Activision Blizzard pushes out dozens of employees over workplace misconduct • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by guardian5x » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 8:55 AM UTC

eru wrote: post #134

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

Europe is a big place with lots of different cultures and regulations. Eg in Germany, employers are both legally obliged to give a reference and to make it not-negative. It's a weird place.

Which they basically circumvent, by using a language where a reference which is just good and not extremely good means it's a bad reference.

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

#182

Post by 29athrowaway » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 8:59 AM UTC

krasin wrote: post #91

speedgoose wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working a at FAANG is not as attractive to most when you don’t know about the issues in the video games industry. There is a reason why FAANG companies pay well and video games companies don’t have to. I met zero people who told me they dreamed about working in a FAANG since childhood.

>I met zero people who told me they dreamed about working in a FAANG since childhood. Hi, nice to meet you: I dreamed about working in Microsoft since I was 12. Ended up in a different FAANG, but anyway.

FAANG = Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google.

Microsoft is not included. So technically you did not dream of working at a FAANG since childhood.

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

#183

Post by Byteflux » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 9:01 AM UTC

lmm wrote: post #105

Byteflux wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like individuals, businesses also have an inalienable right to free speech. Whether you like it or not, censorship among private individuals and businesses is an exercise in free speech. It's within my right to free speech to set the terms of your speech in my home, in my businesses or anywhere else on my property. Your right to free speech is not violated by private censorship. Although the concept of free speech ca…

> Like individuals, businesses also have an inalienable right to free speech. Nonsense. Humans have inalienable rights. Businesses exist on our sufferance, they don't have an inalienable right to anything.

Your statement doesn't align with reality, so I'll assume you're stating an opinion rather than a fact. Free speech is an inalienable right protected by the First Amendment and afforded to both individuals and businesses, that is a fact.

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

#184

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 9:03 AM UTC

seattle_spring wrote: post #113

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.

[deleted]

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

#185

Post by gamblor956 » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 9:04 AM UTC

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

It has become standard (at least outside of tech) for companies to only confirm dates of employees, without further comment on a (former) employee's tenure.

The goal is generally to avoid litigation in the event that any such comments could be construed as libel or as interfering with the employee's future employment...and with good reason, since a lawsuit over a negative reference for anything other than a for-cause termination (such as sexual harassment) is generally very costly to defend against even if the former employer would win on the merits.

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

#186

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 9:12 AM UTC

john567 wrote: post #154

framecowbird wrote: post #33

How did it get this bad?

Blizzard was never a privately held company or not in the sense that founders had real autonomy. I believe Michael Morhaime had a lot to do with why Blizzard could do what it did. I remember reading in interviews that he defended the soon(tm) mindset and steered the owners away from chasing quarterly reports. I also believe that Chris Metzen was a key figure in upholding a geeky and fun culture. I was genuinely impre…

[deleted]

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

#187

Post by nix23 » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 9:13 AM UTC

throwaway47292 wrote: post #165

cletus wrote: post #10

How many managers and executives were fired? My fear is that individual perpetrators have been fired but not the leaders who buried complaints or their own inaction dissuaded victims from complaining. A fish rots from the head.

> A fish rots from the head. Are you sure about that? Doesn't it rot from the guts outwards?

Hmm in theory it would start to rot from where it has the biggest exposure to air and or bacteria...so my highly scientific theory:

It starts from the head because gills, but the stink comes from the guts (lack of fresh air) ;)

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

#188

Post by simonh » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 9:17 AM UTC

aspaviento wrote: post #169

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #5

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

What's the need of stigmatizing these people? If they did wrong, they have been fired for it. They don't need to be permanently punished for a mistake. That won't help anyone.

This is a tricky issue. I agree in principle because I like to think that people can change and learn. On the other hand if you hire someone with a known track record, if they then harass members of your staff, you've got some serious questions to answer about potentially knowingly putting them at risk.

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

#189

Post by scoutt » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 9:29 AM UTC

chii wrote: post #25

tjpnz wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I deleted my Blizzard account when they censored and banned a Taiwanese e-sports competitor for speaking out on Hong Kong. It's a shame because I had been planning to give WoW classic a try. Edit: While the tournament was held in Taiwan, Blitzchung is actually a native of Hong Kong.

while i do understand the plight of HK's fight, it does make sense that a non-affiliated individual should not be able to make political statements on someone else's platform, unless with prior consent. The competitor should be free to make his case in his own platform(s), but not on a platform he doesn't own if the owners of that platform doesn't want to affiliate themselves with the political discourse.

I kind of agree with you, but just because it creates a precedent. If Blizzard allows a political statement, then now they have to allow other political statements too. As a result, they will have to "regulate" which political statements is allowed or denied, which will force them in a position of having to judge about what is wrong and what is right. And what corporation wants to do that?

Not all political statements are "black" or "white", "right" or "wrong" (Manichaeism style), and there are a lot of gray areas sometimes, and everybody has something to complain about on Twitter. And if Blizzard decides "wrong" then they may suffer and repair the backslash.

So the reaction from Blizzard is like the sign you used to see in a lot of bars: "No politics, no religion".

Understand I'm not saying that the player is wrong about what he said, or justifying what happens in HK.

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

#190

Post by jonathanstrange » Tue, Jan 18, 2022, 9:29 AM UTC

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…

The craziest thing about this case is that a simple civil lawsuit apparently created legal fees of $1.4M dollars he then had to pay. It seems to me that the US legal itself is a giant extortion scheme.