Another moment in the Activision Blizzard scandal has taken place. According to a report from Bloomberg Law, an attorney by the name of Lisa Bloom has filed a brand new lawsuit against the company on behalf of an employee that is still working for them as we speak. To keep their client safe, Bloom referred to them as “Jane Doe” and gave a fairly grim statement on the filing in regards to the overarching situation. “For years, Activision Blizzard’s open ‘frat boy’ environment fostered rampant sexism, harassment and discrimination with 700 reported incidents occurring under CEO Robert Kotick’s watch.”
According to the suit, Doe, who joined Activision Blizzard in 2017 as a senior administrative assistant in the IT section, claims on her very first day of work, they were allegedly pressured during an “initiation lunch” to take tequila shots and was told by her senior employers to she had to share an embarrassing secret. Doe also claimed that she was often allegedly pushed to drink booze during work hours, and was subjected to what was called the “cube crawl” where women were allegedly approached and subjected to inappropriate comments as well as groping.
Doe also alleges in the suit that when she complained to higher management about this, but was waved off as “just her leadership being nice and trying to be friends with her.” Doe also mentions that she was allegedly instructed to keep her concerns to herself as it could be “damaging” to the company’s reputation. Doe attempted to relocate to other positions in different apartments, but her transfers were constantly rejected. Eventually, Doe made a formal complaint to then-President J.Allen Brack. Once this was done, her transfer request was accepted, albeit a much less significant role and a major salary decrease.
As we know now, J.Allen Brack is no longer with the company as he resigned only weeks after the initial lawsuits were filed against the company. Doe states that she applied for an executive position in November 2021 but ended up being rejected due to her speaking out about her experiences during a press conference. Doe is seeking a plethora of court orders including the rotation of the employees at the human recourses department to avoid conflict of interest, and the complete removal of CEO Bobby Kotick. As we mentioned at the beginning, this is only the latest in a massive string of events in regards to a very serious situation with Activision Blizzard.