Statement from Unity:
More details here.
Hard to know for sure where exactly the truth lies between these two contradictory versions of events, but hopefully the lawsuit will result in justice being served.
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Unity CEO accused of sexual harassment in new lawsuit from former vice president
- Thread starter LewieP
- Start date
Statement from Unity:
More details here.
Hard to know for sure where exactly the truth lies between these two contradictory versions of events, but hopefully the lawsuit will result in justice being served.
Isn't that a bit premature when we don't know who is actually in the wrong here for certain?
Tech Crunch has a number of quotes from the lawsuit, like the opening paragraph.
"Why didn't she report?" says the legal arm of a company whose most wealthy and powerful employee has just been accused of sexual harassment. "Clearly she would have felt safe reporting," they go on, while also calling the alleged victim a liar and a fraud. "We take this very seriously," they conclude, "which is why our investigation is already complete and we won't be looking into it any further."
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Cheers, added to the OP.
Yeah even if her version of events were entirely fabricated (which I see no reason to think at this stage), this is some entirely twisted logic from Unity's statement.
HR is for the company, not the employees. What would reporting it have done for her is what I'm wondering.
She was afraid to complain against a harasser in an industry that predominately sides with the more powerful harasser, and that's her fault? You don't say, Unity legal team.
Now that's a line even a porn star would be embarassed to deliver.
OT, I know nothing about either of these people's personal lives and it seems to be conflicting claims at this point so I'll withhold judgement for now. Shitty situation for the brand itself though.
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Do you have any information not currently included in this thread?
Yes. He was former CEO and president of EA before moving to Unity and becoming its CEO.
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Why? Unity has nothing to do with this.... There are hundreds of people who worked on it, i am sure this guy is not one of them
No I don't...it's just a bad situation since these things are very delicate and she also unfortunately sounds like a disgruntled employee because she did this after getting terminated...
ah ok, I had no idea he was the head of Unity after that
I don't know if this has occurred to you, but wanting to keep your job has kept a great many people quiet from speaking out on issues actively affecting them. Once job security is off the table, it becomes a different story.
I'm well aware. It's just unfortunate that someone at the top is involved in this, and it'll be telling of the company management how they continue to handle this.
Sadly you can find shitty people anywhere. Hopefully if the accusations prove to be true, they will deal with him quickly.
Awful, I sincerely hope this is properly taken care of, there's been far too many stories of higher ups at companies doing this shit.
But I gotta wonder, for people (like me) who no longer support any games published by THQ no matter the developer, what would the stance be on something like this if they did back him? Stop buying unity games all together? That's a lot of indie devs.
But I gotta wonder, for people (like me) who no longer support any games published by THQ no matter the developer, what would the stance be on something like this if they did back him? Stop buying unity games all together? That's a lot of indie devs.
Just checking: Are you aware that less than 10% of rape accusations are false?
While the Internet may tend to default to siding with the victim, a court of law holds no such biases. If she's found to be lying out of her ass in court, she'll be in serious trouble. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that she is merely making stuff up because she got fired. There are ways ex-employees can get back at their old employers that don't involve committing perjury.
If it's true they were negotiating the terms of her severance when they learned of these allegations that does make this that much more dramatic and more murky. If Unity have documented evidence for her firing would it not also require a conspiracy to fabricate it? If the reasons for her firing are legitimate as far as unity are concerned but we assume the allegations are true, her firing would be disappointing motivation for coming forward.. you'd hope people would out such behaviour because it's wrong, period, as much as that isn't always possible. While anyone in a corporate power structure would have issues rebuking and reporting a man at the top, deputy president of HR is quite a high position: one can imagine direct dealings with Riccitiello but one can also see motive for revenge and libel in the case of a messy separation. It's easy to believe she might have felt she wouldn't be believed, Unity is a huge industry player and Riticello is a veteran of it, but a story like this would be powerful ammunition for competitors and she would have presided over hirings and firings and the rulebook for similar offences. It seems sketchy enough for me to not have the pitchfork whipped out and lit just yet. I'd be curious to see what both sides reveal in the coming days.
Riccitiello has questions to answer but I'm also curious about the alleged serious misconduct. Hugely embarrassing for the company but hopefully the truth will come out.
Riccitiello has questions to answer but I'm also curious about the alleged serious misconduct. Hugely embarrassing for the company but hopefully the truth will come out.
Well, would you go to HR to say that the CEO of the company is sexually harassing you? Keep in mind, HR more often works for the company than they do individual employees, and you have dirt on someone who's at the top of the food chain. HR is likely to side with the company and the CEO.
Plenty often put up with abuse they receive in the workplace to not rock the boat and to keep their job.
Maybe you could have, I dunno, explained your feelings instead of posting something that seemed like you were coming in ready to complain about moderation and pick a fight?
Probably not best to just blindly trust what the company's saying about her, as well. If you want to wait till this all shakes out, you can always just not post.
Well, she was the Vice President of HR, though. But maybe that's just even more reason for her not to report it as she knows exactly how things are going there.
Unity's answer is really shitty nonetheless, basically calling her a liar outright, the only reason being she didn't use the internal channels to report this issue...
I would've hoped 0% are false. But humans are humans, and yes...the internet and social media riles up before everyone has the full details. But I'll end this discussion here since I've been warned.
PS...I'm not saying she's lying; she could be telling the truth but her termination muddies the waters a little...and I hold my reservations...
Your post was so clearly a provocation towards the mods, I'm not sure how you could play the victim card now. But go ahead and try if you want, I guess.
Your initial post was borderline but the follow up was flippant and showed that maybe you were not engaging in good faith
in addition, let's be clear here, the CEO and the head of HR were in a relationship at the time
I'm sure she was going to be extremely impartial about the sexual harassment claims being filed against her boyfriend that she talks loudly about having sex with all the time, it was definitely going to be a fair process
if you actually... cared about whether... or not you... would... get... banned i would imagine you would... message a moderator... asking them since that... would... get you an answer. since... you didn't... do... that... and now you're just acting all... pissy i assume that you just like having a... victim... complex
The techcrunch article details more of the allegations and it's even messier than I realised
I have a question, in the event the president who runs an engine company did something like this (or worse) and didn't lose their job, would people boycott the entire engine? Don't think I've ever seen that situation before.
