Activision isn't a 'frat boy culture.' It's worse

3 years ago

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November 17, 2021

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Michelle Wu is sworn in as mayor of Boston, Frida Kahlo sets a record, and a damning report accuses the Activision Blizzard CEO of hiding sexual misconduct claims. Have a great Wednesday.
– Activision accusations. If you only read one thing today, make it this incredible piece of Wall Street Journal reporting about the disaster that is Activision Blizzard and the conduct of its CEO, Bobby Kotick.
As anyone following the company will know, it has been at the center of numerous disturbing accusations, including multiple claims of sexual assault. The Journal’s report says that Kotick has known about many of these incidents and actively hid them from the company’s board for years.
These are chilling allegations: a woman who says she was raped multiple times by her male supervisor only for HR to ignore her reports. A woman who reportedly killed herself after a photo of part of her anatomy was allegedly circulated at a company party. Charges that Kotick himself intervened to save the job of a senior executive who was investigated for sexual harassment—even after HR recommended he be fired. If you have the stomach, I encourage you to read the full story to get a complete picture of the claims Kotick reportedly attempted to hide.
A company spokesperson told the WSJ: “Kotick would not have been informed of every report of misconduct at every Activision Blizzard company, nor would he reasonably be expected to have been updated on all personnel issues.” She allowed that the company “fell short of ensuring that all of our employees’ behavior was consistent with our values and our expectations.”
A California Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit filed this summer alleges that the company ignored numerous complaints of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation and cites the company’s “frat boy” culture.
Let’s be clear: this is not a “frat boy culture.” That’s a fair term for companies where women are sidelined or ignored. That’s not what this story describes. It paints a picture of an alleged culture in which women are entirely disposable—either harassed or assaulted and shoved out the door or used as human shields to protect the company’s CEO and his favored (male) employees.
Even the women who’ve “succeeded” at Activision emerge scathed: Jennifer Oneal, who in August was tapped to become the first woman to lead one of the company’s business units, is leaving at the end of the year. WSJ reports that she’s departing after telling a member of the company’s legal team that she had been sexually harassed earlier in her career at Activision and was being paid less than her male counterpart. “I have been tokenized, marginalized, and discriminated against,” she wrote in an email, according to the report.
The realization that a public Fortune 500 company could reportedly operate this way—and apparently has for years—is depressing. The fact that many of us have consumed or purchased its products, which include Call of Duty, Candy Crush and World of Warcraft, supporting and enriching Kotick, is distressing. And the idea that a CEO could hold onto his job after the type of behavior chronicled in the article? Infuriating.
When people concerned about the under-representation of women in tech and point fingers at the “pipeline problem” or women’s alleged lack of interest in STEM, let’s not forget that workplaces like this still exist. That’s not to say that this behavior is common in gaming, or tech more broadly—it’s not. But when even one company that enables this kind of behavior can flourish in an industry, it’s hard to blame women for steering clear.
Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee
The Broadsheet, Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women, is coauthored by Kristen Bellstrom, Emma Hinchliffe, and Claire Zillman. Today’s edition was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.

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