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为动视暴雪工作曾是她们的梦想,结果却变成了噩梦

为动视暴雪工作曾是她们的梦想,结果却变成了噩梦

Courtney Rubin 2022-02-24
超过20位的暴雪女性员工告诉《财富》杂志,她们都觉得自己遭到了与男性同事不一样的对待。

2011年6月13日上午9点30分,在入职电子游戏制作公司——暴雪娱乐(Blizzard Entertainment)的第一天,尼基·布罗德里克准时到岗。

走到工位后,她发现自己的键盘前摆了一排酒杯(她觉得里面装的应该是火球威士忌),因为当天也是她21岁的生日,所以这些酒水显然是为她“生日献礼”。在此之前,布罗德里克从未在任何时间喝过酒,但那天却还是跟着经理一起一饮而尽。这是她在暴雪第一次感觉在工作中被人灌酒,但远远不是最后一次。她一共在暴雪待了八年。有一次在韩国出差时,上司明确告诉她,在晚上与合作公司的员工外出庆祝时,不能拒绝对方的敬酒,以免冒犯供应商。

布罗德里克在接受《财富》杂志采访时说:“那天他们不停地灌我,直到我喝得酩酊大醉。我甚至都不知道自己后来是怎么回到酒店的。”

布罗德里克的经历颇为极端,但却并非个案。有超过20位的暴雪女性员工告诉《财富》杂志,纵观暴雪30年的历史,在大部分时间里,甚至在不久前,她们都觉得自己受到了与男性同事不一样的区别对待。她们表示,事实上,这些贬低和欺凌行为往往在女性员工入职之时就已经开始。当有女性员工报到时,男性员工经常会过去围观,用某些人的话说,这叫“看看货色”。一位供职暴雪多年的女性员工称,每当有新的女性员工入职时,“她会被一大群男人围得密不透风”。根据包括布罗德里克在内的多名员工的说法,在质量保证部门,曾经有一份流传很久的电子表格,将女性新员工按照“性感程度”从1到10进行排名,表中还会列出这些女性员工最有魅力的特征以及是否约得出来。

有些女性员工表示,在暴雪,她们很快就学会了要回避有关感情状态的问题。“否则公司的男同事会变得很难相处,在我遇到难题的时候,他们不会伸出援手,有项目的时候也不会带上我。”暴雪的一名前女性员工在接受《财富》杂志采访时如是说。

这些女性员工指出,当有男同事走到自己的工位时,她们会感觉很有压力,感觉必须表现得很有礼貌,结果事后又会被别人说成是“交际花”。如果有男员工大喊大叫,大家就会觉得这是男人激情四射的表现,无伤大雅。而如果女性员工哭泣,则会被认为太过情绪化。与此同时,暴雪的女性员工称,她们几乎已经发自内心的觉得应该谅解男同事的不良行为,将其视为热情释放的副产品。“我们选择加入暴雪都是出于对游戏的热爱。”雪儿·斯嘉丽说,她曾经于2015年8月至2016年8月间在暴雪担任软件工程师。“在你对一项事业爱得如此深沉的时候,看到这种景象会感到非常困惑。”

暴雪是动视暴雪(Activision Blizzard,2021年《财富》美国500强中排名第373位)旗下的电子游戏巨头,拥有31年的历史,其最知名的作品是《魔兽世界》(World of Warcraft)和《守望先锋》(Overwatch)。2008年,动视(Activision)收购了暴雪的母公司,这家电子游戏公司也随之被动视收入麾下。但很长时间以来,暴雪仍然保留着自己独特的文化,而在许多前任和现任员工的眼中,这种文化的弊端非常明显。

美国加州公平就业与住房部自2018年开始对暴雪进行调查,并于两年多之后的2021年7月对该公司正式提起诉讼,指控其存在性别歧视、骚扰和报复等问题,由此掀开了暴雪职场问题的面纱。在这份29页的法庭文件和其后35页的修订版起诉书中,加州公平就业与住房部指控暴雪称,虽然承担的工作大致相同,但女性员工的收入比男性员工低;分配给女性员工的往往是低级职位,晋升速度也相对较慢;解雇或强迫女性员工辞职的频率更高;“性骚扰女性员工”的情况长期存在,种种行径“助长了性别歧视文化的气焰”。

修订版起诉书中写道:“(暴雪的)女性员工几乎一致认同,为该公司工作与在‘兄弟会’上班别无二致,二者的男性员工均以饮酒为乐,骚扰女员工的事件时有发生,并且不会有人遭到处罚。”2021年9月,美国平等就业机会委员会也以性骚扰和怀孕歧视为由对该公司提起了诉讼。

在当局采取上述司法行动之后,今年1月中旬,微软宣布了一项令人震惊的收购计划,该公司表示将以687亿美元的价格收购动视暴雪,成就史上最大规模的美国公司现金收购交易。如果相关交易按计划完成,微软游戏的首席执行官菲尔·斯宾塞将负责对动视暴雪进行监管,而担任动视首席执行官一职超过30年的鲍比·科蒂克则将继续执掌动视暴雪的日常工作。如果收购完成,科蒂克持有股份的价值就将增加至约3.75亿美元。

此次收购若要完成,尚需得到监管机构的批准。而据报道,本次审查工作将由美国联邦贸易委员会、而非美国司法部执行。如此一来,美国联邦贸易委员会将更有可能以反垄断为由提出反对意见(合并后的公司将成为全球第三大游戏公司)。微软的发言人拒绝就此事置评。

假设微软能够完成此次收购动视暴雪的交易,那么其接手的将是一家因为20多年来种种不端行径而官司缠身的企业。

通过对29名前任及现任暴雪员工的采访,《财富》杂志揭开了一幅黑暗而复杂的图景:创业之初,暴雪充满活力、成就非凡,但在创立前三年却未曾雇佣过一名女性员工,在一路成长为《财富》美国500强公司后,又任由女性员工被骚扰、轻视和歧视。(在接受《财富》杂志采访的暴雪女性员工中,有一些女性担心会因为自己的言论或曾经签署保密协议而遭到报复。另有员工曾经被公司要求签署“禁止负面评论”协议,加州的修订版起诉书中也提到了这一点。)

按照加州有关当局的指控描述,暴雪塑造了一种“恶劣的职场环境”,在这种环境中,原本岌岌无名的开发者得以“扬名立万”,又因为自身重要性的凸显而变得越发张狂。许多员工称,他们对人力资源部门极不信任。修订版起诉书中表示,因为“众所周知”,人力资源部门的员工跟“那些所谓骚扰者走得很近”,暴雪员工的投诉积极性并不高。修订版起诉书里还提到,暴雪在自己对人力资源部门的调查中也指出:“(员工对人力资源部门)严重缺乏信任”、“人力资源部门没有得到很高的重视”。上述的种种行径都发生在管理层越发重视“净利润”的背景之下,根据修订版起诉书,在这种环境中,“高管人员和创作者可以公然进行性骚扰,而不会承担任何后果。”

在回应《财富》杂志的置评请求时,动视对过去的暴雪和现在的暴雪进行了切割:“您所说的是过去的暴雪,而非现在的暴雪。实际上,您提及的那些暴雪员工均已经不在公司工作,您强调的事件和情况都是陈年旧事,已经不能反映暴雪现在的情况。暴雪的领导团队致力于为全体员工打造最优异的职场环境。动视暴雪的各个部门均以树立行业典型、打造真正安全、有尊严的职场环境为目标。科蒂克先生也非常重视相关问题,强调要不打折扣地践行公司价值和愿景,我们也正在为实现这一目标而努力。”

动视暴雪补充说,本篇报道中提及的许多事件在人力资源部门都没有投诉记录,公司在了解到相关指控后已经进行了调查,并已经采取行动。动视暴雪称,在对收到的投诉进行内部审查后,自2021年7月以来,已经有37名员工离职,另有44人受到书面训诫、正式警告或其他处分。该公司还向《财富》杂志发送了一份清单,列出了该公司近期为改善职场环境而采取的15项改革措施,其中包括2021年11月出台的禁止在工作场所饮酒的政策,并放弃了对个人性骚扰和歧视索赔的仲裁要求。

动视暴雪的事件发生在游戏行业并不令人意外。一如某位暴雪现任员工所说:“不夸张的说,从第一行代码写出来开始”,游戏行业就与厌女症联系在一起。但从本质上讲,这起案例依然令人不寒而栗:极端行为、甚至公然违法的行为在组织内部竟能如此“习以为常”,以至于不仅侵蚀了企业文化,甚至成为了文化本身。

早年情况

暴雪(原名Silicon & Synapse)创立于1991年,三位创始人在大学时期便是好友,均来自美国加州大学洛杉矶分校(UCLA)。这里曾经是“书呆子”统治的王国。正如该公司于2001年发布的十周年纪念视频所描述的那样,公司的核心是“一群亲密无间的老爷们”,他们“很庆幸能够在一个更像兄弟会而非企业的地方工作,对他们而言,游戏就是生活的养料、呼吸的空气。”

在后来的一段视频中,在谈及理想的程序员类型时,该公司的联合创始人艾伦·阿德汉姆回忆道:“我们只想要那些发自内心热爱游戏和编程的员工。”米基·尼尔森于1993年加入暴雪,在这里一待就是22年,他在回忆录中这样写道:“大家一起工作、一起玩乐,有消息都会互相通知。我甚至可以说,暴雪能够有今天的成就,靠的就是卡拉OK、《侍魂晓》(Samurai Shodown,一款格斗游戏)和鸡尾酒”

《魔兽争霸:人类与兽人》(Warcraft: Orcs & Humans)是该公司的早期作品之一,于1994年11月上市发行,这是一款以神秘的艾泽拉斯王国为背景的实时奇幻策略游戏,也是该公司的首款热卖作品。在《魔兽争霸:人类与兽人》一炮而红之后,暴雪迅速推出了两部续作,为日后《魔兽世界》系列狂赚数十亿美元铺平了道路。

也就是在这一时期(暴雪成立三年之后)前后,暴雪雇佣了公司的首位女性员工,这一事件在其十周年纪念视频中被大书特书,画外音是说,这位女士的到来给公司带来了“平和、宁静”的氛围,她“妹妹般的举止就像照入公司内的一缕阳光”。

本世纪初,暴雪的女性员工仍然很少,以至于在采访曾经供职该公司的女性员工时,她们都会告诉我,即便在文中匿名,还是很容易被认出身份。此外,和其他游戏公司的女性员工或者女性游戏玩家一样,暴雪公司的女性员工也背负着证明自己“确实是”游戏玩家的负担。

克里斯汀·布劳内尔于2003年加入暴雪,供职于质量保障部门,该团队负责检测游戏是否可以按照预期正常运行、是否存在故障。布劳内尔表示,入职之初,经常一连两个星期没有人跟她说话或邀请她共进午餐,直到有一次在公司于周六举办的《魔兽争霸3:冰封王座》(Warcraft III: The Frozen Zone)功能测试活动中,她拿到了第二名,“情况才彻底改观”,布劳内尔说。回顾自己在暴雪两年的工作生涯,布劳内尔饱含深情(她还表示,自己从未遭受过性骚扰)。

和许多同事一样,布劳内尔也为能够在业内最酷的公司之一工作而感到兴奋。约翰·斯塔茨是《魔兽世界》最初的层级设计师之一,他在接受《财富》杂志采访时回忆说,在这里,有些开发者“不喜欢跟别人有目光接触,也不太善于跟别人沟通”(他还曾经写过一本关于《魔兽世界》制作过程的回忆录),但他们对自己制作的游戏充满了热情,为了多花些时间专心打造自己心爱的项目,甚至自愿在周末加班工作。

游戏开发就像是一场豪赌:在投入数年时间、数百万美元的资金之后,你依然无法判断自己制作出来的游戏玩起来是否有趣,必须要在玩家玩过之后才可以真正得出结论。因此,当经过近十年的开发、《魔兽世界》于2004年11月发布后,其获得的空前成功甚至让暴雪自己都感到惊讶。这款多人奇幻游戏采用了付费订阅的全新商业模式。这一创新几乎在一夜之间就改变了暴雪公司的面貌,使雇佣数十名客服协助玩家处理各种问题变成了公司的最大开支,斯塔茨在自己的回忆录中如是写道。

《魔兽世界》的成功对该公司的文化产生了同样巨大的影响。此前,从未有人争抢功劳,所以所有人都能够将该游戏当成自己的作品,但这时却出现了变化。开发者突然成了大明星,还有了一大帮粉丝(暴雪在2005年举办了首届粉丝大会——BlizzCon),公司的停车场也突然停满了兰博基尼(Lamborghini)。(当时,暴雪会根据员工的职务和司龄长短与员工进行利润分成。)

一位在暴雪工作了十多年的前员工说,《魔兽世界》“毁了暴雪。信任和友谊无法量化。”

难缠的怪物

不过甚至在《魔兽世界》发布之前,暴雪的三位创始人——艾伦·阿德汉姆、迈克·莫海姆和弗兰克·皮尔斯就已经发现了一些蛛丝马迹,意识到已经到了要对公司文化加以约束的时候。“导致暴雪目前所有问题的元素当时都已经存在。”一位暴雪的前员工如是表示。当时,公司请来了一位女性老师,就“恶劣职场环境”这一主题为暴雪当时的全体员工(约300名)上了一堂4小时的专题课,课上也详细讲解了加州有关骚扰问题的各项法律。(阿德汉姆如今仍然在暴雪工作,但他拒绝就有关暴雪职场环境的问题发表评论。莫海姆未对这一记录发表评论,皮尔斯也未回复置评请求。)

但是,就在暴雪教育员工学习“恶劣职场环境”相关知识的同时,也在给那些漠视女同事的男性员工升职加薪。例证一:一位名叫亚历克斯·阿弗拉西亚比的开发者,2004年加入《魔兽世界》项目。阿弗拉西亚比是加州公平就业与住房部在起诉书中点名的两个对象之一。根据起诉书,他“公然参与性骚扰,却几乎没有受到任何处罚”。起诉书中点名的另一对象是暴雪的前总裁J·艾伦·布拉克,加州公平就业与住房部指控其未对阿弗拉西亚比进行处罚。记者未能联系到阿弗拉西亚比和布拉克就相关事项予以置评。

罗布·帕尔多曾经是《魔兽世界》的首席设计师,据说他为人颇固执,喜欢雇佣跟自己性格相似的员工。他有时会通过搜索游戏论坛来寻找自己心仪的人选。帕尔多和阿弗拉西亚比都是《无尽的任务》(EverQuest,1991年发布)的死忠玩家,在其中投入了大把的时间。这是由索尼在线娱乐公司(Sony Online Entertainment)出品,类似《龙与地下城》(Dungeons and Dragons)的一款线上游戏。二人还都成立了公会(一种为共同目标,比如共同对付难缠的怪物,而联合起来的玩家团体。)。根据安东尼·帕伦比于2017年出版的《魔兽世界》周边读物《血灾与无尽突袭》(Blood Plagues and Endless Raids),阿弗拉西亚比在《无尽的任务》中领导的“天堂之火”(Fires of Heaven)游戏公会会向申请入会的女性玩家索取裸照,并会在会员中传播这些照片。

曾经与阿弗拉西亚比共事过的许多同事都表示他很难相处,他甚至会当面或通过电子邮件公开表达自己(对同事)的轻蔑之意。有些曾经与阿弗拉西亚比共事的女性员工表示,刚开始,他的行为可能大多在违规边缘,所以她们会问自己:“这种行为是否真的那么糟糕?真的有必要投诉么?”一位前女性员工如是说道。“而且即便相关部门找了涉事者谈话,也会不了了之。”

修订版起诉书指出,布拉克“据称曾经多次与阿弗拉西亚比就后者的酗酒问题进行谈话”,然而酒精就像深夜的《龙与地下城》游戏一样早已深深融入暴雪的文化之中。有多名暴雪前员工指出,该公司时常进行“喝通关”(Cube Crawls)游戏,从下午4点开始,一直持续到次日凌晨2、3点,果冻甜酒和伏特加小熊软糖都是菜单上的常客。暴雪的午餐桌上经常可以看到啤酒,其他时段也常有员工饮酒。(作为对比,斯塔茨称,在他供职暴雪的11年里,耳闻目睹过的最糟糕行为不过是“一两人在公司活动中喝多了”而已,他参加过的假日聚会和发布会活动都是“平平无奇的商业活动”。)

暴雪的前女性员工报告称,性别歧视现象在这里司空见惯(“你能够得到这份工作就是因为你长得漂亮。”),还会听到有关强奸和性交易的笑话,也会有人在不必要的情况下搂抱女性员工或触摸女性员工的腰部。起诉书中也提到了此类骚扰,并指出,男性员工“公开对女性品头论足,还会拿强奸相关的话题开玩笑”,而女性员工则“不得不持续应付自己的男同事和上司在性方面令人厌恶的评论和侵犯行为,在‘喝通关’和其他公司活动中也会成为揩油的对象”。男性喝酒之后那些过分的揩油动作会变得更加大胆。“这些家伙缺乏社交技巧,虽然没有什么恶意,但这些行为是错误的。”一位2006年左右曾经在暴雪供职的女性员工如是说。

很快,有些男性员工(其中最臭名昭著的可能就是阿弗拉西亚比)会在暴雪的聚会上对女性员工上下其手的事就成了公开的秘密,但这种行为却在暴雪得到了合理化,并被当作醉酒后的恶作剧而得到了包容。曾经在暴雪任软件工程师一职的斯嘉丽说,阿弗拉西亚比在暴雪的年终聚会上骚扰过自己,一个朋友告诉她,在暴雪于前年举行的BlizzCon活动中,自己也被阿弗拉西亚比揩过油:“他就是个醉酒的臭流氓,一直如此。”(在修订版起诉书中,阿弗拉西亚比被列为该公司“因年资/职位原因而不愿对骚扰者进行处理的典型案例”。)

升级

2007年年底,暴雪搬到了更能够匹配其游戏巨头地位的新总部。暴雪的旧总部位于一个无人看守、普普通通的办公园区之中,在那里,员工们总是在闷声苦干,此外,为了更好地防止屏幕眩光,这里的办公室通常都没有窗户;而新总部的入口则有保安把守,一扇扁平的黑色大门上还焊着“暴雪”(BLIZZARD)两个大字。

大约就在这一时期,公司的创始人团队决定确定公司的核心价值观(虽然有暴雪老员工认为,此时确定价值观可能是为了可以将其刻在公司为新总部塑造的12英尺高、2吨重的青铜兽人战士雕像之上)。创始人团队一共提出了8条价值观,其中包括“友善游戏、公平游戏”、“拥抱你内心的极客灵魂”、“用负责任的方式引领世界”和“倾听每个人的声音”。

但有多位接受《财富》杂志采访的女性表示,对那些向人力资源部门投诉过的员工来说,最后一个核心价值观只是一句空话。

布罗德里克(那名以豪饮开启自己暴雪生涯的员工)说,她一开始觉得在遭到骚扰时自己去找人力资源部门显得太不成熟,于是就由她的职场导师代为报告了相关情况。据称,有位同事对布罗德里克说:“哦,天哪,这条短裤太适合你了,显得你的屁股特别好看。”对此,人力资源部门的回答是:这位同事来自欧洲,“不了解美国文化。”(布罗德里克的职场导师对《财富》杂志确认了这一事件的真实性。)后来,因为觉得领导故意不给自己机会,还把自己的功劳据为己有,布罗德里克便询问人力资源部门是否能够调换部门,对此,人力资源部门的答复是:“提这种要求太孩子气了,像个小屁孩。”(没错,他们就是用了“小屁孩”一词,还告诉布罗德里克:“别老是想着攀高枝。”)

员工们回忆称,因为人力资源部门的人员流动频繁,自己很难建立起对他们的信任。一些员工表示,即便人力资源部门确针对员工投诉的行为采取了行动,通常也只是将涉事人员调到其他团队。而且很少会有书面记录(如果有过的话)。如果人力资源部门反馈说:“这是个误会。我们会和他谈谈。”也不会有证据可以证明他们是否的确进行了相关工作(在处理某女性员工的投诉时就是如此)。曾经在暴雪任软件工程师一职的斯嘉丽说,在她通过推特(Twitter)发布了自己在暴雪的经历(包括在人力资源部门获得的不快体验)之后,她从300多名暴雪的现任员工和前任员工那里听到了类似的故事。多位女性向《财富》杂志表示,她们觉得自己无法信任人力资源部门的工作,发起投诉甚至可能给自己惹上麻烦。

加州公平就业与住房部向法庭提交的文件也给出了相同的结论,起诉书指出,暴雪“未能采取有效的补救措施”来处理员工有关骚扰、歧视和报复的报告。此外,它还发现,人力资源部门对员工的投诉“不屑一顾、敷衍塞责,并且全无保密措施。”在发起投诉之后,相关女性员工、外派人员和临时工常会遭到打击报复,打击的手段包括但不限于剥夺工作项目、被迫调离原工作单位和被选为裁员对象。

荣登榜首

到2008年,《魔兽世界》在全球已经拥有约900万名玩家,使其成为史上最成功的在线系列游戏。动视(《使命召唤》系列游戏的制作公司)的首席执行官鲍比·科蒂克非常希望能够将其纳入自己公司不断扩大的游戏矩阵之中。因此,他策划了维旺迪(Vivendi,1998年收购暴雪)的游戏部门与动视的大规模合并。

科蒂克以重视净利润而闻名。“在这样一个备受最新潮流影响的行业里,他因为专注打造‘股东友好型’企业而博得盛名。”一篇提名他入围MarketWatch的2008年度最佳首席执行官奖的文章如是写道。科蒂克公开追求利润最大化的做法有时也会拉远公司与那些纯粹追求游戏体验的玩家的距离。在网上,甚至有人将科蒂克恶搞成了头顶长角的魔鬼。

但直到2012年2月,科蒂克效应对暴雪的影响才开始显现,当时,《魔兽世界》的订阅量从2010年的1200万下降到680万,致使该公司裁掉了600名员工。不久之后,再听到同事提到净利润时,便开始有暴雪员工互相打趣道:“当心,‘动视’又来了。”

持续恶化

如果说在业务蒸蒸日上的时候,女性员工的日子已经不好过,那么随着业务持续下滑,情况就只会越发糟糕。在2012年的裁员之后,暴雪“便从创造的天堂变成了恐惧的庇护所。”一位当时供职暴雪的前员工表示,“因为不知道哪天会被裁员,你会失去很多创作的自由和精力。”

与此同时,据当时供职暴雪的员工称,公司开始像高中食堂那样有了小团体。相关员工称,管理层给他们的感觉是,要想参与项目或获得帮助,就必须打点好关系。一些女性员工在接受《财富》杂志采访时认为,这种社交需求给她们带来了更多的熬夜、喝酒和参加深夜聚会的压力。

据暴雪的前员工称,暴雪的晋升完全由一个由四、五人组成的小集团所把持。在美国得克萨斯州奥斯汀的办公室里,这被称为“科尔法则”。“科尔”是指怀亚特·科尔,他于2013年走出尔湾,开始负责暴雪的北美客服业务。科尔有几个信条,包括“说话要有目的”,但是“当然,在男人俱乐部里,女人不需要有目标,”曾经在奥斯汀上班的一位女性员工如是说。

加州公平就业与住房部在起诉书中也提到了所谓“男人俱乐部”的情况,其中指出,“哪怕经验或资历不如女性员工,晋升机会往往还是会留给那些跟部门男性负责人关系紧密的男性员工,女性员工则迟迟得不到晋升或根本没有晋升机会。”(科尔未就置评请求做出回应,他已经不在暴雪工作。)

女性的问题

暴雪是一家特别喜欢发电子邮件的公司,其邮件清单上涵盖的话题从爱好到食物应有尽有。2012年,受微软、索尼等游戏公司女性员工联合起来的消息启发,暴雪的女性员工终于有了自己的邮件群。

女性员工们表示,这只是一件微不足道的小事情,但却帮助她们“找到了更多的同道知音”。最后,邮件群一分为二:其一为“美好生活”,主要谈论些有关生活方式的话题;其二为“暴雪女性员工”,主要谈论各类与工作有关的问题和通知。

后者还是“暴雪女性员工委员会”的根基所在。但直到2017年夏末,该委员会才得到暴雪的支持。

为表支持,暴雪在主园区之外举办了一场香槟酒会,不仅准备了手指三明治和各色甜点,还设置了一场“宾果破冰游戏”,游戏参与者的任务是找到一名符合某种特征的女性,例如去过危地马拉或者曾经在纽约上学。在少数女性主管的注视下,暴雪的全球招聘总监爱丽丝·怀特进行了讲话。但也有一些女性员工发现,在场的女性主管没有一人来自游戏业务,而是都来自营销、人力资源和社区管理等所谓“软业务”。(怀特目前在谷歌工作。)

暴雪内部曾经成立过一些“前进一步小组”,也即所谓的“伙伴小组”,在这里,女性员工们能够安心聚会、分享自己的故事。这些小组通常由5到8名女性组成,每月聚会一次,通常是在户外,但许多参加过此类聚会的员工表示,这种聚会给人的感觉很像“闲谈会”或“读书俱乐部”,因为除了发泄一下情绪,可以说是一无所获。聚会中谈到的问题还是只能报给人力资源部门——这是一个女性员工们从一开始就犹豫要不要去的地方。此类“伙伴小组”最终也逐渐销声匿迹。

“我觉得暴雪的确有帮助女性员工的想法。”某暴雪在职员工表示。“但他们可能不敢触碰‘兄弟会’男孩文化中有关性骚扰的实质性问题。”当时,在公开场合,动视暴雪一直享有“激动人心的工作场所”的美誉,包括《财富》杂志在内,都曾对其大加赞扬。从2015年到2019年,该公司连续入选“100家最适合工作的公司”排行榜。据卓越职场研究所(Great Place to Work Institute)做的员工调查显示,“91%的员工认为在暴雪工作很有趣。”

当时曾经在暴雪工作过的员工表示,那时候似乎很少有人关心女性真正想要的是什么,比如当她们和男同事一样努力工作时,如何才能够获得晋升。正如加州起诉书所指出的那样:“在暴雪,女性员工获得提拔的速度慢于男性员工,却更容易遭到开除。”

2018年年底,拳头游戏(Riot Games)的两名员工向公司提起了集体诉讼,指控该公司存在性别歧视和骚扰问题。(诉讼已经于2021年12月达成和解,拳头游戏同意支付1亿美元作为赔偿。)大约在同一时期,暴雪新聘请了一位多样性、公平性和包容性(DEI)专家。但暴雪的前任及现任员工均表示,公司并未划拨多少资源或资金用于支持该专家开展工作。(动视表示,该公司的确是从2017年开始关注、构建整个组织的DEI工作,并于2021年将此类工作整合到了一位高管的领导之下,由其负责协调公司各部门的DEI重点任务和相关工作。)

2019年,随着新一轮裁员浪潮在暴雪蔓延开来,该公司的女性员工称,她们再次遭遇了性别歧视,在被裁员工中所占比例过高,并且遭到了不公平对待。举个例子,在大裁员后,有一位在暴雪全球广播部门工作的女性员工承担了许多额外职责,但却未获晋升。据其表示,在她提出质疑后,得到的答复是,公司希望在裁员后暂停所有“晋升工作”。但在接下来的两天里,却有4人获得晋升。她与《财富》杂志分享了这封晋升邮件,同时还分享了她发给老板的信息,信中询问他们能否讨论(相关问题)。对此,动视表示,该公司继续按计划完成了2019年的晋升工作,不分男女。

在发给《财富》杂志的一份声明中,动视重申,2019年之前,该公司不同部门的人力资源人员和领导团队均各司其职,独立运作,直到2019年才全部直接向动视暴雪报告,“由于公司对下属部门独立性的尊重,有时的确会给部分员工做出不当行为的空间”。动视还指出:“我们认识到,在某些情况下,即使公司制定了预防、制止相关行为的制度和政策,并鼓励员工举报不当行为,公司依然未能确保所有员工的行为均符合公司的价值观和期望。回首过往,我们(的工作确实存在不尽如人意之处,)本可以做得更好。”

零容忍?

加州对动视暴雪提起的性骚扰诉讼仍然在审理之中。2021年9月,在美国平等就业机会委员会提起诉讼的第二天,动视暴雪同意以1800万美元和解(不足该公司2020年收入的0.5%)。动视否认了“所有有关不当行为的指控”,并表示其同意和解是为了避免“再因此类纠纷产生额外费用、导致公司无法专心自身业务和面临更多类似诉讼”。

今年1月,加州公平就业与住房部对美国平等就业机会委员会的和解协议提出异议,认为该协议“不公平、不充分、不合理”,给了动视“逃避责任”的机会。加州公平就业与住房部表示,借助该份和解协议,动视公司将能够作废诸多与加州起诉案相关的证据,导致可能提出索赔要求的大约13000名女性员工或将只能分得数百美元赔偿。(相比之下,加州公平就业与住房部与拳头游戏达成的和解金额为1亿美元,其中8000万美元将支付给该公司的2365名女性员工和女性合同工。)

科蒂克曾经承诺对性骚扰问题采取零容忍政策,放弃对性骚扰和性别歧视案件进行仲裁的要求,并将公司雇用的女性和“非二元性别”员工人数增加50%。科蒂克本人在2021年接受降薪(从每年175万美元降至每年62500美元,加州的最低工资标准),并将执行到董事会认为公司已经达成一定的多样性和包容性目标之后。(通过当年早些时候发放的奖金,科蒂克在2021年从该公司赚取了1.55亿美元。)

在接受《华尔街日报》采访时,就暴雪的职场问题,微软的游戏首席执行官斯宾塞指出:“我们看到了该公司(在相关问题的处理上)所取得的进展,在我们决定未来的方向时,相关进展具有至关重要的意义。”不过,在有积极股东在微软股东大会上赢得一项要求公司披露更多有关过往调查处理方式的提案之后,微软于今年1月中旬宣布,微软正在对自己的性骚扰和性别歧视相关政策进行审查。

本文提到的许多高管已经离开暴雪,包括J·艾伦·布拉克,他在加州提起诉讼后辞去了自己的职务。自2021年7月以来,动视暴雪已经辞退37名员工,另有44人受到纪律处分。至于阿弗拉西亚比,据暴雪称,他已经于2020年因为行为不当而遭到解雇。

对暴雪的女性员工来说,此种清算既是痛苦又是宣泄。许多人怀疑此类诉讼或微软的收购是否能够带来真正的改变,但也非常希望可以梦想成真。一位在该公司工作近十年的女性员工说,过去几个月,她一直沉浸在尴尬、忧郁的情绪之中。“这绝对是我职业生涯中最艰难的时刻。”她说。“但对于留下来的女性来说,我们之所以这样做还是因为相信暴雪有能力做出改变,变得更好。”

其它一些人似乎已经开始了新的生活。在忍受他人品头论足、项目束之高阁、意见遭受忽视多年之后,眼见那些资质不如自己的男同事纷纷得到晋升,内心受伤在所难免。

在熬过2019年的大裁员后约一个月,尼基·布罗德里克提出了辞职,跳槽到了另一家游戏公司担任制作人。选择离开不仅是因为她开始在开车上班时出现恐慌症状,还因为她意识到自己对现在的工作已经不再热爱,感觉自己在像“低俗的汽车推销员”一样推销着暴雪的产品。“我之前一直以为自己会在暴雪干到退休。”她说(我采访过的每位暴雪女性员工几乎都发出过这样的感慨),“我原以为我会一直热爱这家公司,直到离世的那一天。但实际情况却并不如我所愿,而且整整七年的时间里一点没有好转,这个时间也不短了。”

供职于暴雪出版部门的另一位女士讲述了自己经历过的一段故事,她说,这个故事很好地概括了她在暴雪的生涯,也完美地说明了修订版加州起诉书中提到的所谓“男同事贬低或最小化女性员工的贡献”一事。在2018年的BlizzCon活动期间,她在万豪酒店和希尔顿酒店之间的走道上碰到了一位醉醺醺的男同事。那位男同事叫住她大声嚷道:“你在那儿真是太好了,正好给了我抢走你全部功劳的机会!”

他搂了她一下,然后就走开了。(财富中文网)

译者:梁宇

审校:夏林

2011年6月13日上午9点30分,在入职电子游戏制作公司——暴雪娱乐(Blizzard Entertainment)的第一天,尼基·布罗德里克准时到岗。

走到工位后,她发现自己的键盘前摆了一排酒杯(她觉得里面装的应该是火球威士忌),因为当天也是她21岁的生日,所以这些酒水显然是为她“生日献礼”。在此之前,布罗德里克从未在任何时间喝过酒,但那天却还是跟着经理一起一饮而尽。这是她在暴雪第一次感觉在工作中被人灌酒,但远远不是最后一次。她一共在暴雪待了八年。有一次在韩国出差时,上司明确告诉她,在晚上与合作公司的员工外出庆祝时,不能拒绝对方的敬酒,以免冒犯供应商。

布罗德里克在接受《财富》杂志采访时说:“那天他们不停地灌我,直到我喝得酩酊大醉。我甚至都不知道自己后来是怎么回到酒店的。”

布罗德里克的经历颇为极端,但却并非个案。有超过20位的暴雪女性员工告诉《财富》杂志,纵观暴雪30年的历史,在大部分时间里,甚至在不久前,她们都觉得自己受到了与男性同事不一样的区别对待。她们表示,事实上,这些贬低和欺凌行为往往在女性员工入职之时就已经开始。当有女性员工报到时,男性员工经常会过去围观,用某些人的话说,这叫“看看货色”。一位供职暴雪多年的女性员工称,每当有新的女性员工入职时,“她会被一大群男人围得密不透风”。根据包括布罗德里克在内的多名员工的说法,在质量保证部门,曾经有一份流传很久的电子表格,将女性新员工按照“性感程度”从1到10进行排名,表中还会列出这些女性员工最有魅力的特征以及是否约得出来。

有些女性员工表示,在暴雪,她们很快就学会了要回避有关感情状态的问题。“否则公司的男同事会变得很难相处,在我遇到难题的时候,他们不会伸出援手,有项目的时候也不会带上我。”暴雪的一名前女性员工在接受《财富》杂志采访时如是说。

这些女性员工指出,当有男同事走到自己的工位时,她们会感觉很有压力,感觉必须表现得很有礼貌,结果事后又会被别人说成是“交际花”。如果有男员工大喊大叫,大家就会觉得这是男人激情四射的表现,无伤大雅。而如果女性员工哭泣,则会被认为太过情绪化。与此同时,暴雪的女性员工称,她们几乎已经发自内心的觉得应该谅解男同事的不良行为,将其视为热情释放的副产品。“我们选择加入暴雪都是出于对游戏的热爱。”雪儿·斯嘉丽说,她曾经于2015年8月至2016年8月间在暴雪担任软件工程师。“在你对一项事业爱得如此深沉的时候,看到这种景象会感到非常困惑。”

暴雪是动视暴雪(Activision Blizzard,2021年《财富》美国500强中排名第373位)旗下的电子游戏巨头,拥有31年的历史,其最知名的作品是《魔兽世界》(World of Warcraft)和《守望先锋》(Overwatch)。2008年,动视(Activision)收购了暴雪的母公司,这家电子游戏公司也随之被动视收入麾下。但很长时间以来,暴雪仍然保留着自己独特的文化,而在许多前任和现任员工的眼中,这种文化的弊端非常明显。

美国加州公平就业与住房部自2018年开始对暴雪进行调查,并于两年多之后的2021年7月对该公司正式提起诉讼,指控其存在性别歧视、骚扰和报复等问题,由此掀开了暴雪职场问题的面纱。在这份29页的法庭文件和其后35页的修订版起诉书中,加州公平就业与住房部指控暴雪称,虽然承担的工作大致相同,但女性员工的收入比男性员工低;分配给女性员工的往往是低级职位,晋升速度也相对较慢;解雇或强迫女性员工辞职的频率更高;“性骚扰女性员工”的情况长期存在,种种行径“助长了性别歧视文化的气焰”。

修订版起诉书中写道:“(暴雪的)女性员工几乎一致认同,为该公司工作与在‘兄弟会’上班别无二致,二者的男性员工均以饮酒为乐,骚扰女员工的事件时有发生,并且不会有人遭到处罚。”2021年9月,美国平等就业机会委员会也以性骚扰和怀孕歧视为由对该公司提起了诉讼。

在当局采取上述司法行动之后,今年1月中旬,微软宣布了一项令人震惊的收购计划,该公司表示将以687亿美元的价格收购动视暴雪,成就史上最大规模的美国公司现金收购交易。如果相关交易按计划完成,微软游戏的首席执行官菲尔·斯宾塞将负责对动视暴雪进行监管,而担任动视首席执行官一职超过30年的鲍比·科蒂克则将继续执掌动视暴雪的日常工作。如果收购完成,科蒂克持有股份的价值就将增加至约3.75亿美元。

此次收购若要完成,尚需得到监管机构的批准。而据报道,本次审查工作将由美国联邦贸易委员会、而非美国司法部执行。如此一来,美国联邦贸易委员会将更有可能以反垄断为由提出反对意见(合并后的公司将成为全球第三大游戏公司)。微软的发言人拒绝就此事置评。

假设微软能够完成此次收购动视暴雪的交易,那么其接手的将是一家因为20多年来种种不端行径而官司缠身的企业。

通过对29名前任及现任暴雪员工的采访,《财富》杂志揭开了一幅黑暗而复杂的图景:创业之初,暴雪充满活力、成就非凡,但在创立前三年却未曾雇佣过一名女性员工,在一路成长为《财富》美国500强公司后,又任由女性员工被骚扰、轻视和歧视。(在接受《财富》杂志采访的暴雪女性员工中,有一些女性担心会因为自己的言论或曾经签署保密协议而遭到报复。另有员工曾经被公司要求签署“禁止负面评论”协议,加州的修订版起诉书中也提到了这一点。)

按照加州有关当局的指控描述,暴雪塑造了一种“恶劣的职场环境”,在这种环境中,原本岌岌无名的开发者得以“扬名立万”,又因为自身重要性的凸显而变得越发张狂。许多员工称,他们对人力资源部门极不信任。修订版起诉书中表示,因为“众所周知”,人力资源部门的员工跟“那些所谓骚扰者走得很近”,暴雪员工的投诉积极性并不高。修订版起诉书里还提到,暴雪在自己对人力资源部门的调查中也指出:“(员工对人力资源部门)严重缺乏信任”、“人力资源部门没有得到很高的重视”。上述的种种行径都发生在管理层越发重视“净利润”的背景之下,根据修订版起诉书,在这种环境中,“高管人员和创作者可以公然进行性骚扰,而不会承担任何后果。”

在回应《财富》杂志的置评请求时,动视对过去的暴雪和现在的暴雪进行了切割:“您所说的是过去的暴雪,而非现在的暴雪。实际上,您提及的那些暴雪员工均已经不在公司工作,您强调的事件和情况都是陈年旧事,已经不能反映暴雪现在的情况。暴雪的领导团队致力于为全体员工打造最优异的职场环境。动视暴雪的各个部门均以树立行业典型、打造真正安全、有尊严的职场环境为目标。科蒂克先生也非常重视相关问题,强调要不打折扣地践行公司价值和愿景,我们也正在为实现这一目标而努力。”

动视暴雪补充说,本篇报道中提及的许多事件在人力资源部门都没有投诉记录,公司在了解到相关指控后已经进行了调查,并已经采取行动。动视暴雪称,在对收到的投诉进行内部审查后,自2021年7月以来,已经有37名员工离职,另有44人受到书面训诫、正式警告或其他处分。该公司还向《财富》杂志发送了一份清单,列出了该公司近期为改善职场环境而采取的15项改革措施,其中包括2021年11月出台的禁止在工作场所饮酒的政策,并放弃了对个人性骚扰和歧视索赔的仲裁要求。

动视暴雪的事件发生在游戏行业并不令人意外。一如某位暴雪现任员工所说:“不夸张的说,从第一行代码写出来开始”,游戏行业就与厌女症联系在一起。但从本质上讲,这起案例依然令人不寒而栗:极端行为、甚至公然违法的行为在组织内部竟能如此“习以为常”,以至于不仅侵蚀了企业文化,甚至成为了文化本身。

早年情况

暴雪(原名Silicon & Synapse)创立于1991年,三位创始人在大学时期便是好友,均来自美国加州大学洛杉矶分校(UCLA)。这里曾经是“书呆子”统治的王国。正如该公司于2001年发布的十周年纪念视频所描述的那样,公司的核心是“一群亲密无间的老爷们”,他们“很庆幸能够在一个更像兄弟会而非企业的地方工作,对他们而言,游戏就是生活的养料、呼吸的空气。”

在后来的一段视频中,在谈及理想的程序员类型时,该公司的联合创始人艾伦·阿德汉姆回忆道:“我们只想要那些发自内心热爱游戏和编程的员工。”米基·尼尔森于1993年加入暴雪,在这里一待就是22年,他在回忆录中这样写道:“大家一起工作、一起玩乐,有消息都会互相通知。我甚至可以说,暴雪能够有今天的成就,靠的就是卡拉OK、《侍魂晓》(Samurai Shodown,一款格斗游戏)和鸡尾酒”

《魔兽争霸:人类与兽人》(Warcraft: Orcs & Humans)是该公司的早期作品之一,于1994年11月上市发行,这是一款以神秘的艾泽拉斯王国为背景的实时奇幻策略游戏,也是该公司的首款热卖作品。在《魔兽争霸:人类与兽人》一炮而红之后,暴雪迅速推出了两部续作,为日后《魔兽世界》系列狂赚数十亿美元铺平了道路。

也就是在这一时期(暴雪成立三年之后)前后,暴雪雇佣了公司的首位女性员工,这一事件在其十周年纪念视频中被大书特书,画外音是说,这位女士的到来给公司带来了“平和、宁静”的氛围,她“妹妹般的举止就像照入公司内的一缕阳光”。

本世纪初,暴雪的女性员工仍然很少,以至于在采访曾经供职该公司的女性员工时,她们都会告诉我,即便在文中匿名,还是很容易被认出身份。此外,和其他游戏公司的女性员工或者女性游戏玩家一样,暴雪公司的女性员工也背负着证明自己“确实是”游戏玩家的负担。

克里斯汀·布劳内尔于2003年加入暴雪,供职于质量保障部门,该团队负责检测游戏是否可以按照预期正常运行、是否存在故障。布劳内尔表示,入职之初,经常一连两个星期没有人跟她说话或邀请她共进午餐,直到有一次在公司于周六举办的《魔兽争霸3:冰封王座》(Warcraft III: The Frozen Zone)功能测试活动中,她拿到了第二名,“情况才彻底改观”,布劳内尔说。回顾自己在暴雪两年的工作生涯,布劳内尔饱含深情(她还表示,自己从未遭受过性骚扰)。

和许多同事一样,布劳内尔也为能够在业内最酷的公司之一工作而感到兴奋。约翰·斯塔茨是《魔兽世界》最初的层级设计师之一,他在接受《财富》杂志采访时回忆说,在这里,有些开发者“不喜欢跟别人有目光接触,也不太善于跟别人沟通”(他还曾经写过一本关于《魔兽世界》制作过程的回忆录),但他们对自己制作的游戏充满了热情,为了多花些时间专心打造自己心爱的项目,甚至自愿在周末加班工作。

游戏开发就像是一场豪赌:在投入数年时间、数百万美元的资金之后,你依然无法判断自己制作出来的游戏玩起来是否有趣,必须要在玩家玩过之后才可以真正得出结论。因此,当经过近十年的开发、《魔兽世界》于2004年11月发布后,其获得的空前成功甚至让暴雪自己都感到惊讶。这款多人奇幻游戏采用了付费订阅的全新商业模式。这一创新几乎在一夜之间就改变了暴雪公司的面貌,使雇佣数十名客服协助玩家处理各种问题变成了公司的最大开支,斯塔茨在自己的回忆录中如是写道。

《魔兽世界》的成功对该公司的文化产生了同样巨大的影响。此前,从未有人争抢功劳,所以所有人都能够将该游戏当成自己的作品,但这时却出现了变化。开发者突然成了大明星,还有了一大帮粉丝(暴雪在2005年举办了首届粉丝大会——BlizzCon),公司的停车场也突然停满了兰博基尼(Lamborghini)。(当时,暴雪会根据员工的职务和司龄长短与员工进行利润分成。)

一位在暴雪工作了十多年的前员工说,《魔兽世界》“毁了暴雪。信任和友谊无法量化。”

难缠的怪物

不过甚至在《魔兽世界》发布之前,暴雪的三位创始人——艾伦·阿德汉姆、迈克·莫海姆和弗兰克·皮尔斯就已经发现了一些蛛丝马迹,意识到已经到了要对公司文化加以约束的时候。“导致暴雪目前所有问题的元素当时都已经存在。”一位暴雪的前员工如是表示。当时,公司请来了一位女性老师,就“恶劣职场环境”这一主题为暴雪当时的全体员工(约300名)上了一堂4小时的专题课,课上也详细讲解了加州有关骚扰问题的各项法律。(阿德汉姆如今仍然在暴雪工作,但他拒绝就有关暴雪职场环境的问题发表评论。莫海姆未对这一记录发表评论,皮尔斯也未回复置评请求。)

但是,就在暴雪教育员工学习“恶劣职场环境”相关知识的同时,也在给那些漠视女同事的男性员工升职加薪。例证一:一位名叫亚历克斯·阿弗拉西亚比的开发者,2004年加入《魔兽世界》项目。阿弗拉西亚比是加州公平就业与住房部在起诉书中点名的两个对象之一。根据起诉书,他“公然参与性骚扰,却几乎没有受到任何处罚”。起诉书中点名的另一对象是暴雪的前总裁J·艾伦·布拉克,加州公平就业与住房部指控其未对阿弗拉西亚比进行处罚。记者未能联系到阿弗拉西亚比和布拉克就相关事项予以置评。

罗布·帕尔多曾经是《魔兽世界》的首席设计师,据说他为人颇固执,喜欢雇佣跟自己性格相似的员工。他有时会通过搜索游戏论坛来寻找自己心仪的人选。帕尔多和阿弗拉西亚比都是《无尽的任务》(EverQuest,1991年发布)的死忠玩家,在其中投入了大把的时间。这是由索尼在线娱乐公司(Sony Online Entertainment)出品,类似《龙与地下城》(Dungeons and Dragons)的一款线上游戏。二人还都成立了公会(一种为共同目标,比如共同对付难缠的怪物,而联合起来的玩家团体。)。根据安东尼·帕伦比于2017年出版的《魔兽世界》周边读物《血灾与无尽突袭》(Blood Plagues and Endless Raids),阿弗拉西亚比在《无尽的任务》中领导的“天堂之火”(Fires of Heaven)游戏公会会向申请入会的女性玩家索取裸照,并会在会员中传播这些照片。

曾经与阿弗拉西亚比共事过的许多同事都表示他很难相处,他甚至会当面或通过电子邮件公开表达自己(对同事)的轻蔑之意。有些曾经与阿弗拉西亚比共事的女性员工表示,刚开始,他的行为可能大多在违规边缘,所以她们会问自己:“这种行为是否真的那么糟糕?真的有必要投诉么?”一位前女性员工如是说道。“而且即便相关部门找了涉事者谈话,也会不了了之。”

修订版起诉书指出,布拉克“据称曾经多次与阿弗拉西亚比就后者的酗酒问题进行谈话”,然而酒精就像深夜的《龙与地下城》游戏一样早已深深融入暴雪的文化之中。有多名暴雪前员工指出,该公司时常进行“喝通关”(Cube Crawls)游戏,从下午4点开始,一直持续到次日凌晨2、3点,果冻甜酒和伏特加小熊软糖都是菜单上的常客。暴雪的午餐桌上经常可以看到啤酒,其他时段也常有员工饮酒。(作为对比,斯塔茨称,在他供职暴雪的11年里,耳闻目睹过的最糟糕行为不过是“一两人在公司活动中喝多了”而已,他参加过的假日聚会和发布会活动都是“平平无奇的商业活动”。)

暴雪的前女性员工报告称,性别歧视现象在这里司空见惯(“你能够得到这份工作就是因为你长得漂亮。”),还会听到有关强奸和性交易的笑话,也会有人在不必要的情况下搂抱女性员工或触摸女性员工的腰部。起诉书中也提到了此类骚扰,并指出,男性员工“公开对女性品头论足,还会拿强奸相关的话题开玩笑”,而女性员工则“不得不持续应付自己的男同事和上司在性方面令人厌恶的评论和侵犯行为,在‘喝通关’和其他公司活动中也会成为揩油的对象”。男性喝酒之后那些过分的揩油动作会变得更加大胆。“这些家伙缺乏社交技巧,虽然没有什么恶意,但这些行为是错误的。”一位2006年左右曾经在暴雪供职的女性员工如是说。

很快,有些男性员工(其中最臭名昭著的可能就是阿弗拉西亚比)会在暴雪的聚会上对女性员工上下其手的事就成了公开的秘密,但这种行为却在暴雪得到了合理化,并被当作醉酒后的恶作剧而得到了包容。曾经在暴雪任软件工程师一职的斯嘉丽说,阿弗拉西亚比在暴雪的年终聚会上骚扰过自己,一个朋友告诉她,在暴雪于前年举行的BlizzCon活动中,自己也被阿弗拉西亚比揩过油:“他就是个醉酒的臭流氓,一直如此。”(在修订版起诉书中,阿弗拉西亚比被列为该公司“因年资/职位原因而不愿对骚扰者进行处理的典型案例”。)

升级

2007年年底,暴雪搬到了更能够匹配其游戏巨头地位的新总部。暴雪的旧总部位于一个无人看守、普普通通的办公园区之中,在那里,员工们总是在闷声苦干,此外,为了更好地防止屏幕眩光,这里的办公室通常都没有窗户;而新总部的入口则有保安把守,一扇扁平的黑色大门上还焊着“暴雪”(BLIZZARD)两个大字。

大约就在这一时期,公司的创始人团队决定确定公司的核心价值观(虽然有暴雪老员工认为,此时确定价值观可能是为了可以将其刻在公司为新总部塑造的12英尺高、2吨重的青铜兽人战士雕像之上)。创始人团队一共提出了8条价值观,其中包括“友善游戏、公平游戏”、“拥抱你内心的极客灵魂”、“用负责任的方式引领世界”和“倾听每个人的声音”。

但有多位接受《财富》杂志采访的女性表示,对那些向人力资源部门投诉过的员工来说,最后一个核心价值观只是一句空话。

布罗德里克(那名以豪饮开启自己暴雪生涯的员工)说,她一开始觉得在遭到骚扰时自己去找人力资源部门显得太不成熟,于是就由她的职场导师代为报告了相关情况。据称,有位同事对布罗德里克说:“哦,天哪,这条短裤太适合你了,显得你的屁股特别好看。”对此,人力资源部门的回答是:这位同事来自欧洲,“不了解美国文化。”(布罗德里克的职场导师对《财富》杂志确认了这一事件的真实性。)后来,因为觉得领导故意不给自己机会,还把自己的功劳据为己有,布罗德里克便询问人力资源部门是否能够调换部门,对此,人力资源部门的答复是:“提这种要求太孩子气了,像个小屁孩。”(没错,他们就是用了“小屁孩”一词,还告诉布罗德里克:“别老是想着攀高枝。”)

员工们回忆称,因为人力资源部门的人员流动频繁,自己很难建立起对他们的信任。一些员工表示,即便人力资源部门确针对员工投诉的行为采取了行动,通常也只是将涉事人员调到其他团队。而且很少会有书面记录(如果有过的话)。如果人力资源部门反馈说:“这是个误会。我们会和他谈谈。”也不会有证据可以证明他们是否的确进行了相关工作(在处理某女性员工的投诉时就是如此)。曾经在暴雪任软件工程师一职的斯嘉丽说,在她通过推特(Twitter)发布了自己在暴雪的经历(包括在人力资源部门获得的不快体验)之后,她从300多名暴雪的现任员工和前任员工那里听到了类似的故事。多位女性向《财富》杂志表示,她们觉得自己无法信任人力资源部门的工作,发起投诉甚至可能给自己惹上麻烦。

加州公平就业与住房部向法庭提交的文件也给出了相同的结论,起诉书指出,暴雪“未能采取有效的补救措施”来处理员工有关骚扰、歧视和报复的报告。此外,它还发现,人力资源部门对员工的投诉“不屑一顾、敷衍塞责,并且全无保密措施。”在发起投诉之后,相关女性员工、外派人员和临时工常会遭到打击报复,打击的手段包括但不限于剥夺工作项目、被迫调离原工作单位和被选为裁员对象。

荣登榜首

到2008年,《魔兽世界》在全球已经拥有约900万名玩家,使其成为史上最成功的在线系列游戏。动视(《使命召唤》系列游戏的制作公司)的首席执行官鲍比·科蒂克非常希望能够将其纳入自己公司不断扩大的游戏矩阵之中。因此,他策划了维旺迪(Vivendi,1998年收购暴雪)的游戏部门与动视的大规模合并。

科蒂克以重视净利润而闻名。“在这样一个备受最新潮流影响的行业里,他因为专注打造‘股东友好型’企业而博得盛名。”一篇提名他入围MarketWatch的2008年度最佳首席执行官奖的文章如是写道。科蒂克公开追求利润最大化的做法有时也会拉远公司与那些纯粹追求游戏体验的玩家的距离。在网上,甚至有人将科蒂克恶搞成了头顶长角的魔鬼。

但直到2012年2月,科蒂克效应对暴雪的影响才开始显现,当时,《魔兽世界》的订阅量从2010年的1200万下降到680万,致使该公司裁掉了600名员工。不久之后,再听到同事提到净利润时,便开始有暴雪员工互相打趣道:“当心,‘动视’又来了。”

持续恶化

如果说在业务蒸蒸日上的时候,女性员工的日子已经不好过,那么随着业务持续下滑,情况就只会越发糟糕。在2012年的裁员之后,暴雪“便从创造的天堂变成了恐惧的庇护所。”一位当时供职暴雪的前员工表示,“因为不知道哪天会被裁员,你会失去很多创作的自由和精力。”

与此同时,据当时供职暴雪的员工称,公司开始像高中食堂那样有了小团体。相关员工称,管理层给他们的感觉是,要想参与项目或获得帮助,就必须打点好关系。一些女性员工在接受《财富》杂志采访时认为,这种社交需求给她们带来了更多的熬夜、喝酒和参加深夜聚会的压力。

据暴雪的前员工称,暴雪的晋升完全由一个由四、五人组成的小集团所把持。在美国得克萨斯州奥斯汀的办公室里,这被称为“科尔法则”。“科尔”是指怀亚特·科尔,他于2013年走出尔湾,开始负责暴雪的北美客服业务。科尔有几个信条,包括“说话要有目的”,但是“当然,在男人俱乐部里,女人不需要有目标,”曾经在奥斯汀上班的一位女性员工如是说。

加州公平就业与住房部在起诉书中也提到了所谓“男人俱乐部”的情况,其中指出,“哪怕经验或资历不如女性员工,晋升机会往往还是会留给那些跟部门男性负责人关系紧密的男性员工,女性员工则迟迟得不到晋升或根本没有晋升机会。”(科尔未就置评请求做出回应,他已经不在暴雪工作。)

女性的问题

暴雪是一家特别喜欢发电子邮件的公司,其邮件清单上涵盖的话题从爱好到食物应有尽有。2012年,受微软、索尼等游戏公司女性员工联合起来的消息启发,暴雪的女性员工终于有了自己的邮件群。

女性员工们表示,这只是一件微不足道的小事情,但却帮助她们“找到了更多的同道知音”。最后,邮件群一分为二:其一为“美好生活”,主要谈论些有关生活方式的话题;其二为“暴雪女性员工”,主要谈论各类与工作有关的问题和通知。

后者还是“暴雪女性员工委员会”的根基所在。但直到2017年夏末,该委员会才得到暴雪的支持。

为表支持,暴雪在主园区之外举办了一场香槟酒会,不仅准备了手指三明治和各色甜点,还设置了一场“宾果破冰游戏”,游戏参与者的任务是找到一名符合某种特征的女性,例如去过危地马拉或者曾经在纽约上学。在少数女性主管的注视下,暴雪的全球招聘总监爱丽丝·怀特进行了讲话。但也有一些女性员工发现,在场的女性主管没有一人来自游戏业务,而是都来自营销、人力资源和社区管理等所谓“软业务”。(怀特目前在谷歌工作。)

暴雪内部曾经成立过一些“前进一步小组”,也即所谓的“伙伴小组”,在这里,女性员工们能够安心聚会、分享自己的故事。这些小组通常由5到8名女性组成,每月聚会一次,通常是在户外,但许多参加过此类聚会的员工表示,这种聚会给人的感觉很像“闲谈会”或“读书俱乐部”,因为除了发泄一下情绪,可以说是一无所获。聚会中谈到的问题还是只能报给人力资源部门——这是一个女性员工们从一开始就犹豫要不要去的地方。此类“伙伴小组”最终也逐渐销声匿迹。

“我觉得暴雪的确有帮助女性员工的想法。”某暴雪在职员工表示。“但他们可能不敢触碰‘兄弟会’男孩文化中有关性骚扰的实质性问题。”当时,在公开场合,动视暴雪一直享有“激动人心的工作场所”的美誉,包括《财富》杂志在内,都曾对其大加赞扬。从2015年到2019年,该公司连续入选“100家最适合工作的公司”排行榜。据卓越职场研究所(Great Place to Work Institute)做的员工调查显示,“91%的员工认为在暴雪工作很有趣。”

当时曾经在暴雪工作过的员工表示,那时候似乎很少有人关心女性真正想要的是什么,比如当她们和男同事一样努力工作时,如何才能够获得晋升。正如加州起诉书所指出的那样:“在暴雪,女性员工获得提拔的速度慢于男性员工,却更容易遭到开除。”

2018年年底,拳头游戏(Riot Games)的两名员工向公司提起了集体诉讼,指控该公司存在性别歧视和骚扰问题。(诉讼已经于2021年12月达成和解,拳头游戏同意支付1亿美元作为赔偿。)大约在同一时期,暴雪新聘请了一位多样性、公平性和包容性(DEI)专家。但暴雪的前任及现任员工均表示,公司并未划拨多少资源或资金用于支持该专家开展工作。(动视表示,该公司的确是从2017年开始关注、构建整个组织的DEI工作,并于2021年将此类工作整合到了一位高管的领导之下,由其负责协调公司各部门的DEI重点任务和相关工作。)

2019年,随着新一轮裁员浪潮在暴雪蔓延开来,该公司的女性员工称,她们再次遭遇了性别歧视,在被裁员工中所占比例过高,并且遭到了不公平对待。举个例子,在大裁员后,有一位在暴雪全球广播部门工作的女性员工承担了许多额外职责,但却未获晋升。据其表示,在她提出质疑后,得到的答复是,公司希望在裁员后暂停所有“晋升工作”。但在接下来的两天里,却有4人获得晋升。她与《财富》杂志分享了这封晋升邮件,同时还分享了她发给老板的信息,信中询问他们能否讨论(相关问题)。对此,动视表示,该公司继续按计划完成了2019年的晋升工作,不分男女。

在发给《财富》杂志的一份声明中,动视重申,2019年之前,该公司不同部门的人力资源人员和领导团队均各司其职,独立运作,直到2019年才全部直接向动视暴雪报告,“由于公司对下属部门独立性的尊重,有时的确会给部分员工做出不当行为的空间”。动视还指出:“我们认识到,在某些情况下,即使公司制定了预防、制止相关行为的制度和政策,并鼓励员工举报不当行为,公司依然未能确保所有员工的行为均符合公司的价值观和期望。回首过往,我们(的工作确实存在不尽如人意之处,)本可以做得更好。”

零容忍?

加州对动视暴雪提起的性骚扰诉讼仍然在审理之中。2021年9月,在美国平等就业机会委员会提起诉讼的第二天,动视暴雪同意以1800万美元和解(不足该公司2020年收入的0.5%)。动视否认了“所有有关不当行为的指控”,并表示其同意和解是为了避免“再因此类纠纷产生额外费用、导致公司无法专心自身业务和面临更多类似诉讼”。

今年1月,加州公平就业与住房部对美国平等就业机会委员会的和解协议提出异议,认为该协议“不公平、不充分、不合理”,给了动视“逃避责任”的机会。加州公平就业与住房部表示,借助该份和解协议,动视公司将能够作废诸多与加州起诉案相关的证据,导致可能提出索赔要求的大约13000名女性员工或将只能分得数百美元赔偿。(相比之下,加州公平就业与住房部与拳头游戏达成的和解金额为1亿美元,其中8000万美元将支付给该公司的2365名女性员工和女性合同工。)

科蒂克曾经承诺对性骚扰问题采取零容忍政策,放弃对性骚扰和性别歧视案件进行仲裁的要求,并将公司雇用的女性和“非二元性别”员工人数增加50%。科蒂克本人在2021年接受降薪(从每年175万美元降至每年62500美元,加州的最低工资标准),并将执行到董事会认为公司已经达成一定的多样性和包容性目标之后。(通过当年早些时候发放的奖金,科蒂克在2021年从该公司赚取了1.55亿美元。)

在接受《华尔街日报》采访时,就暴雪的职场问题,微软的游戏首席执行官斯宾塞指出:“我们看到了该公司(在相关问题的处理上)所取得的进展,在我们决定未来的方向时,相关进展具有至关重要的意义。”不过,在有积极股东在微软股东大会上赢得一项要求公司披露更多有关过往调查处理方式的提案之后,微软于今年1月中旬宣布,微软正在对自己的性骚扰和性别歧视相关政策进行审查。

本文提到的许多高管已经离开暴雪,包括J·艾伦·布拉克,他在加州提起诉讼后辞去了自己的职务。自2021年7月以来,动视暴雪已经辞退37名员工,另有44人受到纪律处分。至于阿弗拉西亚比,据暴雪称,他已经于2020年因为行为不当而遭到解雇。

对暴雪的女性员工来说,此种清算既是痛苦又是宣泄。许多人怀疑此类诉讼或微软的收购是否能够带来真正的改变,但也非常希望可以梦想成真。一位在该公司工作近十年的女性员工说,过去几个月,她一直沉浸在尴尬、忧郁的情绪之中。“这绝对是我职业生涯中最艰难的时刻。”她说。“但对于留下来的女性来说,我们之所以这样做还是因为相信暴雪有能力做出改变,变得更好。”

其它一些人似乎已经开始了新的生活。在忍受他人品头论足、项目束之高阁、意见遭受忽视多年之后,眼见那些资质不如自己的男同事纷纷得到晋升,内心受伤在所难免。

在熬过2019年的大裁员后约一个月,尼基·布罗德里克提出了辞职,跳槽到了另一家游戏公司担任制作人。选择离开不仅是因为她开始在开车上班时出现恐慌症状,还因为她意识到自己对现在的工作已经不再热爱,感觉自己在像“低俗的汽车推销员”一样推销着暴雪的产品。“我之前一直以为自己会在暴雪干到退休。”她说(我采访过的每位暴雪女性员工几乎都发出过这样的感慨),“我原以为我会一直热爱这家公司,直到离世的那一天。但实际情况却并不如我所愿,而且整整七年的时间里一点没有好转,这个时间也不短了。”

供职于暴雪出版部门的另一位女士讲述了自己经历过的一段故事,她说,这个故事很好地概括了她在暴雪的生涯,也完美地说明了修订版加州起诉书中提到的所谓“男同事贬低或最小化女性员工的贡献”一事。在2018年的BlizzCon活动期间,她在万豪酒店和希尔顿酒店之间的走道上碰到了一位醉醺醺的男同事。那位男同事叫住她大声嚷道:“你在那儿真是太好了,正好给了我抢走你全部功劳的机会!”

他搂了她一下,然后就走开了。(财富中文网)

译者:梁宇

审校:夏林

Nicki Broderick arrived promptly at 9:30 a.m. on June 13, 2011, for her first day as an employee at the video game developer Blizzard Entertainment.

Lined up in front of her keyboard she found a row of shots—she thinks they were Fireball Whisky—apparently to acknowledge that it was also Broderick’s 21st birthday. She'd never done shots before, at any time of day, but downed them with her manager. It was the first time Broderick, who spent eight years at Blizzard, felt forced to drink at work. But it was far from the last. Later, during a work trip to Korea, Broderick says she was instructed not to refuse any drinks on a celebratory evening out with colleagues from a company that had partnered with Blizzard on an e-sports event, lest the vendor be offended.

“They made me drink until I was blackout drunk,” Broderick tells Fortune. “I don’t even know how I got back to my hotel that night.”

Broderick’s experience was extreme, but hardly unique. More than two dozen women told Fortune that for most of Blizzard's three-decade history, and until very recently, they felt they were treated differently from men. In fact, they say, the demeaning and bullying behavior often began the moment a woman arrived. During new employee onboarding, men would walk by to, as some put it, “check out the crop”—meaning, of women. When a woman arrived for her first day of work, “there would literally be a group of men around her so you couldn’t even see her,” says a female current longtime employee. In the quality assurance department, according to multiple employees, including Broderick, for a time there was a spreadsheet to rank new hires on a "hotness" scale from 1 to 10—listing a woman’s best features and whether she was available or not.

Some women say they quickly learned to avoid answering questions about relationship status. “Otherwise, these guys wouldn’t work with me, or wouldn’t go out of their way to help me out or get me engaged on a project,” a female former employee tells Fortune.

When men would stop by their desks, women say they felt pressure to be polite, but then would get feedback that they were too sociable. If a man yelled, that was okay because it was seen as passion; if a woman cried she would be written off as too emotional. At the same time, women at Blizzard say they could almost convince themselves that bad behavior by the men should be excused as a byproduct of shared enthusiasm. “That’s why you’re there, is because you love gaming,” says Cher Scarlett, a software engineer at Blizzard from August 2015 to August 2016. “It’s very confusing when you love something so much.”

Blizzard, the 31-year-old video game powerhouse known for World of Warcraft and Overwatch, is a division of Activision Blizzard, which ranks No. 373 on the Fortune 500. In 2008, Activision acquired Blizzard's parent company, and the video game maker became a unit of Activision. Still, Blizzard long retained its own distinctive culture—one that many former and current employees describe as toxic.

The workplace issues at Blizzard have come to the fore thanks to a July 2021 suit brought by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) alleging gender discrimination, harassment, and retaliation—this after a more than two-year investigation into the company that began in 2018. The 29-page court filing and the subsequent 35-page amended complaint assert that the company “fostered a sexist culture” by paying women less than men despite instances in which employees performed substantially similar work; assigned women to lower-level jobs and promoted them at slower rates compared with men; fired or forced women to quit more frequently than men; and subjected women to "constant sexual harassment."

As the amended complaint reads, "Female employees almost universally confirmed that working for Defendants was akin to working in a frat house, which invariably involved male employees drinking and subjecting female employees…to sexual harassment with no repercussion." The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also filed suit against the company in September for sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination.

Those legal actions were followed by a bombshell acquisition announcement in mid-January. In the largest cash acquisition of a U.S. company ever, Microsoft said it planned to acquire Activision for $68.7 billion. If the transaction is finalized as planned, Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming, will oversee Activision Blizzard. But Bobby Kotick, Activision's CEO for more than 30 years and a polarizing figure in the gaming world for his bottom-line mentality, will remain at the helm of Activision Blizzard—and his holdings will be worth some $375 million if the purchase is completed.

The deal still must be approved by regulators. And the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly planning to review the acquisition, rather than the Justice Department. That raises the possibility that the FTC could object to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard on antitrust grounds—the combined entity would be the third-largest gaming company in the world. A spokesperson for Microsoft declined to comment for this story.

Assuming that Microsoft is able to complete the Activision Blizzard purchase, it will be taking on a company that is still in the process of reckoning with allegations of corporate misbehavior that go back more than two decades.

Fortune’s interviews with 29 former and current Blizzard employees reveal a dark and complicated picture of how Blizzard, a vibrant and outrageously successful gaming startup that for its first three years employed not a single woman, became part of a Fortune 500 company that routinely allowed women to be harassed, belittled, and discriminated against. (Some of the women Fortune spoke to feared retaliation for speaking out or had signed nondisclosure agreements. Others had been required to sign non-disparagement agreements, something that was cited in the amended California complaint.)

Blizzard fostered what the California complaint described as a "hostile work environment," in which previously anonymous developers became celebrities, emboldened by their newfound importance. Many employees say they were deeply distrustful of HR, where, according to the amended complaint, employees were discouraged from complaining, as HR staffers "were known to be close to alleged harassers." The amended complaint cites Blizzard's own internal investigation of HR, which noted that there was "a big lack of trust" and that "HR was not held in high regard." This was all set against an ever-increasing focus on the bottom line, an environment in which, according to the amended complaint, "high-ranking executives and creators engaged in blatant sexual harassment without repercussions."

In response to a request for comment from Fortune, Activision draws a bright line between the Blizzard of yesteryear and what exists today: "The Blizzard you portray from years past is not the Blizzard of today. Virtually no one you mention from Blizzard is still with the company, and the events and processes you highlight are not a reflection of today’s Blizzard—nor have they been for years. The leadership team at Blizzard is focused on creating the best possible environment for every member of our team. Across Activision Blizzard, our goal is to set an example for our industry with a truly safe and respectful workplace. Mr. Kotick is focused on ensuring that we live up to our values and aspirations without exception, and we are working hard to take the actions necessary to do so."

Activision added that there is no record of HR complaints for many of the incidents described in this story, and that when the company is made aware of allegations, it investigates and takes action. According to Activision Blizzard, following internal reviews of complaints that were filed, since July 37 employees have exited the company and another 44 have received written reprimands, formal warnings, or other discipline. The company also sent Fortune a list of 15 recent changes it had instituted to improve workplace conditions, including a November policy to ban alcohol in the workplace, and waiving required arbitration of individual sexual harassment and discrimination claims.

The story of Activision Blizzard takes place, of course, in the gaming industry, which has been associated with misogyny "practically since the first line of code was written," as one current Blizzard employee puts it. But at its heart, it's a chilling case study of how extreme and even blatantly illegal behavior can become so normalized inside an organization that it doesn't just infringe on the culture, it becomes the culture.

The early years

Blizzard (originally named Silicon & Synapse) was founded by three college friends from UCLA in 1991. It was a place where nerds ruled. The core was a tight-knit group of men who lived and breathed games in “a work environment that was thankfully more like a frat house than a business,” as a 10th anniversary video released in 2001 put it. “We just wanted guys who were really into games and really into computer coding,” cofounder Allen Adham recalled in a later video, talking about the types of programmers the company wanted to hire. Micky Neilson, who arrived in 1993 and stayed for 22 years, wrote of the time in his memoir: “We all worked together and we all partied together and one informed the other…I would even go so far as to say that the foundation of what Blizzard is today was built on a bedrock of karaoke, [fighter game] Samurai Shodown, and Jack and Coke.”

One of the company’s early offerings was Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, released in November 1994, a quirky real-time fantasy strategy game set in the mythic kingdom of Azeroth. It was the company’s first hit, immediately spawning two sequels and paving the way for a multibillion-dollar franchise known as World of Warcraft.

Around this time, three years after its founding, Blizzard hired its first female employee, an event of such significance it was touted in the 2001 video with a voiceover saying the woman brought “calm and serenity” and her “little-sister-like demeanor brought a bit of sunshine.”

Women remained so scarce at Blizzard through the early 2000s that everyone I approached from that period told me they would be easily identified even if quoted anonymously. And women at Blizzard had the same burden they had in the industry in general—or as players—which is to prove they were “real” gamers. Christine Brownell, who arrived in 2003 to work in quality assurance (or QA), a team that checks to make sure the game works as expected and nothing is broken, says hardly anyone talked to her for two weeks and no one invited her to lunch. Until, that is, she came in second in a Saturday event the company held to test the tournament functionality on its game Warcraft III: The Frozen Zone. “Then everything changed,” says Brownell, who looks back at her two years at Blizzard fondly (and says she was never harassed).

Like many of her colleagues, Brownell was excited just to be working at one of the coolest companies in the industry. It was the kind of place where some developers “avoid eye contact and are awkward conversationalists,” recalled John Staats, one of World of Warcraft's original level designers, in an interview with Fortune (he also wrote a memoir about the making of World of Warcraft). But they were so passionate with the games they were creating that they voluntarily worked on weekends because they wanted extra time to focus on pet projects, Staats says.

Game development is a huge gamble: You can invest years and millions, and yet there’s no real way to tell if a game is going to be fun to play until people experience it. So when Blizzard released World of Warcraft in November 2004, after nearly a decade in development, its wild and unprecedented success surprised even Blizzard. The multiplayer fantasy game—featuring an innovative business model requiring players to pay for a subscription—transformed the company almost overnight into one whose biggest expenditure was the dozens of customer service representatives it had to hire to handle all the players, as Staats wrote in his memoir.

And World of Warcraft's success had an equally seismic effect on the company's culture. Before, no one publicly took credit for what they did on a game, so everyone in the company could take ownership. That began to change. Developers were suddenly rock stars complete with adoring fans (Blizzard held its first fan convention, BlizzCon, in 2005) and company parking lots suddenly began to be dotted with Lamborghinis. (At the time, Blizzard shared profits with employees, with percentages based on their roles and how long they’d been there.)

World of Warcraft “just really blew things up,” says a former employee who spent more than a decade there. “That same level of trust and that same level of friendships just can’t really scale.”

Difficult monsters

Even before the release of World of Warcraft, however, the three founders of Blizzard—Allen Adham, Mike Morhaime, and Frank Pearce—recognized signs that the culture at Blizzard needed reining in. “All of the ingredients for Blizzard’s current problems were already there,” says one former employee. A female instructor was brought in to teach all of the roughly 300 employees at the time a four-hour course on hostile work environments, including detailed information about California's laws on harassment. (Adham, who is still at Blizzard today, declined to comment on questions about Blizzard's work environment. Morhaime did not comment on the record, and Pearce did not respond to a request for comment.)

But even as Blizzard was educating its employees about hostile work environments, it was elevating men who showed a deep disregard for women with whom they worked. Exhibit A: a developer named Alex Afrasiabi, who was brought in to work on World of Warcraft in 2004 and is one of two men named in the DFEH complaint. He engaged in “blatant sexual harassment with little to no repercussions,” according to the complaint. The other man named in the complaint: J. Allen Brack, Blizzard’s former president, who allegedly failed to sanction Afrasiabi. Neither Afrasiabi nor Brack could be reached for comment.

Rob Pardo, World of Warcraft’s lead designer, was said to be opinionated and liked to hire people who were equally so. He sometimes found them by scouring game forums. Pardo and Afrasiabi spent so much of their free time playing EverQuest, a 1999 Sony Online Entertainment game of the Dungeons and Dragons ilk, that each ran guilds, or groups of players who decide to band together for common goals, like taking on difficult monsters. According to Blood Plagues and Endless Raids, a 2017 book by Anthony Palumbi about World of Warcraft, the EverQuest guild Afrasiabi helmed, called Fires of Heaven, solicited nude pictures from female applicants and circulated those photos among its membership.

Afrasiabi was a difficult coworker, say multiple colleagues at the time, who could be openly contemptuous in person and on emails. His early infractions were probably borderline, say several women, causing them to ask themselves, “Okay, was it really that bad? Do we really have to do anything about this?” says a female former employee. “And even if a man got talked to, there were never any consequences.”

The amended complaint notes that Brack "allegedly had multiple conversations with Afrasiabi about his drinking." Yet alcohol was as integral to Blizzard's culture as late-night Dungeons & Dragons sessions. “Cube crawls”—which were also cited in the complaint—might include Jell-O shots and vodka-soaked gummy bears, starting at 4 p.m. and going on until 2 or 3 in the morning, say former employees. Beers with lunch were not uncommon, nor was other daytime drinking. (Staats, by contrast, says that the worst behavior he'd seen or heard about in his 11 years at Blizzard were about “one or two people who drank too much at a company event.” The holiday and launch parties he attended were “very tame, corporate affairs.”)

Female former employees report casual sexism (“You got this job because of your looks”), jokes about rape and sex trafficking, and unwanted hugs and touches on the waist. This type of harassment was also referenced in the complaint, which states that male employees "talk openly about female bodies and joke about rape" while female employees were "having to continually fend off unwanted sexual comments and advances by their male coworkers and supervisors and being groped at the 'cube crawls' and other company events." The unwanted advances became bolder when the men drank. “They didn’t have a lot of social skills and they didn’t have ill intentions, but they made mistakes,” says a woman who worked there circa 2006.

Soon it was an open secret that some men, of which Afrasiabi was perhaps the most notable, would touch women inappropriately at Blizzard parties, but the behavior was normalized and excused as drunken hijinks. Scarlett, the former Blizzard software engineer, says Afrasiabi groped her at a Blizzard wrap party, and that she was told by a friend who’d had Afrasiabi grope her at BlizzCon the year before: “He’s a drunk idiot and he does that all the time.” (The amended complaint referred to Afrasiabi as "a blatant example" of the company's "refusal to deal with a harasser because of his seniority/position.")

Leveling up

In late 2007, Blizzard moved into a new headquarters more befitting its status as a gaming juggernaut. The old building had been an unguarded, nondescript office park where employees had toiled (often in windowless rooms, which are actually better for avoiding glare on monitors) in anonymity; the new ones had a guarded entrance with “BLIZZARD” welded atop a flat black gate.

It was around this time the founders decided they needed to codify the company’s core values—though one early employee suggests this may have been done so that they could be inscribed on the compass points of a 12-foot-tall, two-ton bronze orc warrior statue they had commissioned for the new headquarters. The founders came up with eight—including “play nice, play fair,” “embrace your inner geek,” “lead responsibly,” and “every voice matters.”

But that last core value was not the case for anyone who complained to HR, said multiple women who spoke to Fortune.

Broderick, the employee whose first day started with shots, says that initially she felt too green to approach HR herself when harassed. So a mentor reported an incident on Broderick's behalf. A coworker allegedly said to Broderick: “Oh, my God, your ass looks so great in those shorts." HR's response: The coworker was from Europe and “didn’t understand American culture.” (Broderick's mentor confirmed this account to Fortune.) Later, Broderick asked HR if she could switch managers, since she felt like hers was blocking opportunities and taking credit for her work. HR’s response, Broderick says, was, “You’re just being a brat”—actually using the word “brat”—and “you need to stop trying to get somewhere better.”

Employees recount a revolving door of HR hires that made it hard to build up trust. And if HR did take action on complaints, according to some employees, it was often just to move the problem person to another team. There was rarely, if ever, a paper trail. If HR came back and said, as they did with one woman, “It’s a misunderstanding. We’ll talk to him,” there was no proof that they did. The former software engineer Scarlett says that after she posted about her experiences at Blizzard on Twitter, including negative encounters with HR, she heard similar stories from more than 300 employees and alums. Multiple women told Fortune that they didn't feel they could trust the HR process and that speaking out might in fact be used against them.

The California DFEH filing draws the same conclusion. The complaint noted that Blizzard "failed to take effective remedial measures" in response to reports of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. Furthermore, it found that employee complaints were “treated in a perfunctory and dismissive manner and not kept confidential. As a result of these complaints, female employees and contingent or temporary workers were subjected to retaliation, including but not limited to being deprived of work projects, unwillingly transferred to different units, and selected for layoffs.”

Topping the charts

By 2008, World of Warcraft had some 9 million players worldwide, making it the most successful online gaming franchise in history. And Bobby Kotick—chief executive of Activision, maker of games like the Call of Duty franchise—wanted to add it to his company's growing game portfolio. So he orchestrated the blockbuster merger of the games division of Vivendi (which had acquired Blizzard as part of a 1998 deal) and Activision.

Kotick was well-known for his focus on the bottom line. “He made his name with a laser focus on building a shareholder-friendly company in a business more often swayed by the latest fad,” noted an article naming him a finalist for MarketWatch’s 2008 CEO of the Year award. Kotick's public candor about his desire to maximize profits has at times alienated gaming purists. Online, Kotick has even been portrayed as the devil, with photoshopped horns.

But the Kotick effect didn’t start to be felt at Blizzard until February 2012, when the company laid off 600 employees after World of Warcraft subscriptions dropped from their 2010 peak of 12 million to 6.8 million. Before long, some Blizzard employees teased each other when they'd hear a colleague allude to the bottom line. "Be careful, your Activision is showing," they'd say.

Worse on the way down

If things were hard for women when business was booming, they only got more difficult as the business faltered. After the 2012 layoffs, Blizzard "became more of an asylum of fear than an asylum of creativity,” says a former employee from that time. “You lost a lot of that freedom and that energy because you didn’t know if any day was going to be your last day.”

At the same time, according to employees, Blizzard became like a high school cafeteria, with its cliques. To get on projects or to get help, employees say they got the message from management that you have to network. This push to network, some women told Fortune, increased the pressure on them to stay late, drink more, go to late-night parties.

Cliques of four or five men controlled promotion decisions, according to former employees. In the Austin, Texas, office this was referred to as “coleslaw,” which came from Cole’s law—meaning Wyatt Cole, who came out from Irvine in 2013 to head customer service operations for North America. Cole had several tenets, including, “Have purpose when you speak.” But “of course in a boys’ club, women don’t have purpose,” says a female former Austin employee. The California complaint also referenced the boys' club dynamics, noting that female employees were "further delayed or passed over for promotions in favor of male counterparts who lacked the same experience or qualifications but who were friends with the male head of the unit." (Cole did not respond to a request for comment and is no longer with the company.)

Women’s issues

Blizzard is a company that loves email, with Listservs on topics from hobbies to food. In 2012—inspired by news that women in gaming at companies like Microsoft and Sony were also banding together—the women of Blizzard finally got their own email group.

It was such a small thing, female employees say, but it helped to be able to see “sheer numbers of people saying, ‘I have the same problem,’” says one female former employee. Eventually the email group was split into two: one called “Fabulous,” for chatter about lifestyle topics, and another called “Women at Blizzard,” for job-related problems and notices.

The latter is where Blizzard’s women’s council had its roots. But it wasn’t until late summer of 2017 that the company gave the council its blessing.

It did so with a Champagne toast outside on the main campus. There were finger sandwiches and desserts and a bingo game icebreaker where participants had to find a woman who had, say, been to Guatemala, or who had gone to school in New York. Alice White, Blizzard’s global director of recruiting, gave a speech as a handful of female directors looked on. It didn’t escape some women’s notice that there were no female directors from the gaming side, only from marketing, HR, and community, the so-called softer side of the business. (White is now at Google.)

There were Lean In circles, otherwise known as buddy groups—safe spaces where women could get together and share their stories. These groups of about five to eight women met monthly, often outdoors, but the sessions often felt “like a gossip session” or “like a book club,” say multiple employees who attended, because there was little productive that could come out of it besides venting. Anything that bubbled up could only be taken to HR, where women talked about being hesitant to go in the first place. Eventually, the buddy group momentum fizzled out.

“I feel like Blizzard was genuinely trying to help,” says one current employee. “But I think they were afraid to tackle the true problem of sexual harassment in the frat boy culture.” At the time Activision Blizzard was also being publicly lauded for being an exciting place to work, including by Fortune, where the company won spots on the "100 Best Companies to Work For" list from 2015 to 2019. Employee surveys taken by the Great Place to Work Institute reported that "91% of employees said that it's a fun place to work."

Employees from that era at Blizzard say there seemed to be little attention paid to what women really wanted, like how to get promoted when they were working just as hard as the men. As the California complaint noted: "Defendants promote women more slowly and terminate them more quickly than their male counterparts."

In late 2018, two employees of Riot Games filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the company of gender-based discrimination and harassment. (The suit was settled in December 2021, with Riot agreeing to pay $100 million.) Around the same time, Blizzard hired a new diversity, equity, and inclusion expert. But current and former employees say that she was given little in the way of resources or funding to support her mission. (Activision says it did begin to focus on and build its DEI efforts across the organization in 2017, and that in 2021 the teams were combined under one leader to coordinate DEI focus and efforts across the different divisions of the company.)

As new waves of layoffs spread through Blizzard in 2019, women at the company say they were disproportionately targeted and unfairly treated once again. In one example, a woman who’d been given a lot of extra responsibilities in Blizzard’s global broadcast department after the layoffs was later denied a promotion. When she questioned it, she says she was told that the company wanted to keep everything “stagnant” after the job cuts. But in the next two days, four men got promoted. She shared the promotion email with Fortune, along with a note she sent to her boss asking if they could talk. In response, Activision says that promotions continued as scheduled in 2019 for both men and women.

In a statement to Fortune, Activision reiterated that the human resources personnel and leadership for the company's different units operated within their respective organizations and did not all report directly into Activision Blizzard until 2019 and that "the commitment to independence occasionally allowed some employees to conduct themselves in truly regrettable ways." They added, "We recognize that, in some instances, even with the company’s systems and policies to prevent and encourage reporting of inappropriate conduct, we fell short of ensuring that all of our employees’ behavior was consistent with our values and our expectations. In retrospect, we could have done better."

Zero tolerance?

The sexual harassment lawsuit brought against Activision Blizzard by the state of California is still ongoing. In September, the day after the EEOC filed suit, Activision Blizzard agreed to settle that case for $18 million—or less than 0.5% of the company’s 2020 revenue. (Activision denied “all allegations of wrongdoing” and said it had agreed to the settlement to avoid “the expense, distraction and possible litigation associated with such a dispute.”)

In January, California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed an objection to the EEOC settlement as “unfair, inadequate, and unreasonable," saying it enables Activision “to escape accountability.” The settlement, the DFEH says, would allow Activision to destroy evidence relevant to California’s case, and that the approximately 13,000 female employees who are possible claimants could receive as little as a few hundred dollars. (By comparison, the DFEH's settlement with Riot Games was for $100 million, with $80 million of it to go to 2,365 female employees and contractors.)

Kotick has pledged to employ a zero-tolerance harassment policy, waive arbitration in sexual harassment and discrimination claims, and expand the number of women and nonbinary people it employs by 50%. Kotick himself took a 2021 pay cut—from $1.75 million per year to $62,500 per year, California’s state minimum—until the board of directors feels certain diversity and inclusion goals are met. (Kotick earned $155 million from the company in 2021 via a bonus awarded earlier in the year.)

For its part, Microsoft's Spencer told the Wall Street Journal regarding the workplace issues in the unit, “We see the progress that they’re making that was pretty fundamental to us deciding to go forward here.” Microsoft itself announced in mid-January, however, that it was reviewing its own sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies after an activist shareholder won a proposal at its shareholders meeting demanding greater disclosure about how it handled past investigations.

Many leaders mentioned in this story have left Blizzard, including J. Allen Brack, who resigned following the California lawsuit. Since July, Activision Blizzard has cut ties with 37 people, and 44 more have been disciplined. As for Afrasiabi, he was fired in 2020 for misconduct, according to Blizzard.

For the women of Blizzard, the reckoning has been both painful and cathartic. Many are doubtful that the lawsuits or the Microsoft acquisition will lead to real change, but they fervently hope they will. A female employee who’s been at the company nearly a decade says the past few months have been both awkward and somber. “It’s definitely been the hardest time in my career,” she says. “But for the women who are staying, we do it because we believe overall Blizzard is capable of changing and being better."

Others seem relieved to have moved on. Years of having their bodies ogled, their projects shelved, and their comments talked over in meetings—while seeing promotions go to less qualified men—just takes a toll.

About a month after surviving the 2019 layoffs, Nicki Broderick resigned to take a producer job at another game company. It wasn't just the panic attacks she'd begun to have while driving to work that made her leave, but also the realization that she truly didn't love her job anymore and felt like a "sleazy car salesman" pushing Blizzard's products. “I always thought I was going to retire at Blizzard,” she says, echoing a sentiment I heard from almost every woman I spoke with. “I thought I was going to love this company and be there till the day I die. But it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, and it didn’t get better in seven years, which is a long time.”

Another woman in the publishing department recalled a story she said pretty much summed up her time at Blizzard, and perfectly illustrates what the amended California complaint describes as "male coworkers belittling…or minimizing their contributions." During 2018's BlizzCon, she ran into a tipsy male colleague on the walkway between the Marriott and the Hilton. He stopped her and exclaimed, “I’m so glad you were there so I could take credit for all the work you did!”

Then he hugged her, and walked away.

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