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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

#111

Post by 2pEXgD0fZ5cF »

rndgermandude wrote: post #106
2pEXgD0fZ5cF wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> extremely limited evidence that he knew What makes you say that? Every piece of info I encountered on the case suggests the opposite [1][2] In addition to that Kotick himself has been involved in such cases before and is no stranger to getting rid of victims [3] [1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/activision-videogames-bobby-kot... [2]: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-11-16-activision-bos... [3]: https://www.…

>In addition to that Kotick himself has been accused of sexual harassment in the past and lost a legal case over it [3] I am not trying to defend Kotick, and am not saying his behavior then or now was alright. But the article you linked did not say he was accused of sexual harassment. And he did not lose a sexual harassment case either. Instead the article says that a guy named Berg, with whom Kotick co-owned a priva…

Corrected

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

#112

Post by sharken »

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…

Not an American here, in principle i agree.

But in reality you can't hide the fact, that limiting freedom of speech is very much in the interest of those who want full control on what we can say.

A good example is the Muhammad cartoons, which reminds us that there is a very long way to go before religions can exist peacefully.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_car...

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

#113

Post by seattle_spring »

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?

> is this the result of Silicon Valley bro culture?

My guess would be "no" for the following reasons:

1. Neither Blizzard nor Activision nor Ubisoft are headquartered in Silicon Valley.

2. "Silicon Valley bro culture" itself seems to be a largely manufactured story.

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

#114

Post by seattle_spring »

pm90 wrote: post #110
vsef wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a cultural problem but the game industry is not SV based. Blizzard Activision is SoCal, Ubisoft is French (with studios in many locations). I worked at a studio owned by Activision (in SoCal) in the early 2000s and the culture was certainly toxic. I just find it funny how often commenters here assume all broism originates in SV.

To be fair most broism does originate in SV though doesn’t it?

What definition of "broism" are you using?

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

#115

Post by TechBro8615 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #16
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #5

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

They won’t automatically know, but: 1) Anyone in the industry presumably knows about this news. If someone’s end date at Activision Blizzard is January 2022, they’re going to have a strong suspicion. 2) Backchannel reference checks (very warranted in this case) will likely confirm it. Activision Blizzard wouldn’t confirm anything other than start and end dates and any candidate-provided references are going to say go…

You're probably overestimating the degree to which a hiring manager investigates a candidate, or even cares that a candidate was caught up in what appears to be a mostly political event (as far as we know from public information).

Do you keep track of the month and year of every corporate scandal, and compare it to the resume of all applicants? Or do you just say "oh, you worked at Blizzard huh, do you play WoW?"

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

#116

Post by awb »

TechBro8615 wrote: post #115
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They won’t automatically know, but: 1) Anyone in the industry presumably knows about this news. If someone’s end date at Activision Blizzard is January 2022, they’re going to have a strong suspicion. 2) Backchannel reference checks (very warranted in this case) will likely confirm it. Activision Blizzard wouldn’t confirm anything other than start and end dates and any candidate-provided references are going to say go…

You're probably overestimating the degree to which a hiring manager investigates a candidate, or even cares that a candidate was caught up in what appears to be a mostly political event (as far as we know from public information). Do you keep track of the month and year of every corporate scandal, and compare it to the resume of all applicants? Or do you just say "oh, you worked at Blizzard huh, do you play WoW?"

Right, but if there’s an applicant from Activision in the next month or so that didn’t leave voluntarily, then it might warrant further inquiry.

Presumably some of these folks will need to try to find work ASAP.

But months or years down the road chances are slim it’ll stick out.

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

#117

Post by xsmasher »

CheezeIt wrote: post #101
etchalon wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personal references are protected, to the extent that liable and slander laws would apply. Any HR person / lawyer will tell you providing a negative review of an employee, let alone with amount of detail, opens you up to liabilities that aren't worth it. As an employer, I've been told that, if called, I should only provide the date a person started with the company, the date a person left, their starting and ending s…

Will they give you a magnitude attached to those liabilities? Anybody can falsely sue for defamation, so you need an average cost value beyond the mere possibility of lawsuit to get a true representation of the problem.

The cost may be minimal, but the value of giving a bad reference is zero.

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

#118

Post by awb »

tablespoon wrote: post #51
doktorhladnjak wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of companies will also say if the former employee is eligible to be employed there again. A negative on that plus a January separation date won't look good for those folks.

> A lot of companies will also say if the former employee is eligible to be employed there again. A negative on that plus a January separation date won't look good for those folks. I suppose that may mean something if you're playing detective with a former Blizzard employee's resume, but I'd be cautious in reading too much into "if the former employee is eligible to be employed there again" generally. I know of a com…

Why would you be ineligible for rehire after a downsizing?

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

#119

Post by intunderflow »

C19is20 wrote: post #85
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

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.

I'm currently in the UK, and at least here I've been told by legal that a negative reference can lead to massive issues in front of an Employment Tribunal, and that it's effectively not worth it when we can just decline to give any reference at all.

On the flip side, a reference has an implicit duty of skill and care to both the former employee and the person asking for the reference, so an overly-positive reference can also lead to legal liability from the person asking for the reference.

In some regulated industries the content and form of references is also regulated as well, for example see pages 11 and 31 of https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/SYSC/22.pdf

(None of this is legal advice)

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

#120

Post by [deleted] »

pm90 wrote: post #110
vsef wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a cultural problem but the game industry is not SV based. Blizzard Activision is SoCal, Ubisoft is French (with studios in many locations). I worked at a studio owned by Activision (in SoCal) in the early 2000s and the culture was certainly toxic. I just find it funny how often commenters here assume all broism originates in SV.

To be fair most broism does originate in SV though doesn’t it?

[deleted]
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