Blizzard "proud" of Mike Ybarra's leadership following "awful" company-wide meeting

eurogamer.net:

Activision Blizzard has said it is «proud» of Mike Ybarra's leadership following a disastrous company-wide meeting to discuss an internal employee satisfaction survey.

During the meeting Ybarra was asked several pre-screened questions on its supposed use of stack ranking for employee performance, the slashing of profit-share bonuses for 2022, and the announcement employees will be required to return to office working.

However, Blizzard employees soon took to social media after the meeting to express their outrage at Ybarra's comments.

As Game Developer reports, Blizzard is set to slash profit-share bonuses down to 58 percent across the company. In response, Ybarra commented (paraphrased): «If you think that executives are making a lot of money and you aren't, you're living in a myth.»

While the drop in bonus will affect all employees, it will have a greater impact on employees with a lower salary.

There were also reportedly concerns from employees about the impact of lower bonuses in the context of returning to the office, which will bring higher commuting and/or living costs.

Ybarra reportedly did not provide a clear action plan on retaining talent due to these changes, though elsewhere Blizzard stated it would be opening new offices in unnamed locations to act as hubs.

Ybarra did respond: «At the end of the day we want people to be happy, and if decisions about being happy don't align with where we're going, and you won't be happy, then you'll have to do what will make [you] happy.»

A Game Developer source at Blizzard interpreted this as suggesting employees not aligned with the office working policy should leave. An Activision Blizzard spokesperson added Ybarra stated the company would «listen to the team's feedback»