So today Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick released a statement, which was more of an update about the steps that were being taken at the company to address the concerns from staff members, and I gotta say, I was not expecting to see what I saw, and I’m rather impressed by what was written. For those interested the full letter can be found here, but I’ll focus on the highlights below:
Here are the highlights:
There is now a zero-tolerance harassment policy across the entirety of Activision Blizzard. This means that where previously an investigation may have resulted in the firing of one or more people and verbal/written warnings given to others, now, unless there are national laws preventing dismissal, the only outcome of those found to be in breach of the harassment policy will be immediate termination, with a forfeiture of all compensation and benefits.
Activision Blizzard will be investing $250 million into promoting diverse opportunities, with a focus on increasing the number of women and non-binary employees working at the company, with a goal of increasing the total of women and non-binary employees to 50%, up from the current number which is 23%
Forced arbitration for sexual harassment and discrimination claims is gone completely. For those that maybe weren’t paying attention or haven’t heard, this was one of the big demands that was being pushed by the employees, and especially the group ‘A Better ABK’.
There are other points made within the letter as well.
But that’s not really even the biggest bit of news revealed in the letter. The biggest news is that Bobby Kotick has voluntarily cut his pay and bonuses down to the lowest possible amount that can be granted under California law until the goals he has set for the company (especially in respect to the hiring of diverse talent, women and non-binary employees) have been met. This means his total pay for this year is $62,500. The minimum amount that a salary can grant.
He will receive no equity, no bonuses, and his salary has been reduced and it will stay at that level until Activision Blizzard meets its goals.
That I was honestly not expecting, and I’m quite happy to see that not only is he putting his money where his mouth is, but he’s also listening to employees, especially in regards to forced arbitration.
That is actually surprising. One could argue “He’s already spoiled himself with money before all this” and I get that. Still. Folks in positions like him don’t tend to part with money lightly
So he’s going to have to use some of the hundreds of millions he already has to hopefully scrap through that really rough time he will be going through /s in case it’s needed
This just makes me uncomfortable like how are they going to reach 50/50 are they going to fire off male employees and hire females and pay them crap? If they do this in an equitable reasonable way, awesome but I worry when it comes to Blizz I don’t trust ‘em Bobby Kotick is once a goblin always a goblin
They won’t be firing men to replace them with women and non-binary employees. They’ll be hiring them to work alongside existing employees. The only men that are going to get fired are the ones who engaged in harassment.
Well, if anyone was questioning their dedication to this issue, that is fully out the window. I’ve never read anything with as much meat as this has, backed up with a freaking ton of money spent. We don’t know the outcome, but they are dead serious on trying. Good on them.
When you already have been a Millionaire for years before this, I assure you that he could go to a $0 salary and still lavishly live off of the interest alone if he has any of those millions in the bank.
I can also assure you that if he couldn’t have afforded to do it, it wouldn’t have been done. This is a 100% PR move, and the main benefit of it is for him; he’s hoping that these grandious gestures will calm down his board and they don’t vote him out.
Let’s also not forget that Bobby is a member of the board for the Coca-Cola company. He doesn’t need his Activision money when he is still rolling in cash, bonuses, stock, etc from Coca-Ca also.
100% honesty, I don’t understand why the inclusion of non-binary hires has to be grouped with women in terms of hiring goals. Why is it split between 50% men, and 50% women/non-binary?
To be clear, this is a reduction in my overall compensation, not just my salary. I am asking not to receive any bonuses or be granted any equity during this time.
It may be a PR move but have significant PR PROBLEMS! It’s also an actual real thing and all of that money is probably being used for the programs they outlined here. I don’t get how you can read this thing and have a bad takeaway from it. You can be skeptical if they will actually be able to do it but I don’t see anything problematic in and of itself here.
This is exactly what the CEO of Nintendo did, voluntarily reduced his salary and bonuses because the company was underperforming. Something tells me that folks like Zeraj would have praised the CEO of Nintendo, but with Kotick does the same thing, no praise, only criticism.
It may be the result of what they’ve heard inside the company. I don’t know how people skew with applications to Blizzard, but there may be a higher %of those people here than in Accounting or something, I have no idea. It wasn’t put there by accident though.