Activision Blizzard Hit With a New Lawsuit Alleging 'Rampant Sexism'

ign.com:

Activision Blizzard has been hit with yet another lawsuit, this time alleging the company's "frat boy" environment fostered "rampant sexism" that led to a current employee experiencing sexual harassment and discrimination and being "retaliated against" for speaking up.

As reported by Bloomberg, the lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Country Superior Court on behalf of this employee who is going by "Jane Doe" by attorney Lisa Bloom.

“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,” the lawsuit reads.

Doe began work at Activision Blizzard in 2017 as a senior administrative assistant to executives in the IT department and the troubles started on her first day. During an "initiation lunch," she was pressured to take tequila shots and was told by leadership that she would need to tell all the employees at this lunch "an embarrassing secret."

Throughout her time at the company, Doe alleged that she was often pressured to drink alcohol, participate in "cube crawls" that saw women be subjected to sexual comments and groping, and play "Jackbox" - a game that often required players to suggest "creative answers" to questions that tended to be sexual in nature.

When she began dressing "more conservatively" so she wouldn't be as prone to harassment and tried to speak out against the many issues she was facing, she was told that "it was just her leadership being nice and trying to be friends with her." The suit also alleges she was told to keep these concerns to herself as it could be "damaging" to the company.

Doe would face an ever-increasing hostile work environment after she raised these concerns