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MS investigating claims of sexual harassment - "at Xbox, every woman, except for 1, had been called a bitch" (Update: MS Responds)
- Thread starter gofreak
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Well, I mostly meant that given that moment this piece appears, a couple of weeks after they promoted diversity in GDC, it gives the impression of hipocresy. Probably they sppoted the issue some time ago, and that pushed them to openly promote divesity as they have been doing recelty. Will probably take some time to change a corporate culture.
What's so wtf? About my post?
I'm talking about the idea of boycotts. They never really happen and they never really work.
Calling the behaviour out, particularly via social media (like this just has) has proven to be a far more effective method.
One thing I hope that happens is some journalists follow up on this after some time to see if things have been improved. Far too often we see stories like this but with very little follow up. I'd prefer to not use their products (when possible) if there isn't actual change against this behavior.
It can give off the impression of hypocrisy because the company may in fact be acting in a hypocritical manner. Microsoft would be far from the first organization to champion a cause publicly while largely ignoring it internally.
What in the name?
She should've went straight to the police, imo!
Disgusting, disturbing and sad. What I dont get is how stuff like this goes unnoticed, not a single decent guy there to step up and blow the lid on this, to say it's unacceptable. Hope MS makes some heads roll after this.
In my experience, it's REAL hard to get in real trouble when stuff like that happens. No one wants to take responsibility and even though they tell you to your face that there's an "open door policy" everyone knows that it's just BS. Nothing will actually happen unless the person does something so out of line there's no way they can brush it under the rug. I've seen it happen at my current place of employment more than once and nothing has ever been done about it. I've asked the women in question why they don't do something about it, and they always tell me that it's not worth it. Most likely the person getting punished is them anyway. It's totally messed up.
Absolutely disgusting MS. Hella bad look.
Nah Ed this comment is way out of pocket. Please rethink this.
Nah Ed this comment is way out of pocket. Please rethink this.
I think it depends on rank too.
A lower level employee would most likely be fired very quickly for calling someone a bitch with witnesses present.
Higher level employees probably get away with more unfortunately.
What do you think a union is going to do in a case like this?
User Warned: Whataboutism and Platform Warring.
He isn't wrong though. Also, how many people here boycotted Sony and Naughty Dog after harassment claims surfaced? None probably. Microsoft does need to be taken to task on this though and needs to fix this shit asap.
Almost all HR jobs at Microsoft mentioned "facilitate an open, inclusive, Microsoft Values-based environment that enables effective employee relations". It's pretty simple to me that they're not doing their jobs.
The word "bitch", when used by a man, against a woman, is a sexist and misogynist slur. Period, full stop. I wonder if HR would have responded differently if they received a complaint of an employee being called the N-word?
The saddest part is that this is not even the most harrowing allegation being brought forward here. An MS employee has alleged being passed over for promotion for almost 6 years (probably on a discriminatory basis), despite the fact that the Lily Ledbetter Act has been law in the United States for over a decade.
Another employee alleged sexually-motivated threats against her life while on the job. I don't give a flying FUCK if the accused was "an independent contractor". This is literally a criminal act that took place at work, and any HR representative that ignored it has literally committed criminal negligence. What the actual fuck, Microsoft.
I hope this snowballing and becoming public leads to an actual response, and not just typical PR "we hear you" bullshit. Fix your shit, Phil Spencer. Fix your shit, Satya Nadella.
The saddest part is that this is not even the most harrowing allegation being brought forward here. An MS employee has alleged being passed over for promotion for almost 6 years (probably on a discriminatory basis), despite the fact that the Lily Ledbetter Act has been law in the United States for over a decade.
Another employee alleged sexually-motivated threats against her life while on the job. I don't give a flying FUCK if the accused was "an independent contractor". This is literally a criminal act that took place at work, and any HR representative that ignored it has literally committed criminal negligence. What the actual fuck, Microsoft.
I hope this snowballing and becoming public leads to an actual response, and not just typical PR "we hear you" bullshit. Fix your shit, Phil Spencer. Fix your shit, Satya Nadella.
Seriously, that's what you took from that and how you interpreted it?
Ok. Talk about missing the point.
Thanks! It's all good - in the past. It was a shit company.
Disturbing but not surprising 'welcome' to corporate at most companies. Sad to say no one wants to jeopardize there career by complaining even to HR.
I hear stories from female and male friends who work in both the games and film industry and most people just brush it off otherwise you get a 'reputation'
People just try to avoid the assholes and bullies and other people try to protect people as much as they can.
I hear stories from female and male friends who work in both the games and film industry and most people just brush it off otherwise you get a 'reputation'
People just try to avoid the assholes and bullies and other people try to protect people as much as they can.
The point is why do yo feel the need to come here and tell people not to boycott anything because why bother?
Noone is telling you to boycott anything, so you shouldn't tell people not to do it if they think it's the right thing to do.
It's their prerrogative, just as with THNordic, Vavra or whomever
The sad thing is, it's not even this industry in particular. It's almost every company and every industry. Of course some are better than others but most large corporations are cesspools. The entire corporate mentality needs to change in a hurry.
Why do you NEED to be validated when someone declares they're not gonna buy any products anymore tho?
I'm not under any illusions or suggesting that this is an Xbox-specific problem -- far from it. My problem is that, much like the company's handling of these sexual harassment allegations, they know about it, it's a pervasive issue and they have done nothing to address it. Twitter of all places has done more to curb harassment and hate speech than Microsoft and that's a bar so low you'd need an electron microscope to see it. Microsoft is a billion dollar company tech company, major player in the video game industry, regularly advertises itself as a progressive/inclusive company that encourages everyone to "jump in" on its platform, but in reality the online element of its flagship videogame platform is a cesspool of trolls and racists and, apparently, its company culture is a sexist garbage fire. They don't care. It's Microsoft. If they did, they would use the full force of their company to address the issue and not just sweep it under the rug or rely on users to self-report abuse.
Oh God, everytime i read about work culture /environment on big corporations it gets worse and i get sad 😢
Its a depressing thought when buildings with a bunch of humans treat each other like garbage for a living.
Its a depressing thought when buildings with a bunch of humans treat each other like garbage for a living.
At least there is that
Bonnie Ross, Studio Head of 343i
Shannon Loftis, Head of Microsoft Publishing
Helen Chiang, Head of Minecraft
HR departments anywhere are not there to help you as an employee. They are there to cover the business' ass. It's hard to believe in a situation like this that someone wouldn't have already brought it up with HR. It blew up probably because nothing was done
"As a Microsoft Partner, was asked to sit on someone's lap twice in one meeting in front of HR and other executives," she wrote. "I can assure you that nothing was done. I alone objected and cited Microsoft policy. The person said that he did not have to listen and repeated the request a second time. No one said anything."
Literally in front of HR and she cited their own policy. Like for all the "I'll look into personally" their reply gives, it's just a cover
Bonnie Ross is head of 343
Shannon Loftis is head of 3rd party publishing (or something along those lines I think)
Even our own matimeo is fairly prominent at MS
Loftis is head of Microsoft Studios
Bonnie Ross is 343's head
Not sure when the last time you were on xbox live was. But not only is voice stuff in general not a thing, but horrible tags, clans, clubs, random messages with threat, etc. all have really strict enforcement. I play with my sister and during the 360 era it was unbearable and so far in 4-5 years of playing XBO we haven't had a peep. The only reporting we've ever done is some tasteless names on CoD.
Quite a few, head of game publishing, head of business development, head of Xbox/gaming partnerships, head of Halo, head of Minecraft, head of Game Pass/engineering, a lot of leadership positions in their studios and a lot more. That doesn't mean these issues can't happen or that they will be dealt with properly, it very rarely changes much if the culture is that bad.
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I don't understand why there isn't an organization (affiliated with government) dedicated to these types of cases were sexual harrassment isn't properly deal with by HR or to prevent sexual harrassment if the company is too incompetent/negligent , wich they normally are, with forced 'education' programs, at least it would help
Like, actual questioning and auditing
I got your point and while you're not wrong (sadly), it did kind of sound like you were trying to talk them out of boycotting MS because mistreatment in the workplace is so common. I'm sure that wasn't your intention though.
In no way do I excuse that kind of behavior online but you can't compare twitter, where all harassment is done in text form, to an online service that supports audio, text, video, etc. None of us know what actions have been taken on the back end, but we all should know it can't be an easy problem to fix because it happens on every platform.
You're making a lot of assumptions and mixing two entirely different issues.
I hope you're right. This shit needs to stop.
As with any other survey, it's based on replies of those who wanted to reply. I doubt there was a question in there that asked "have you ever been sexually harassed at work and when you complained to HR they didn't do anything?"
Huh? Cesspool of trolls and racists? If you report them good chance theyll get banned. If they leave you rude/disrespectful comments you can report that and MS will take action. If a name they have is racist/etc report it and MS will automatically change their name until they change it themselves.
Tons of tools are available as well for the user. System wide mute, blocking messages from strangers, feedback, etc.
Shameful stuff and even worse were you have nowhere to turn for help. What is it with people that they can even be so brazen, I feel if someone got caught doing this stuff by another employee you would get called out on that spot but I guess everywhere is different. Culture can be really shitty at times. Sort it out Nadella. I can imagine people that made it look down on people that complain, if I did it why can't you, people are assholes, deal with it which would be an awful response from management but wouldn't surprise me in a cutthroat environment were it's difficult to get to the top especially being a woman, more so years ago were it was probably worse but you never know, male culture has taken a dark turn with online reinforcement so perhaps it's getting worse as these people enter the workplace and up the ladder.
Reading back again. I guess I could see how it looks that way.
But I did follow up after saying that it's just not a realistic or effective method. Social media call outs have proven to be far more effective at instigating change.
Does that PR statement really want us to believe that such a widespread problematic culture, including reports online, didn't come to the knowledge of higher ups in HR? At least via the grapevine if not informally?
User Banned (5 Days): Inflammatory whataboutism + Thread derailment. History of infractions.
It is rather amusing to see some of the folks commenting show such concern about things with some veiled console waving in the background. Any time you get thousands of flawed human beings together there are going to be idiots who do terrible things, and they should be dealt with appropriately harshly whether at Microsoft or wherever. For those so "upset" at Xbox possibly having any such crappy behavior in their group of employees, I can't imagine what likely goes on with somewhere like Sony over in Japan when you look at how women are portrayed in Japanese video games.
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