More than 2600 Activision Blizzard employees have signed an open letter that started within the company.

 

CNN Business reported that several thousands of Activision Blizzard employees have signed an open letter that demands change, criticizing its response to the discrimination and harassment lawsuit filed last week. Jeff Hamilton, the senior system designer of World of Warcraft, revealed on Twitter that the work on the game has halted: „I don’t know what to do. I don’t have all the answers. I can tell you, almost no work is being done on World of Warcraft right now while this obscenity plays out. And that benefits nobody – not the players, not the developers, not the shareholders.”

Bloomberg got the open letter, which follows: „To the Leaders of Activision Blizzard, we, the undersigned, agree that the statements from Activision Blizzard, Inc. and their legal counsel regarding the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement from Frances Townsend, are abhorrent and insulting to all that we believe our company should stand for. To put it clearly and unequivocally, our values as employees are not accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.

We believe these statements have damaged our ongoing quest for equality inside and outside of our industry. Categorizing the claims that have been made as “distorted, and in many cases false” creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims. It also casts doubt on our organizations’ ability to hold abusers accountable for their actions and foster a safe environment for victims to come forward in the future. These statements make it clear that our leadership is not putting our values first. Immediate corrections are needed from the highest level of our organization.

Our company executives have claimed that actions will be taken to protect us, but in the face of legal action — and the troubling official responses that followed — we no longer trust that our leaders will place employee safety above their interests. To claim this is a “truly meritless and irresponsible lawsuit,” while seeing so many current and former employees speak out about their own experiences regarding harassment and abuse, is simply unacceptable.

We call for official statements that recognize the seriousness of these allegations and demonstrate compassion for victims of harassment and assault. We call on Frances Townsend to stand by her word to step down as Executive Sponsor of the ABK Employee Women’s Network as a result of the damaging nature of her statement. We call on the executive leadership team to work with us on new and meaningful efforts that ensure employees — as well as our community — have a safe place to speak out and come forward.

We stand with all our friends, teammates, and colleagues, as well as the members of our dedicated community, who have experienced mistreatment or harassment of any kind. We will not be silenced, we will not stand aside, and we will not give up until the company we love is a workplace we can all feel proud to be a part of again. We will be the change,” the letter reads.

On Gamesindustry, we also read that the employees are preparing to perform a walkout today from 10 AM to 2 PM. They have released an official statement of demands for the strike. Their statement of demands for leadership calls for: „An end to mandatory arbitration clauses in all employee contracts, both current and future. The staff involved say such clauses “protect abusers and limit the ability of victims to seek restitution.”

An overhaul of company policies for recruitment and promotion policies to “improve representation among employees at all levels.” Staff are also calling for an internal company-wide diversity, equity and inclusivity organisation to approve the new policies. The statement adds: “Current practices have led to women, in particular women of colour and transgender women, nonbinary people, and other marginalized groups that are vulnerable to gender discrimination not being hired fairly for new roles when compared to men”.

For Activision Blizzard to empower this DE&I organisation to hire a third party that will audit the publisher’s executive staff, HR department and reporting structure. This has been described as “imperative” in identifying how the current systems have “failed to prevent employee harassment”. The audit will also propose new solutions to address the issues at hand.

For Activision Blizzard to publish data on salary ranges for employees of all genders and ethnicities, promotion rates, and relative compensation, including equity grants and profit-sharing. The staff claim the current practices “have led to aforementioned groups not being paid or promoted fairly,” they wrote.

The organizers of the walkout urge anyone who is in solidarity with them to donate to any of these charities: Black Girls Code, Futures without Violence, Girls Who Code, RAINN, Women In Animation, or Women in Games International.

And Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision Blizzard, has responded to the situation. You can read the statement below, and it was first published on the Activision Blizzard investors website. „This has been a difficult and upsetting week. I want to recognize and thank all those who have come forward in the past and recent days. I so appreciate your courage. Every voice matters – and we will do a better job of listening now, and in the future. Our initial responses to the issues we face together, and to your concerns, were, quite frankly, tone-deaf. We must acknowledge all perspectives and experiences and respect the feelings of those who have been mistreated in any way. I am sorry that we did not provide the right empathy and understanding.

Many of you have told us that active outreach comes from caring so deeply for the Company. That so many people have reached out and shared thoughts, suggestions, and highlighted opportunities for improvement is a powerful reflection of how you care for our communities of colleagues and players – and for each other. Ensuring that we have a safe and welcoming work environment is my highest priority. The leadership team has heard you loud and clear.

We are taking swift action to be the compassionate, caring company you came to work for and to ensure a safe environment. There is no place anywhere at our Company for discrimination, harassment, or unequal treatment of any kind. We will do everything possible to make sure that together, we improve and build the kind of inclusive workplace that is essential to foster creativity and inspiration.

I have asked the law firm WilmerHale to conduct a review of our policies and procedures to ensure that we have and maintain best practices to promote a respectful and inclusive workplace. This work will begin immediately. The WilmerHale team will be led by Stephanie Avakian, who is a member of the management team at WilmerHale and was most recently the Director of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement.

We encourage anyone with an experience you believe violates our policies or in any way made you uncomfortable in the workplace to use any of our many existing channels for reporting or to reach out to Stephanie. She and her team at WilmerHale will be available to speak with you on a confidential basis and can be reached at [email protected] or 202-247-2725. Your outreach will be kept confidential. Of course, NO retaliation will be tolerated.

We are committed to long-lasting change. Effective immediately, we will be taking the following actions: Employee Support. We will continue to investigate every claim and will not hesitate to take decisive action. To strengthen our capabilities in this area we are adding additional senior staff and other resources to both the Compliance team and the Employee Relations team.

Listening Sessions. We know many of you have inspired ideas on how to improve our culture. We will be creating safe spaces, moderated by third parties, for you to speak out and share areas for improvement. 2. Personnel Changes. We are immediately evaluating managers and leaders across the Company. Anyone found to have impeded the integrity of our processes for evaluating claims and imposing appropriate consequences will be terminated. 3. Hiring Practices. Earlier this year I sent an email requiring all hiring managers to ensure they have diverse candidate slates for all open positions. We will be adding compliance resources to ensure that our hiring managers are adhering to this directive. 4. In-game Changes. We have heard the input from employee and player communities that some of our in-game content is inappropriate. We are removing that content.

Your well-being remains my priority and I will spare no company resource ensuring that our company has the most welcoming, comfortable, and safe culture possible. You have my unwavering commitment that we will improve our company together, and we will be the most inspiring, inclusive entertainment company in the world. Yours sincerely, Bobby,” Kotick wrote.

Activision Blizzard’s shares dropped by up to 9% after the employees revealed the strike plans…

Source: VG247, VG247 Gamesindustry, PCGamer