New Report Alleges Nintendo's Female Contractors Faced Sexual Harassment

gamespot.com:

A new report from Kotaku alleges that Nintendo of America and Aerotek, a staffing company it frequently works with to hire contractors, subjected female contractors to discriminatory behavior, often stifling their advancement in the workplace and allowing sexual harassment to occur unchecked.

The report alleges that Nintendo of America, especially its testing department, operates like a «frat house,» where female and queer contractors are frequently subject to harassment and inappropriate conduct from full-time male employees, who the report states are internally referred to as «red badges.» A tester named Hannah (an alias to provide anonymity) alleges that one such «red badge» was invited to a comedic channel on Microsoft Teams where they then proceeded to share memes that sexualized a child-like Genshin Impact character as well as Pokemon. This incident is reportedly just one of many that occurred during Hannah's time at Nintendo.

Another female contractor shared that she was stalked by a senior tester. According to the report, a Nintendo of America manager viewed contractors as a «dating pool.» One anecdote, which was corroborated by other sources, alleged that a senior employee instructed another to inquire about the color of a female contractor's underwear at a gala Nintendo of America sponsored.

Female contractors were warned by other associates to keep a distance from some senior male employees, but often felt they needed to maintain good front-facing relationships with them due to favoritism in the office. Since there were at best «vague suggestions» for female employees to advance in the workplace, they often had to engage with these men outside of work, including at an «iconic» Christmas party that contractors