Jason Schreier has published two emails that went out to Blizzard employees from President J. Allen Brack and a more recent hire, Fran Townsend, Executive Vice President for Corporate Affairs. The two messages share quite a different tone.
Quote From J. Allen Brack Hello Blizzard -
I personally have a lot of emotions coming out of yesterday, and I know you do, too. The allegations and the hurt of current and former employees are extremely troubling.
I know many of you would like to receive more clarity. While I can't comment on the specifics of the case as it's an open investigation, what I can say is that the behavior detailed in the allegations is completely unacceptable.
- It goes - with saying - it is completely unacceptable for anyone in the company to face discrimination or harassment.
- It goes - with saying - that everyone should feel safe working here, whether we are on campus, at BlizzCon, or working from home.
- It goes - with saying - it takes courage to come forward, and all claims brought to the company are investigated by internal and (when needed) external investigators. We take these claims very seriously. Claims can be made without fear of retaliation, and many times, I attend to them personally, along with our other leaders.
Stepping back - when I talked with Bobby about taking this job, one of the first things I mentioned was a revered saint of the Brack household - Gloria Steinem. Growing up, the value of women as equals, understanding the work that had been done for equal treatment, and the fact that there was still much to do, were common themes. This is just one of the reasons why the fight for equality is incredibly important to me. People with different backgrounds, views, and experiences are essential for Blizzard, our teams, and our player community. I disdain 'bro culture,' and have spent my career fighting it.
Iterating on our culture with the same intensity that we bring to our games is imperative, with our values acting as our North Star. This is some of the most important work we do, both as professional and human beings.
A company is more than a legal construct that exists as a piece of paper in a filing cabinet in Delaware. The people that work at the company make it what it is, through their actions and creations. Each of us plays a role in maintaining a place of safety for one other. And it is also up to each of us to continue to craft the Blizzard we want - and commit to doing our part in keeping Blizzard great but always aspiring for more.
The leadership team and I will be meeting with many of you to answer questions and discuss how we can move forward. In the meantime, I want you to know that you can talk to any manager, any HR partner, any member of the legal team, or to any one on the executive team [including, Hey J]. If you feel more comfortable talking to someone outside of Blizzard, or prefer to be anonymous, you can contact the Way2Play Integrity Line.
I feel angry, sad, and a host of other emotions, but I also feel grateful to work alongside a set of leaders and thousands of employees who join me in their commitment to continuous improvement.
Thank you Blizzard,
JAB
Quote From Fran Townsend Everyone,
As the Executive Sponsor of the ABK Employee Women's Network and our Chief Compliance Officer, I wanted to reach out to you. I know this has been difficult for many of us. A recently filed lawsuit presented a distorted and untrue picture of our company, including factually incorrect, old, and out of context stories - some from more than a decade ago.
The Activision companies of today, the Activision companies that I know, are great companies with good values. When I joined the Executive Leadership Team, I was certain that I was joining a company where I would be valued, treated with respect, and provided opportunities equal to those afforded to the men of the company. For me, this has been true during my time. As a leader, I am committed to making sure that the experience I have is the same as the rest of the organization. We have a leadership team that is committed to these principles in every way.
I am proud to be part of a company that takes a hard-line approach to inappropriate or hostile work environments and sexual harassment issues. Our Speak Up campaign reinforces our zero tolerance for retaliation against those who do speak up. We've made significant investments to foster our inclusive behaviors, and to reflect greater diversity within our leadership teams including:
* Investing in and strengthening our DE&I Employee Networks; creating global networks to bring together the efforts in all our business units and the introduction of Executive Sponsors.
* Introducing learning and development programs, including inclusive hiring training.
* Amplifying internal programs such as the Way2Play Heroes and the recurring Speak Up campaign.
* Reinforcing channels for employees to report violations including the "ASK List."
* Introducing an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns.
* Continuing to require all employees to take Equality & Diversity training including anti-harassment training (and have done so for many years).
We put tremendous effort into creating fair compensation policies that reflect our commitment to equal opportunity. We review compensation regularly and feel confident that we pay all employees fairly for equal or substantially similar work. We take proactive steps to ensure that pay and advancement are driven by merit. We reward performance, and we conduct extensive anti-discrimination trainings, including for those who are part of the compensation process.
We work at a company that truly values equality and fairness. Rest assured that leadership is committed to continuing to maintain a safe, fair, and inclusive workplace. We cannot let egregious actions of others, and a truly meritless and irresponsible lawsuit, damage our culture of respect and equal opportunity for all employees. We aspire in our company to do great things: in our games, in our impact on society, and in our work environment. We continue to hold firm to our principles and invest, as we have in the past, the resources to ensure quality opportunities for all employees. We remain committed as a leadership team to doing what is right.
Quote From Jason Today in my new weekly newsletter about the game industry:
- Blizzard's deep-rooted sexist culture
- Some of the stats that have led Activision to interfere with Blizzard
- Blizzard's president laughing off a Q about WoW over-sexualizing women
And more:You can subscribe to the newsletter here for weekly news, insights, and scoops from the world of video games: https://www.bloomberg.com/account/newsletters/game-on
One important point worth reiterating on here: as we've learned over the past couple of days, Blizzard's cultural issues existed *long* before Activision started interfering with operations and driving people out. More to come in the next few weeks…
Comments
I took it as a given they would try to veer players, who know little or nothing at all firsthand, from the allegations (despite their open letter being even more vile and disrespectful than I expected).
The fact they're treating their own employees as stupid, uninformed people by saying the lawsuit is factually false as numerous accounts, including recorded ones, continue to surface, is baffling to me. I'm not sure what they're trying to accomplish but pretty sure nothing positive will come of it.
Did anybody expect something material from these emails? I bet any communication by Blizz, external or internal, is heavily scrutinized by their legal department first. In the end the courts will decide if it is really only old tales from the past as the second email is implying or not. Nothing more to say until the judgement arrives.
The Gloria Steinem namedrop makes the whole thing ring super fake. Maybe J. Allen Brack did honestly have this unverifiable conversation between him and Bobby Kotick where he brought her up, but the whole thing reads as "Of course I'm a feminist because I can Google who Gloria Steinem is."
Fran Townsend was a US Homeland Security advisor during the Bush era and was very much a torture/water boarding apologist. So it’s really disingenuous to have that ghoul speak for “values”
It is pretty obvious that no employers want their workers to harass each other instead of working. People who think this behavior was somehow encouraged or ignored are simply lying to themselves because they desperately want to believe in this fantasy of "evil Blizzard" or just thirsty for some outrage. Things happen between people, of course, but they are nothing but local incidents. Which is inevitable in a big company that employs thousands of people.
The work/ company culture isn't a thing that just randomly "happens". It's a product of how leaders behave, what/ how rules are enforced, what people are hired etc. etc.
Is it obvious though? When the choices are: fire this highly-productive serial-harasser and lose his ability to make millions for our company, or just let him have his way with a few women (whom we don't value as much) and accept whatever lawsuits that come our way as a business expense?
Also company culture is a thing. Bosses may foster a bro culture if they think it'd make their subordinates more committed to the team. In this case excesses like sexual harassment could be seen as a tolerable by-product.
"Evil Blizzard" is a fantasy? Care to suck Bobby's dick even more? People don't do "cube crawls" and that not be allowed / tolerated. Women don't go to HR and have their complaints put on blast around the company without higher ups knowing. This isn't just a few bad actors. At the very least, you have to have people that just don't care, which encourages people when there are no negative repercussions.
What I'm reading from Blizzard's initial response to the lawsuit and Townsend's e-mail: transgressions did occur, but they were in the past and steps were taken to address them. Eventually. I don't know if that absolves them of all legal liability but I find their combative and unapologetic tone most distasteful. Surely there has to be some accountability for allowing things to get so bad before they (presumably) got better?
Note that one of the named offenders was still employed at Blizzard until last year so I doubt these problems are as 'ancient history' as they seem to suggest.
The first from Brack is very meticulously written, almost nearing levels where it feels like it has gone past a test screening before being released. Not that Im implying anything, but it feels a lot like what you get off your CEOs from these controlled 'townhall' sessions or something you'd find out of a company annual report.
Well, at least you can speculate about whether J Brack actually believes in his, or rather his ghostwritten but approved, type outs.
Fran's however, is more interesting. It comes across as more real, more genuine. Unfortunately, its brashness also highlights a sort of aloof quality, like someone whos constantly jabbering about how wonderful life is or can be to an audience in a refugee camp. I mean this is stretching what can only be described as 'out-of-touch'. Not surprisingly people around aren't exactly happy with this one, and there are allegations that blizz employees are fuming over it.
Of course, there's no reason to be outraged over these stuff. Its emails intended for activision-blizzard employees and honestly to be completely expected from the top brass. What I'd be expecting from Bobby Kotick or J Brack to the public would be the usual "we acknowledged we haven't done better, etc." stuff, but what I really hope for is for them to come out and tell us what the hell they are going to do about all these and how they hope to remedy the problem whether or not they would manage to get the suit kicked out of court - on top of paying remedial compensation (if convicted) - and the potential stern disciplinary action to be taken against certain managerial staff members after incontrovertible investigations conducted by a transparent third party.
Brack's e-mail, while less offensive, is also full of empty fluff. What I would have liked to hear from both is stronger language for employees: do this kind of shit and there will be consequences. Concrete stuff not just nebulous platitudes about unacceptable behaviour.
He did, but as I mentioned, its what you'd expect from your CEO.
...what I can say is that the behavior detailed in the allegations is completely unacceptable.
- It goes - with saying - it is completely unacceptable for anyone in the company to face discrimination or harassment.
I'm not expecting him to put on an emotional outburst promising fiery retribution for harassers. But at the same time its pretty standard boiler plate kind of stuff. Meticulous, but robotic.
In my opinion Mike Morhaime gave the better statement. But it may not be fair to compare the two, I'd acknowledge that.
Interested to hear what women making accusations have to say about that second email...
As far as a brief recap goes, there have been many Twitter statements from various Blizzard employees (former and current) pointing out that these don't represent them or their views. And that their own personal remarks don't represent the company. So leaders dropping the ball here pretty much, nothing new sadly.