Activision Blizzard is being sued by the California Department of Fair
Employment and Housing over a "frat boy" culture.
Bloomberg Law has details, saying a two-year investigation alleges "female
employees are subjected to constant sexual harassment, unequal pay, and
retaliation." Here's more:
According to the complaint, filed Tuesday in
the Los Angeles Superior Court, female employees make up around 20% of the
Activision workforce, and are subjected to a “pervasive frat boy workplace
culture,” including “cube crawls,” in which male employees “drink copious
amounts of alcohol as they crawl their way through various cubicles in the
office and often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees.”
The agency alleges male employees play video games during the workday while
delegating responsibilities to female employees, engage in sexual banter, and
joke openly about rape, among other things.
Female employees allege being held back from promotions because of the
possibility they might become pregnant, being criticized for leaving to pick
their children up from daycare, and being kicked out of lactation rooms so male
colleagues could use the room for meetings, the complaint says.