Ever since a lawsuit alleging multiple instances of sexual harassment was filed against Activision Blizzard last summer, the company’s reputation has only taken more hits. It’s apparently struggling to even hire new talent, no doubt because of how toxic its name has become.
Now, another sexual harassment lawsuit has been filed on behalf of a current anonymous employee and it reiterates the exact same accusations that were shared last year. According to Bloomberg Law, the lawsuit describes Activision Blizzard’s working environment as an “open ‘frat boy’ environment” that has “fostered rampant sexism, harassment, and discrimination.”
The employee, referred to as simply Jane Doe, says she began at the company in 2017 and, on her first day, was pressured into taking shots of tequila and sharing an embarrassing secret as part of her initiation. She and other women employees were made to take part in “cube crawls” where they would be subjected to sexual comments and groping.
When Doe complained about these instances to supervisors, she was told that leadership was just “being nice and trying to be friends with her” and to keep her complaints to herself because they could be “damaging” for the company.
Doe did eventually manage to leave her department and find a new position elsewhere within the company, but only after she sent a complaint in writing to then Blizzard president J. Allen Brack, who stepped down last August after news of the first lawsuit broke. Doe’s new role also resulted in a decrease in salary.
Among the lawsuit’s demands are for Activision Blizzard to implement a rotating HR department to avoid any conflicts of interest with management and for CEO Bobby Kotick to be fired. The latter is something that many employees and members of the public have asked for as well, as Kotick is believed to have been fully aware of the numerous allegations and even guilty of harassment himself. Although Kotick remains with the company, it’s believed that he will leave once Microsoft’s acquisition goes through.
