A California lawsuit earlier this year alleged sexual harassment, discrimination and an ubiquitous “frat boy culture” call of Duty Publisher Activision Blizzard. In at least one case, this culture included an employee signing all of their business emails as “1-800-ALLCOCK”.
This detail comes from the latest episode of the Wall Street Journal podcast which outlines some of his recent investigative bomb reports new cases of misconduct and cover-upsincluding CEO Bobby Kotick.
“There was an example where an Activision employee only signed his email signature 1-800-ALLCOCK for years,” said reporter Kirsten Grind in a transcript of the podcast. “So if you were a woman you would get this email and that was just normal flow, right? Just guys joking about it and it felt like that’s what happened at Activision. “
Activision reportedly took no action on the email signature until it received a complaint about it last summer, at which point the employee was fired after a month-long investigation. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The podcast episode also interviewed a former employee about her time at Sledgehammer Games, the makers of the recently published Call of Duty: Vanguard. Ashley Mark hired as a Quality Assurance Analyst in 2016 while producing Call of Duty: World War II, described the male-dominated workplace as follows:
There are people who want … basically they’re very nerdy, want to make a good game, and then there’s the gun-loving group because it’s Call of Duty, so you’re going to attract people who love guns, and then have You guys who are really into fitness. There are a lot of people who are into fitness at Sledgehammer Games, at least at this time. So there were people who would go in groups and you would go to the gym and they would just get pumped up. So it’s very manly.
Mark recalled a studio anniversary party in 2017 where a former sledgehammer manager “put his arm around my colleague like a choke-hold” while hugging her and saying her name repeatedly. That’s what the former manager said The Wall Street Journal he did not remember the details of the evening in question because he was too drunk, but did confirm that he was given a two-week paid suspension before being reassigned.
At Sledgehammer Games, a former employee was also reportedly raped twice, incidents that were not investigated until she sent a letter from her attorney after she had already left the company. According to the new podcast episode when it was originally recorded her complaint to Studio HR, a representative from the department tried to hunt her downplay what happened and put it in a more positive light.
Until recently, most of the attention was focused on allegations of past misconduct and discrimination at Blizzard. But these latest reports reinforce parts of the original California lawsuit, which cited alcohol-filled offices and work events, and negligent human resources departments as recipes for abuse throughout Activision Blizzard’s business.
This week the heads of the two Playstation and Xbox talked about the latest revelations. Nonprofit organization Girls who code Cutting ties with the company. And some shareholders followed suit over 2,000 current Activision Blizzard employees demand that Kotick resign.
“It’s pretty clear that the only forces that can make a difference at Activision are the customers (whose money is the ultimate business goal), the investors and the employees whose talents make Activision games worth buying,” said Paul Reiche. former head of Activision Blizzards Skylander Studio, told Axios today. “If the new stories I’ve read are true, I can’t imagine how Activision can continue its success without new leadership.”
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