interests.”
The group specifically calls the message Frances Townsend, the publisher’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, sent to employees after the news broke. In the leaked email, Townsend claims that the DFEH lawsuit presents “a distorted and false image of our company, including old, out of context and in fact incorrect stories, some from more than a decade ago.” According to , the response caused some workers to “fume.” The group that signed the letter is asking Townsend to step down as executive sponsor of ABK’s Network of Women Employees.
The time for the letter comes after Activision Blizzard allegedly with 500 employees. Zoom’s call was supposed to include the entire studio, but a programming error meant that not everyone could join the meeting. Activision executive Joshua Taub reportedly told attendees that he and CEO Bobby Kotick “had never seen this before,” adding that “it doesn’t mean this behavior doesn’t happen.” Then Taub reportedly said: “We don’t publish all of these claims, we work with the employee and the accused person and we try to work on a resolution.” The company has a second meeting scheduled for tomorrow, according to Uppercut.
We reached out to Activision Blizzard for feedback.
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