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Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

wsj.com

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Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#81

Post by pbalau »

sydthrowaway wrote: post #52
dehrmann wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lots of people want to work in the video game industry, so they'll put up with low pay, long hours, and apparently sexual harassment for a really long time.

Except there’s an overlap in low level perf tuning in AAA game engines and improving cloud workloads. These folks could easily get a job at FAANG

There is no mention in the article about these people being engineers. These people were fired "to address allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct". These are the bad guys. And finally, there isn't that much overlap between "perf tuning in AAA game engines and improving cloud workloads".

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#82

Post by [deleted] »

seneca wrote: post #71
seattle_spring wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're misunderstanding how the first amendment is applied. Freedom of speech means the government cannot limit what you can say. A private entity, such as Blizzard/Activision, has no such obligation.

> Freedom of speech means the government cannot limit what you can say. A private entity, such as Blizzard/Activision, has no such obligation. This is absolutely incorrect. To Americans, Freedom of Speech is, as the person you're replying to said, an inalienable right of all human beings. It's a fundamental principal of our society. The first amendment is a legal constraint on the US government that keeps them from v…

[deleted]

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#83

Post by dgellow »

fareesh wrote: post #39

I really wouldn't boycott anything over workplace culture. If their product is good I will buy it. In the case of Blizzard their products haven't been good for a long time. I'm ok with supporting a company that's evil. I am consuming petroleum, plastic, the news media, etc. all the time. Anyone who suggests otherwise comes across as somewhat delusional and a little self obsessed to me. Blizzard would be the least of…

“workplace culture” sounds like an unwarranted euphemism for what is very clearly sexual harassment.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#84

Post by seneca »

seattle_spring wrote: post #77
seneca wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Freedom of speech means the government cannot limit what you can say. A private entity, such as Blizzard/Activision, has no such obligation. This is absolutely incorrect. To Americans, Freedom of Speech is, as the person you're replying to said, an inalienable right of all human beings. It's a fundamental principal of our society. The first amendment is a legal constraint on the US government that keeps them from v…

Many Americans, myself included, would deeply disagree that "freedom of Speech" translates to "can say whatever you want wherever you want." Otherwise we'd all opt for 8-chan style message boards where anyone can say whatever they want. It's not at all unreasonable to want a particular event to remain on-topic to the event, and not allow literally everyone to use it as their own personal soapbox for their cause of th…

Sure, I don't disagree with any of that. I was just taking exception with the claim that the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech are the same thing. I'm also generally on board with Freedom of Association though. I wouldn't, for instance, put up with someone screaming obscenities in my front yard simply because stopping them would violate their Freedom of Speech.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#85

Post by C19is20 »

intunderflow wrote: post #12
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they call Blizzard checking references, does Blizzard say “we fired them for sexual harassment.”

Not sure if its the same in the USA, but in Europe there are massive legal liability issues to giving a negative reference - most places give no reference or a standard set of terms because of this

Specifically which parts of Europe? It's a big place, and I have given negative references with no fear of liability. And that includes across EU borders, including the UK.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#86

Post by naiwenwt »

jonathankoren wrote: post #70
chii wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do believe making a website is still cheap and easy. Not to mention some platforms like twitter do allow for political discourse on them (even if spotty). The idea is that if the platform owners don't want it, a platform user should respect that choice.

Respect is a bit too far for me. Accept, is more more style. When you play in someone else's sandbox, you're going to have to deal with their rules. No one is guaranteed an audience.

Conversely, if someone makes their sandbox publicly available, they accept some risk that someone else in it may behave in a way that they don't like.

You can argue that Blizzard was well within their rights in punishing Blitzchung, but then Blizzard's audience is well within their rights to be upset with said punishment.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#87

Post by pkaye »

john_moscow wrote: post #64
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #5

Question, when these people find a new job will the person hiring them know?

Quoted post unavailable.

They are probably working under "at will" employment agreement so can be terminated without establishing a cause.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#89

Post by teh_klev »

CheezeIt wrote: post #35
intunderflow wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if its the same in the USA, but in Europe there are massive legal liability issues to giving a negative reference - most places give no reference or a standard set of terms because of this

The U.S. Bill of Rights [1] protects giving negative references. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bill_of_Rights

Would be more useful if you pointed out which part of the Bill of Rights provides this protection.

Re: Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct

#90

Post by hemloc_io »

MangoCoffee wrote: post #88

Blizzard, Ubisoft and gaming industry in general seem to be plagued with sexual harassment problem. is this the result of Silicon Valley bro culture?

I wouldn’t discount it as a possibility, but I’d assume it’s closer to Hollywood sexual assault coverups than tech stuff.
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