A current employee who claims to have faced discrimination and sexual harassment at the company has filed a new lawsuit against Activision Blizzard.
The employee also said in the lawsuit that they, too, were retaliated against for speaking out in public.
The employee, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe, started working at the company in 2017 as a senior administrative assistant in the IT department, according to the lawsuit, which is reported by Bloomberg Legal.
Her first experience of misconduct came on her first day on the job, when Doe felt pressured to drink tequila and share “an embarrassing secret” with everyone during a so-called “start-up lunch.”
Multiple times she felt pressured to drink and participate in so-called “cube crawls,” which were filled with sexual comments and female groping. There’s also a “game” called “Jackbox” that asks individuals to come up with “creative answers” to questions that are primarily sexual.
Doe began dressing conservatively to help quell sexual harassment, and she began staying away from off-site dinners, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit also covers instances of excessive drinking and sexual advances by her supervisor.
When Doe voiced her concerns, she was told to keep quiet because it could cause “damage” to the company. She has since faced poor working conditions for complaining.
To leave the IT department, Doe applied for various other jobs at the company, but was rejected. After she lodged a complaint with Blizzard’s then-president Allen J. Brack, she was finally moved to another role, one that paid less.
Doe’s lawsuit is just the latest in a string of Activision Blizzard news following reports that the company has fostered a toxic work culture. The allegations first came to light as a result of a lawsuit brought by the state of California over workplace bullying, harassment and sex discrimination.
Activision Blizzard has since cleaned up its interior and created plans to ensure it continues to evolve its talent and recruiting systems to be more representative. It created a new workplace accountability committee aimed at “measuring progress and ensuring accountability”. For many current and former employees, the company is doing too little too late, or not enough to address employee concerns. Many are still calling for the resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick, and some have even joined a union.
