Activision Blizzard has confirmed that the company released 37 employees for workplace misconduct since July 2021, when it was sued by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for failing to address sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace. The company also reported that it's disciplined 44 other employees in an attempt to fix the situation internally.
Sources close to the situation told the Wall Street Journal that the move comes as a direct result of shareholder pressure for the company to address the ongoing harassment lawsuit which, so far, it has not made a lot of public moves to combat. Those same sources also told the Journal that Activision has received over 700 internal reports from employees regarding workplace harassment and discrimination following July's lawsuit; however, the studio claims that the number is inaccurate and has been inflated by those sharing information.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Activision Blizzard had plans to release a summary of the steps it's taken in an attempt to fix the culture of abuse established within the company in December, but CEO Bobby Kotick delayed its posting as it could make the problem "seem bigger than was already known." Kotick has been adamant that he can fix the internal issues at the company despite reportedly knowing about them for years according to a November 2021 report also by the Wall Street Journal.
Calls for Kotick to resign along with other members of the Activision Blizzard board have been addressed by the company saying that Kotick will resign if he is unable to fix company culture. Other than the new report by the company confirming the discipline of roughly 80 employees, there hasn't been much to suggest that widespread change or Kotick's resignation is coming soon.
Activision Blizzard has seen plenty of kickback from fans of its games since the lawsuit was made public with many calling for the employees responsible for the abuse to be fired. The firing of 37 people for that reason will likely be viewed as a victory; however, it's important to note that fixing a company's entire workplace culture is a much more complicated issue than simply firing those in power. That said, it's a great place to start, but as long as Kotick is still CEO, a man who's reported to have knowingly looked the other way when being informed of the abuses and threatened his employee's lives, it's hard to see a future where Activision Blizzard's culture is changed with him still running the company.
Source: The Wall Street Journal