Team17 Staff Speak Out on Sexual Harrasment, Low Pay, Poor Treatment, and More

ign.com:

Staff at Worms developer Team17 have spoken out on issues of sexual harassment, low pay, and poor treatment within the studio in the wake of public backlash following its NFT U-turn.

Increasing numbers of staff have allegedly left Team17 in recent years due to the issues that allegedly include a dismissive HR team, demeaning boss, and a culture of being overworked, more than a dozen team members told Eurogamer.

Staff said the company's HR team failed to act appropriately when women reported sexual harassment such as being sent degrading messages and suggestive photos by male colleagues. HR "minimized" the incidents, gave the accused "a slap on the wrist" and told victims to sort it themselves.

Team17's group CEO Debbie Bestwick was also criticized. One staff member said: "Debbie posts so many things about being a woman in the games industry on Twitter, and yet harassment is going on in her company and people are being told, essentially, it hasn't happened."

Staff hold "mixed feelings" overall for Bestwick who has allegedly made staff cry by singling them out in meetings. One employee told Eurogamer that they're so overworked that "things are going to get missed" and "you're sat in a meeting being asked 'why the hell did this game not meet our expectations?'"

Bestwick is worth £200 million ($272 million) and staff said she regularly discusses her wealth in the open-plan office and on social media, an issue made worse as some employees are paid "low" and "terrible" salaries starting at around £16,000 ($21,800) per year.

Staff have regularly worked as late as 8pm with one employee saying they did so every night for months to meet a deadline, brought upon by Team17 taking on too much work. The problem was raised to management and