Nearly 1,000 current and former Activision Blizzard employees have reportedly signed an open letter of sorts to their company’s management following last week’s explosive lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. The letter was obtained by Jason Schreier of Bloomberg News.
“To put it clearly and unequivocally, our values as employees are not accurately reflected in the words and actions of our leadership,” the letter reads.
The letter to high-level management details the signee’s distrust that the company will place their safety above risk to the company’s brand.
The letter follows an initial Activision Blizzard statement to the press that called the lawsuit “distorted, and in many cases false.”
The lawsuit contains explosive allegations, including a harrowing account of a woman who took her life during a business trip with her superior. She had allegedly been sexually involved with her male superior, who brought “butt plugs and lubricant” along with him on the business trip.
In addition, female employees were subject to what the lawsuit calls “cube crawls,” where male employees would drink “copious” amounts of alcohol and then harass them at their work stations. Male employees would drink at work or come in hung over and face no punishment. The lion’s share of work was also delegated to underpaid female employees, with male employees often skipping out on responsibilities that come with their job titles.
The Department of Fair Employment and Housing is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, among attorney’s fees and general relief the court deems to be just.
