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Microsoft buys Activision Blizzard

Zarniwoop

TESTOSTERONIC As Fuck™
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong



Imagine working with these two :hahano:

cJRPOnOc_400x400.jpg



:prosper:

Kotick is an asshole but there is zero chance that gaming gets better once he leaves. Otoh he helped enable, hire and promote freaks like that so fuck him. I wonder who gamers will blame once Acti and Blizz games continue to be mtx ridden and utter crap.
Pretty sure that thing posts in the Codex. And is a favourite of Infinitron.
 

Wirdschowerdn

Ph.D. in World Saving
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Activision Blizzard has been accused of discriminating against "old white guys"


"Activision placed profits over people by terminating the older, higher paid executives".

News by Vikki Blake Contributor

Published on 6 Jan 2024

A former Activision Blizzard executive has filed a discrimination claim with the company, alleging it of discriminating against "old white guys".

As reported by Law360 and spotted by our sister site, GamesIndustry.biz, the complaint includes allegations against former CEO Bobby Kotick for remarks he made at an unspecified leadership conference in which he reportedly said that the "problem" at ABK was that "there are too many old white guys".

The filing – lodged by a 57-year-old white man who worked at the company from 2014 until he was laid off as part of the company's restructure in late 2023 – says that shortly after hearing these comments, a pair of white executives left "based, at least in part, on Kotick's ageist remarks", adding that "Activision placed profits over people by terminating the older, higher-paid executives".


The executive maintains that he was passed over for promotion after said executives quit even though he was recommended for the position, and said the younger, non-white employee who went on to be his manager created a hostile work environment, which detrimentally impacted the employee's merit-based salary increase.

The executive then filed complaints with HR, accusing the company of failing "to protect Plaintiff from the discriminatory and defamatory accusations" from his colleagues but says his complaint was "ignored and he was not taken seriously".

When the complainant was laid off from a team of 200 in August 2023, he says he was one of seven men aged 47 or older who were made redundant at that time.

The plaintiff further alleges that the company has violated California's whistleblowing protection laws.

The man bringing the legal action asks for lost earnings and compensation for reputational damage, emotional distress, wrongful termination, and damages for the alleged negative impact this has had on his career advancement. He also expects ABK to pay his legal costs.

After its reporting, GI.biz was contacted by Activision Blizzard and referred to its equal employment opportunity policy.

Last month, Activision Blizzard agreed to pay over £44 million to settle a 2021 sex discrimination lawsuit.

Further to an agreement made with the California Civil Rights Department (CCRD) regarding unequal employment practices on the basis of sex, the megacorp has agreed to pay £44.1m ($56m) to settle claims of unequal pay and promotion practices between 2015-2020. £36.85m ($46.75m) will be shared between female claimants who claim that they were unfairly paid, and £7.1m ($9.1m) will cover associated legal fees.
 

Atlantico

unida e indivisible
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Make the Codex Great Again!
"Activision placed profits over people by terminating the older, higher paid executives".

On the one hand that's probably true, on the other hand it's those morons who made Activision what it is today.

So firing them is the right call regardless.
 

DemonKing

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Old, white guys are usually the first shown the door - they're usually the highest paid so represent the biggest savings and it's not like they're likely to suddenly come up with any new innovations/tech in middle age. They certainly don't help if you're keen to do some corporate virtue-signalling either. On the other hand old white guys are good for delivering within existing contexts and designated timeframes and providing guidance to younger staff (hell that's what I do) so still have value especially in a low-risk work environment where reliably delivering results within set expectations is important.
 

Atlantico

unida e indivisible
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Old, white guys are usually the first shown the door - they're usually the highest paid so represent the biggest savings and it's not like they're likely to suddenly come up with any new innovations/tech in middle age. They certainly don't help if you're keen to do some corporate virtue-signalling either. On the other hand old white guys are good for delivering within existing contexts and designated timeframes and providing guidance to younger staff (hell that's what I do) so still have value especially in a low-risk work environment where reliably delivering results within set expectations is important.
Isn't "new innovations" crossing a line into the verbose? Anyway innovation and/or new tech is the last thing that is expected from management, middle or otherwise. Management is not ever supposed to have an original idea. That would be chaos.

What one wants from these old white men is experience and knowledge on how to deal with the younger and more inexperienced crowd, keep them productive and delivering results according to plan. Management is less like being a coach for a sportsball team and more like being a gym-teacher.

Firing white old men is missing the point really, firing experienced people is the problem, because they are the backbone of the company. It is not a sign of a healthy upper management if they resort to downsizing management in such an arbitrary way, i.e. downsizing based on wages and/or age. You should downsize based on capability and value to the company, anything else is very counter-productive.
 

Halfling Rodeo

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Firing white old men is missing the point really, firing experienced people is the problem, because they are the backbone of the company. It is not a sign of a healthy upper management if they resort to downsizing management in such an arbitrary way, i.e. downsizing based on wages and/or age. You should downsize based on capability and value to the company, anything else is very counter-productive.
And capability and company value will almost always be in the hands of experienced men, and usually in white men. All of these companies are struggling because their hiring practices have nothing to do with being a good worker, it's all about hiring the most dysgenic thing possible and telling everyone how great you are. Companies lose value for not hiring enough destructive employees these days. It's insane. They have to hire them and put them into places they can do barely any harm (story related stuff usually) or they risk taking the entire business over the drama they cause. What was the company where the HR woman got fired and sued the company over discrimination because a lazy black guy kept getting chewed out by his manager for not doing his job and he cried racism since he was the only negro in his team?
 

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