Activision Blizzard, one of America’s largest video game developers, has received widespread criticism from several employees and a lawsuit in California for what some call a “frat boy” workplace culture. Now its CEO is promising a full review and series of initiatives to address the problems.
Employees at the video game company staged a walkout this week to demand better working conditions for women and other groups after the state of California filed a discrimination lawsuit last week alleging widespread sexual harassment at the maker of video games such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. Employees were unhappy with the initial response to the lawsuit, which they claimed was “tone deaf.”
Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, sent an all-staff email on Tuesday addressing the threat of an employee walkout surrounding complaints about workplace conditions and sexual harassment allegations. In the letter, Kotick admitted the company’s response to harassment claims was insufficient, and said it was imperative it “acknowledge all perspectives and experiences.”
In his letter, Kotick promised that the company “will do everything possible to make sure that together, we improve and build the kind of inclusive workplace that is essential to foster creativity and inspiration.” As part of that promise, he asked the law firm WilmerHale to conduct an internal audit of the company’s policies and procedures. The team will be led by Stephanie Avakian, who is a member of the firm’s management team and was most recently the director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement.
Employees have complained that the company turns a blind eye to derogatory comments towards women and fails to punish insensitive jokes. Female employees also report undergoing constant sexual harassment, as well as being subject to lower starting pay and slower promotion cycles.
‘Cube Crawls’ and Toxic Culture
California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing conducted a two-year investigation of Activision’s Santa Monica-based business, which has about 9,500 employees, and found that the company consistently discriminated against women, who make up about 20 percent of its workforce, the agency said.
“Female employees receive lower starting pay and also earn less than male employees for substantially similar work,” the state alleged in the complaint. “Defendants promote women more slowly and terminate them more quickly than their male counterparts. Faced with such adverse terms and conditions of employment, many women have been forced to leave the company.”
The lawsuit also describes a “frat boy” culture in which male employees engage in “cube crawls” in the office, where they drink “copious amounts of alcohol” and then crawl their way through team members’ cubicles and “often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees,” including groping them. Women also have to “continually fend off unwanted sexual comments and advances by their male co-workers,” the lawsuit alleges.
Promises, Promises
Along with bringing in a law firm to conduct an internal audit, Kotick also promised to take the following remediation measures, effective immediately:
- Increased employee support by adding additional senior staff and other resources to both the compliance team and employee relations team.
- The creation of listening sessions moderated by a third-party.
- The evaluation of current managers and leaders across the company, with appropriate personnel changes being made if deemed necessary.
- Ensuring that a prior requirement implemented earlier this year that hiring managers have diverse candidate slates for all open positions is being followed.
- Removing in-game content that has been deemed inappropriate by employees and player communities.
Employee Demands
Activision is no stranger to employee organized resistance. This is the second incident within the past 12 months. Last year, employees created a public spreadsheet to which they uploaded their salaries and sent a letter of demands to management asking for more equitable compensation.
This week’s walkout was orchestrated by current employees at subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment, where many of the complaints originated. They struck outside of Blizzard’s headquarters in Irvine, California on Wednesday to demand that Activision abandon mandatory arbitration clauses “in all employee contracts, current and future,” implement new practices in their hiring process, the publication of data with regards to relative compensation, and that a diversity task force be allowed to audit the company’s leadership, hierarchy, and HR department.
The findings from WilmerHale’s investigation are still ongoing, and there has been no further statement released by Kotick. The lawsuit against Activision was filed in the Superior Court of the State of California in and for the County of Los Angeles. 
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Michael McGee is assistant editor at Internal Audit 360°