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Activision's Los Angeles function in 2018 (Photograph past Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Alarm: This commodity discusses harassment, sexual assault, and suicide.

Following more than 2 years of investigation, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has filed a lawsuit confronting Activision Blizzard Inc. for fostering an environment that serves every bit a "breeding ground" for harassment and discrimination against women. The lawsuit presents a long-awaited milestone and a instance for hope, both for Activision employees and those in the gaming customs. Every bit of yesterday, more than than two,000 current and former Activision Blizzard employees accept signed a petition calling the company's response to the lawsuit "abhorrent and insulting."

The DFEH began investigating Activision in 2018 when information technology first received find of "violations of the land's civil rights and equal pay laws." The organisation's main concerns included discrimination based on sex (affecting bounty, promotions, and termination), harassment, and retaliation.

The lawsuit'south description of Activision's civilization as "frat male child"-like is an apt one, if not a little tame. In it, the DFEH describes a variety of downright abhorrent behaviors that range from unfair to blatantly criminal in nature. "Male person employees proudly come up into work hungover, play video games for long periods of fourth dimension during work while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter virtually their sexual encounters, talk openly about female person bodies, and joke almost rape," the lawsuit reads. Women who work in the office are subjected to "cube crawls," during which male employees beverage booze and then visit various cubicles while engaging in inappropriate behavior toward female person employees. According to the lawsuit, a number of female employees have experienced severe emotional distress or left the company subsequently enduring sexual harassment and discrimination. The harassment has also had mortiferous repercussions: One woman took her life on a piece of work trip, during which her supervisor brought forth sexual paraphernalia in the hopes of coercing her into bed with him. According to another employee, the woman's suicide followed other workplace sexual harassment, including the dissemination of the woman's nude photos among coworkers.

Activision's Madrid office (Photo: Activision Blizzard Inc.)

Despite girls and women constituting nearly half of American gamers, but 20 percent of Activision Blizzard's workforce is made up of women. Co-ordinate to the lawsuit, very few women always reach top roles at the company, and those who do receive less total compensation than their male person counterparts. Some women are even denied promotions based on the possibility that she may cull to start a family, go along maternity leave, and decide she "liked being a mom too much." This bigotry extends further to female employees of color, who specifically are required to write up one-pagers on how they'd spend their PTO before PTO tin can be canonical, and whose trunk language is continuously criticized while their male counterparts slouch in their seats. When any of these issues were brought to HR or management, they were ignored or met with empty promises to investigate farther. This is no surprise, given that Activision'southward CTO has as well been defendant of groping inebriated women at company events and hiring women based on their appearances.

Activision executive Fran Townsend reacted to the lawsuit Friday past sending out a visitor-wide electronic mail calling the DFEH'due south allegations "factually incorrect, old, and out-of-context" and insisting Activision values inclusion. In response, over 2,000 current and former Activision employees accept signed a letter expressing disappointment with both Townsend'south claims and the company's history of failing to concur abusers accountable. Most recently, CEO Bobby Kotick announced the company would exist hiring a third-political party constabulary house to review its policies and help to implement those that would promote a respectful workplace. The announcement dovetails an organized walkout scheduled for Wednesday, during which the company will reportedly offer employees paid time off .

Ideally, none of these incidents would have occurred in the commencement place. Just the lawsuit does offer a tiny glimmer of hope for those who believe in and strive toward workplace equity in the gaming manufacture. With consequences (hopefully) comes activity, and between employees' organization and the untallied financial and injunctive relief sought by the DFEH, Activision is sure to face fallout.

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