An open letter to Activision Blizzard was signed by more than 800 individual employees on July 26. This letter was in regard to a lawsuit filed earlier this month against the company, and called their response to it, “abhorrent and insulting to all that [they] believe [their] company should stand for.”
The lawsuit was filed on July 20. It accused Activision Blizzard of allowing serious workplace harassment to occur without repercussions. The suit details evidence of not only lower pay for women – especially women of color – but also extreme micromanagement of their working conditions and a “frat boy workplace culture” which resulted in several accounts of repeated sexual harassment. It even detailed the tragic death of an unnamed female employee by suicide who had suffered from harassment.
Activision Blizzard’s president, J. Allen Brack, responded to this suit in a memo to the staff, which was released by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier. This memo called the allegations “completely unacceptable” and said that he and the management team would be meeting with employees to “discuss how [they] can move forward."
Another email from executive Fran Townsend on July 23 labels the accusations as “factually incorrect, old, and out of context stories.” Townsend even goes so far as to say that she feels she works “at a company that truly values equality and fairness,” and that they shouldn’t let the “meritless and irresponsible lawsuit” detract from that.
In the open letter released July 26, the affected employees expressed their disgust at these responses. “To put it clearly and unequivocally,” they say, “our values as employees are not accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.” They condemn Townsend particularly for her dismissal of the victims’ experiences, and call it “simply unacceptable.” The open letter shows solidarity with the anonymous victims in the suit and calls for the retraction of the responses and the resignation of Townsend.
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“We will not be silenced,” the signers say, “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.” It ends on the powerful note, “We will be the change.”
Public opinion has been heavily in support of the victims. The hashtag #BoycottActivision is gaining in popularity alongside #BoycottBlizzard. There have also been many calls for the signers and victims to unionize against Activision Blizzard, though there are many concerns about the company attempting to squash the fallout of the suit through extensive layoffs.
So far, there has been no official response to the open letter from Activision Blizzard, or from Townsend or Brack.
Source: Polygon
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