Editor’s Note: A lawsuit has been filed against Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which alleges the company has engaged in abuse, discrimination, and retaliation against its female employees. Activision Blizzard has denied the allegations. The full details of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit (content warning: rape, suicide, abuse, harassment) are being updated as new information becomes available.
More details are emerging about the practices at Activision Blizzard following the lawsuit filed against the company last week by the state of California, including a dysfunctional HR department that actively refused to protect employees. These allegations appear to have resulted in the departure of yet another high-level employee, Jesse Meschuk, now former head of Blizzard's HR department. Meschuk's departure comes just hours after the resignation of Blizzard's president J. Allen Brack.
Activision Blizzard has been facing scrutiny since the allegations of a toxic company culture came to light last week. A lawsuit filed against the company following a two-year investigation alleged that female employees of Activision Blizzard were frequently the targets of sexual harassment, wage disparity, and unfair work practices. While Activision Blizzard swiftly condemned the lawsuit, investigation, and allegations, the company's employees have spoken up in support of the suit's findings.
Those employees have also continued to speak up in earnest about the goings-on at Activision Blizzard, making even more allegations about the company's culture that were not included in the lawsuit. Several employees speaking to Axios have claimed that the company's HR department, the very resource designed to protect employees from the sort of harassment that these women endured, was "broken," as it "undermined and discounted victims' experiences," and actively shielded abusers from any sort of corrective action while simultaneously failing to protect the identities of those abused. Several employees offered their personal experiences with an HR department that did nothing to protect them against abusive behavior. The employees also speculated that the department's failings were due in part to its high turnover rate and confusing training practices. In light of these recent allegations, Jesse Meschuk, the head of the HR department, has reportedly stepped down.
The newest allegations by employees against Activision Blizzard and this revelation against the company's HR department help to complete a picture that the lawsuit only began to outline. It potentially answers the more pervasive question of how this behavior had been allowed to continue for so long. Activision Blizzard's HR department appears to have been used to maintain the company's image rather than protect the company's employees.
It's clear that Activision Blizzard's troubles are far from over as the lawsuit is still ongoing. But the issue remains that Activision Blizzard is not an isolated incident - it's just an incident with a public record. Many more employees, from Activision Blizzard and other gaming companies, may well add more information..
Source: Axios