Activision Blizzard employees describe leadership’s response to harassment lawsuit ‘distasteful and insulting’

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Activision Blizzard employees talk about the company’s leadership’s “hateful and humiliating” response to the California investigation and lawsuit that alleged the company’s toxic culture led to “continuous sexual harassment” of female employees.

A group of Blizzard employees has collected more than 800 signatures from current and former employees across the company in support of a letter asking Activision Blizzard to release a statement “acknowledging[s] the seriousness of these allegations and showing sympathy for the victims of harassment and assault.”

The letter says that Activision Blizzard’s response to allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination at the company “has harmed our continued pursuit of equality both inside and outside our field,” “casts doubt on our organizations’ ability to hold abusers accountable for their actions,” and “made[s] Our leadership is clearly not putting our values ​​first.”

“We will not be silenced, we will not stand aside, and we will not give up until the company we love becomes a workplace we all feel proud to be a part of again,” the statement read.

You can read the entire message sent to Polygon below:

To the Activision Blizzard leaders,

We, the undersigned, agree that the statements made by Activision Blizzard, Inc. and its legal counsel in relation to the DFEH lawsuit, as well as the subsequent internal statement from Frances Townsend, are repugnant and insulting to all we believe our firm should represent. To put it clearly and unequivocally, our values ​​as employees are not accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership.

We believe these statements have harmed our continued pursuit of equality within and outside our industry. Labeling the allegations made as “distorted, and in many cases false” creates an atmosphere for the company that atones the victims. It also casts doubt on our organizations’ ability to hold abusers accountable for their actions and foster a safe environment for victims to advance in the future. This data shows that our leadership does not put our values ​​first. Immediate corrections are needed from the highest level in our organization.

Our company executives have claimed that action will be taken to protect us, but in the face of legal action — and the troubling official responses that followed — we no longer trust our leaders will put employee safety above their own interests. The claim that this is a “really irresponsible lawsuit that you don’t deserve,” while seeing many current and former employees talking about their own experiences of harassment and abuse, is simply not acceptable.

We call for official statements acknowledging the gravity of these allegations and showing sympathy for victims of harassment and assault. We call on Frances Townsend to honor her promise to step down as Executive Sponsor of the Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait Female Employees Network as a result of the pernicious nature of her statement. We invite the executive leadership team to work with us on new and meaningful efforts that ensure employees – as well as our community – a safe place to speak and advance.

We stand with all our friends, colleagues, and colleagues, as well as members of our dedicated community, who have experienced abuse or harassment of any kind. We won’t be silenced, we won’t stand aside, we won’t give up until the company we love becomes a workplace we all feel proud to be a part of again. We will be change.

The employee’s letter comes after company executives released various internal statements regarding allegations of “ongoing sexual harassment” and “little boy” culture. Blizzard President J. Allen Brack released one Thursday, calling the allegations “extremely concerning.” Activision president Rob Kostich echoed that statement, calling the behavior described as “extremely disturbing.” It was a significant shift in tone from Activision Blizzard’s initial statement, which suggested that the DFEH investigation – which had been ongoing for two years – included “distorted” and “erroneous” descriptions of the workplace.

Activision Blizzard’s Executive Vice President (and former Homeland Security Adviser to George W. Bush) Fran Townsend doubled down on the original statement in a letter sent to employees Friday. She called the lawsuit’s allegations “distorted and untrue,” calling the Justice Department lawsuit “truly irresponsible and irresponsible.”

Both current and former employees began posting on social media following Townsend’s statement. Activision Blizzard Staff Group is calling for Townsend to step down as Executive Sponsor of the Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait Female Employees Network. Several current employees told Polygon that employees were “disgusted” with the company’s response, noting that the lawsuit allegations are just the tip of the iceberg. A source told Polygon that dozens of other employees have since reached out to DFEH about adding their stories to the lawsuit.

“We appreciate the support of our co-workers, former ABK employees, and our communities during this time,” a representative of the Activision Blizzard employee group told Polygon. “Rest assured that we intend to demand change, and hold our leaders and companies accountable for the values ​​we signed on to when joining.”

Activision Blizzard did not respond to Polygon’s inquiry about the open letter.

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