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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

#131

Post by alisonkisk »

pm90 wrote: post #99

> In a letter to employees made public in October, Ms. Townsend said Activision had “exited” 20 employees and another 20 had faced disciplinary action. “We know there’s a desire to know about the outcome when misconduct is reported,” Ms. Townsend wrote. “Sometimes, there are privacy reasons we can’t share. But where we can, we will be sharing more information with you. We will also be providing you regular, aggregate…

Why would you assume scapegoating and not firing offendors who aren't "too big to fail"?

Not disclosing a reason is the opposite of scapegoating. It's downplaying to avoid a fresh news cycle with lurid details.

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

#132

Post by jimbob45 »

seattle_spring wrote: post #109
jimbob45 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because he’s led some of the highest growth of any company of the last two decades and there’s extremely limited evidence that he knew what was going on at just one of his subsidiary companies (and the least profitable one at that). Blizzard games don’t hold a candle to the money CoD, Madden, or Skylanders bring in. If Blizzard lets him go, someone else will snatch up his genius immediately.

> Blizzard games don’t hold a candle to the money CoD, Madden, or Skylanders bring in You might be right that Blizzard game don't make as much pure profit. However, COD and Madden are prime examples of the bastardization of the video games industry, where companies are putting profits far ahead of making actual enjoyable games. Kotick is a pioneer in this respect, being the best in the biz at making games unfun reski…

> IMO keeping someone like Kotick around for his money making prowess is extremely short sighted.

For a gaming company? Even the best-run gaming companies struggle to last a decade financially. If you’re a shareholder, you’re looking at these returns and realizing that this man is a unicorn.

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

#133

Post by Fnoord »

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…

> 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.

The first sentence of the article mentions:

> Activision Blizzard Inc. has fired or pushed out more than three dozen employees and disciplined about 40 others since July as part of efforts to address allegations of sexual harassment and other misconduct at the videogame giant, according to people familiar with the situation.

(Emphasis mine.)

For those who more closely follow Blizzard and/or WoW news (fansites such as MMO Champion and Wowhead), several people were known to be fired or left the past year. So the date January 2022 is entirely arbitrary by you, but also, important to note the following: some people left because of the scandal while they were not the culprit, or other reasons (many people were laid off because of, well, I can't say bad financial result but that was the reasoning. Also, state of games in decline). Just because someone left Blizz in 2021 does not mean much, but if you look into certain people who did leave in 2021 then, yes, you will find allegations. End date alone is meaningless though, and quite frankly falls under the definition of guilty by association.

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

#134

Post by eru »

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

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.

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

#135

Post by alisonkisk »

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?"

No post body was provided.

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

#136

Post by thaumasiotes »

awb wrote: post #118
tablespoon wrote: post #51

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. 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?

Presumably for the same reason that, after sleeping with your friend's wife, you wouldn't try to make friends again.

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

#137

Post by gotbeans »

speedgoose wrote: post #76
sydthrowaway wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

Definitely far from 0 people, I'm half embarrassed to admit I wanted to join cisco when I was not even in collage.

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

#138

Post by eru »

CheezeIt wrote: post #102
C19is20 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In Germany I’ve read recommendations range from meekly positive to very positive, and that encodes the actual recommendation.

But just like the UK press can't describe anyone as 'tired and emotional' anymore these days, because that particular euphemism for 'drunk' has become transparent, many of the traditional German euphemisms for sub-par work have been attacked by the courts.

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

#139

Post by eru »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #37
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

What in the world? What is the point of a reference if it can only be good?

Law of unintended consequences, perhaps?

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

#140

Post by cercatrova »

speedgoose wrote: post #76
sydthrowaway wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

Hello. I used to want to work at a company like Google when I was younger.
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