Activision Blizzard hit with new harassment and discrimination lawsuit
Activision Blizzard has been hit with a lawsuit containing new allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination.
As reported by Bloomberg, the suit was filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of a current employee referred to as "Jane Doe" by attorney Lisa Bloom.
According to the lawsuit, Doe has worked at Activision Blizzard since 2017 as a senior administrative assistant in the IT department, and during that time has experienced what they describe as an "alcohol-soaked culture of sexual harassment."
The lawsuit reiterates the allegation that Activision Blizzard has cultivated a "frat boy" culture that enables "rampant sexism," and details how Doe was pressured to take shots and share an "embarrassing secret" as part of an initiation dinner that took place on her first day of work.
Doe claims there was continuous pressure to drink alcohol at work events and take part in "cube crawls" that saw women verbally and physically harassed. She also claims that after-work events such as a "Jackbox" event, which requires players to submit answers to various prompts, often resulted in responses that were mostly sexual in nature.
The suit also details how Doe attempted to dress "more conservatively" to avoid being harassed, and had to deal with sexual advances made by her supervisors. After complaining about those experiences, Doe claims she was told it was just a case of leadership "being nice" and to keep those concerns to herself to avoid "damaging" the company.
In a bid to escape that hostile environment, Doe says she applied to a number of open positions within the company but was rejected. She then wrote a letter to Blizzard's then-president J. Allen Brack recounting her experiences of harassment, at which
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