We value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind. We take every allegation seriously and investigate all claims. In cases related to misconduct, action was taken to address the issue.
The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past. We have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform us what issues they perceived. They were required by law to adequately investigate and to have good faith discussions with us to better understand and to resolve any claims or concerns before going to litigation, but they failed to do so. Instead, they rushed to file an inaccurate complaint, as we will demonstrate in court. We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH to drag into the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose passing has no bearing whatsoever on this case and with no regard for her grieving family. While we find this behavior to be disgraceful and unprofessional, it is unfortunately an example of how they have conducted themselves throughout the course of their investigation. It is this type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State’s best businesses out of California.
The picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today. Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we’ve made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams. We’ve updated our Code of Conduct to emphasize a strict non-retaliation focus, amplified internal programs and channels for employees to report violations, including the “ASK List” with a confidential integrity hotline, and introduced an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns. We have strengthened our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and combined our Employee Networks at a global level, to provide additional support. Employees must also undergo regular anti-harassment training and have done so for many years.
We put tremendous effort in creating fair and rewarding compensation packages and policies that reflect our culture and business, and we strive to pay all employees fairly for equal or substantially similar work. We take a variety of proactive steps to ensure that pay is driven by non-discriminatory factors. For example, we reward and compensate employees based on their performance, and we conduct extensive anti-discrimination trainings including for those who are part of the compensation process.
We are confident in our ability to demonstrate our practices as an equal opportunity employer that fosters a supportive, diverse, and inclusive workplace for our people, and we are committed to continuing this effort in the years to come. It is a shame that the DFEH did not want to engage with us on what they thought they were seeing in their investigation.
That response is a HUGE yikes.
Here’s a good breakdown from a lawyer who says that there are some big problems lurking in their defensiveness:
BIG YIKES. Blizzard is done.
Omg so they basically messed up big time going off that
Sounds like the State of California being as lame as it always is, frankly.
I don’t know.
It looks like blizzard just said “see you in court” and called the state of California out for being full of it. Pretty bold move if they don’t think they can win on the merits.
Refer to the post Jalanili quoted above. It’s a very comprehensive and good read and all the research I did after reading said post lines up heavily with what they said. A lot of the wording on Blizzard’s part is extremely poor and will almost certainly be used against them, and not in their favor, in court.
If you don’t support California you should vote with your wallet and stop patronizing companies that are in California because they pay taxes in California.
Well I vote in every statewide election so I’m already doing everything I can to not support California’s current regime. Maybe this will prompt Blizzard to move to greener pastures where they won’t be targeted by some underqualified, un-fireable civil servant with an axe to grind.
Thank you, Tucker Carlson.
If you don’t like it here you should leave because the handful of people in rural California will never change anything.
A generic letter written by a team of lawyers.
That’s what I keep telling players about the game but they won’t leave either.
No. They really aren’t. But there will be changes and policies and hopefully slew of scum will lose their jobs and perhaps be individually investigated. Which is all good and should happen.
But if Google, Apple, and Disney have shown us, they will go on. Even after paying out 100’s of millions.
“They didn’t tell us in advance what we needed to hide!”
“Sexual harassment is the only way corporations can stay in business! Accountability is killing the California economy!”
“We completely reject the implication that old Blizzard was bad… **BUT EVEN IF IT WAS BAD, WE’RE NEW BLIZZARD NOW! WE’VE CHANGED!”
“If it’s in the Code of Conduct, it must be true!”
“We do the bare minimum as is legally required for most, if not all places of business!”
“Tattling on us to the courts was not cool, bro.”
Seriously, to hell with everything about this response.
I love it here, living less than a quarter mile from the same beach that I’ve known since I was a child. Blind support for the way the government acts doesn’t make you a good Californian. It’s hard for me to fathom why anybody would jump on Blizzard and condemn them before justice has run its full course.
Yah this is the sad truth. Unless the company gets nuked in court, they simply have too much money and are probably too big to fail.
Best case would be a huge company purge (preferably with actual fire) and some significant changes. What’s probably actually happen is a bunch of scum will get quiet severance packages and they’ll hold HR seminars/training.
Well, Blizzard doesn’t love it there. They are moving to Texas where they can freely harass women.
Blind support for your political party doesn’t make you a good person.
It’s hard for me to fathom why anyone would defend a billion dollar company who would gleefully manually wring you out of legally permitted to do so, and pave over actual human beings making complaints in such huge numbers that even a fraction would be horrific, but I guess here we are.