[Business Insider] Microsoft Still Hasn't Cleaned Up Its Toxic Culture Issues, Employees Worried About Activision Blizzard Acquisition
- Thread starter Nightengale
- Start date
- Microsoft Activision/Blizzard
Yeah this attitude doesn't make sense to me. I see it as blatant whataboutism or trying to present their comment as "hey, I'm not a fanboy singling one platform out" when the whole fucking point of the thread is to single a company and even some specific employees out.
I guess they're talking about MSN (which isn't exaclty what I would call a "major news network") or maybe forgot MSNBC is no longer partially owned by Microsoft anymore. Either way a pretty frivolous claim regardless.
The point with the Activision link is that if Microsoft themselves have issues that they haven't fixed, then it's unlikely they're going to fix Activision's issues.
A brown CEO in the service of white underlings. The power of whiteness.
I want to know why people thought Microsoft would clean up Activision Blizzard in the first place? It was one of the most baffling things I read while the acquisition was announced. People were shouting on the hill about how MS would fix the company, yet we have no evidence of this whatsoever.
I believe MS has been completely divested from the MSNBC channel for like 20 years, and the website for a decade.
Call me pessimistic, but it feels like this type of shit will never fucking go away.
I've experienced toxic work environments first-hand... I can't even imagine how shitty it gets in these larger corporations.
I've experienced toxic work environments first-hand... I can't even imagine how shitty it gets in these larger corporations.
It was more wishful thinking than anything else. However, the fact is no one knows if MS will "fix" AB no matter how many PR blurbs Spencer puts out.
Unky Phil or something. The tech industry's bad enough, thinking the *videogame division* of one of the most prominent companies in the tech industry would be cleaning up any significant amount of toxic culture is purely wishful.
Fuck Microsoft then, clean it up
Lmao, Alex has Bored Ape pfp.
Fucking of course he does. Least surprising part about all of this.
It's amazing how some people still try to separate Spencer from the rest of the company and paint him as some kind of messiah. Gamers are weird.
Also hope that people would call out corporations on issues like this (even if it's in thread such as this), and not give their own preferred company a pass via inaction (even if it's in threads like this).
This might be shocking to you, but you're posting on a discussion board dedicated to the discussion of video games and the video game industry.
The xbox division, you know, the one that operates in the aforementioned video game industry, is a part of microsoft, a bigger part of it than ever before.
It isn't complicated.
There needs to be a mass exodus (removal) of toxic employees from Activision when the acquisition goes through.
Right? It's as if people are forgetting that CEO's are not your friends. But "look at his shelf".
of course he's a fucking cryptobroFuck Microsoft then, clean it up
Lmao, Alex has Bored Ape pfp.
That... doesn't sound kosher.
My mind immediately went toward the acquisition. Positive PR type deal? I suppose worse has been done.
Yeah I will never understand it. I have nothing against him, but he has been at Microsoft for a long long time, has been in a manager position for a long time, and so is certainly not ignorant about what is going on. It is why people were calling for Yves head at Ubisoft; he may not have done anything himself, but he was fully knowledgeable about what was going on, was in a position where he could stop it, and did nothing. Spencer apparently has enough sway to change the entire course of Microsoft gaming, but not to take care of issues?
He has also said nothing about the abortion fiasco either. Most of the executives across the gaming industry haven't, but that really sums up how similar to them he really is.
Sadly in my experience, management isn't gonna clean out management like this. Not unless it's a major fuck-up, power struggle or PR disaster in the making. Continuity is important for integrating the business into the wider organization.
Layoffs aren't uncommon with mergers, but that's strictly for employees considered redundant to an existing structure or whose role isn't part of the new shared business plan. (i.e.: Executives use it as an excuse to cut what they consider dead weight).
They're not going to lay off toxic devs. I'd expect QA layoffs first and foremost. (You don't have to respect the unionized QA members when you plan to show them the door anyway.)
That sound like what I'd expect. I was referring to the general management specifically, they always seem to mostly hold on to their positions. "Redundant" employees are always the first to go.
I don't think people are trying to downplay the situation saying that almost every company is like this in this business.
I get the feeling that people are actually sad that almost every company in the gaming industry is like this.
Places like Bungie seem to be the outliers
I get the feeling that people are actually sad that almost every company in the gaming industry is like this.
Places like Bungie seem to be the outliers
Destiny 2’s Bungie Faces Its Struggles With Workplace Sexism And Toxicity
Yesterday, IGN’s Rebekah Valentine published an incredibly in-depth article detailing a wide range of issues at Destiny 2 studio Bungie, which span a number of years and a number of topics. Topics, which are sadly all too familiar.
www.forbes.com
They're not either. Their outspoken (rather brave) support on issues like gun violence/racism/human rights is appreciated though.
"Doesn't like conflict" is honestly a disqualifier for a CEO. The reality is that steering a corporation is going to mean making decisions that will absolutely piss people off. You can't agree to every contract, sign any agreement, etc... You're going to have to be the person who tells people every week (if not every day in a company as big as MS), "Sorry, this proposal you've probably poored quite a lot of time into and would change your life isn't going to work for us."
This is true, though I'll say in my experience, non-publicly traded companies do better about listening to employee concerns. You aren't legally required to report every little thing about your financials to a big group of shareholders, so you can kind of eat some small losses (from firing a problematic employee to paying for additional worker support) without getting read the Riot Act over it. My current company takes that stance and it's all pretty smooth (because our very small pool of investors don't really care to dig into why we fired so-and-so, but a group of shareholders might if they think they sniff some lost share price over it).
This is true, though I'll say in my experience, non-publicly traded companies do better about listening to employee concerns. You aren't legally required to report every little thing about your financials to a big group of shareholders, so you can kind of eat some small losses (from firing a problematic employee to paying for additional worker support) without getting read the Riot Act over it. My current company takes that stance and it's all pretty smooth (because our very small pool of investors don't really care to dig into why we fired so-and-so, but a group of shareholders might if they think they sniff some lost share price over it).
So there are no outliersDestiny 2’s Bungie Faces Its Struggles With Workplace Sexism And Toxicity
Yesterday, IGN’s Rebekah Valentine published an incredibly in-depth article detailing a wide range of issues at Destiny 2 studio Bungie, which span a number of years and a number of topics. Topics, which are sadly all too familiar.
They're not either. Their outspoken (rather brave) support on issues like gun violence/racism/human rights is appreciated though.
This is always going to vary, of course. The absolute worst employer I ever had was a small private company that had an absolutely toxic CEO and COO. Things did get better after about a year and a half into my time there, but only because the company board found out the CEO had been committing embezzlement and sicked the feds on him.
Exhausting and infuriating. Props to the journalist Ashley Stewart and their sources for their invaluable work and contributions.
Because the problems at activision blizzard are negatively impacting the company and its potential going forward. That and they're much more public than the problems at MS.
Also as sad as it is I think the improvements people were hoping for probably had more to do with how they treat their game franchises, not their people.
To be able to actually watch porn in the workplace in front of female employees.... Good God the level of toxicity in that workplace....
Wanted to say this as well, maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation here but they can't do anything about it yet since they do not own anything officially yet?
What can they possibly enforce when you don't own anything yet?
The article is less about Activision and much more about how toxic MS itself is for women. The activision point is more of a footnote 'how can we be taking on a toxic company such as AB when we haven't fixed our own problems yet?'
To be fair I think this is new information to a lot of us. Similarly with Jim Ryan, he'd made some PR blunders and some annoying anti-consumer stuff but last week was the first time I'd realised he was a shithead right wing apologiser. And I think people on this forum have responded as you'd hope. Even the staunchest of PS fans have been clear in their message: Fuck Jim Ryan. Similarly I'd hope we see the Good guy Phil stuff come to an end in light of this. Fuck Xbox. Fuck Jim Ryan. Fuck Sony.
Sorry but why are you talking about phil ?.....this is a little too much, even if microsoft does have some bad shit, phil didn't do something wrong ( for now of course). Feel like , since the one from sony is shit, phil need it to be too. For now , he is good ! the day if something go out about him, you can be "mad" at him .........
Even for sony, why fuck sony in general ? there are some good people there too....doesn't need to be this "radical" about it.
Doesn't really gel with the chorus of 'every company's like this' though.
The head of a company/division is responsible for the shit that goes on under their watch. With the reports of sexual harassment claims being buried by HR in Xbox, Phil is complicit.
No one is saying every single employee is bad. Obviously there are good people there, and the women who are the subjects of harassment are also part of that. But the culture of a company is ultimately what people are talking about. This is like responding ACAB with "I have an uncle who is a cop who's a good guy". The statement is categorical.
