A Letter From CEO Bobby Kotick Regarding Progress and Commitments Made at Acti-Blizz

[sensei]

I heard from a friend that worked at blizzard that he was directed to hire a female candidate specifically. There were 5 candidates. 1 was a girl. The girl didn't know anything about video games, but she was chosen for the job.

This was 2-3 years ago though.

But was it "a female candidate" or "that female candidate", because hiring women that have nice...errr.. assets when they don't know the job is nothing new or earth shattering. It's something that's been going on in companies for decades to the point where it's been used as a joke on TV shows and movies. As a matter of fact it might reinforce the whole "bro culture" thing they're accusing Blizzard of.

[Jester Joe]

Just look at the facts dude. If you hire 50% male and 50% women, but there's 85% qualified male candidates, you would be discriminating against men.

The facts would not be 50/50. They said this, and I've repeated it a few times, their goal is "over 1/3rd women and non-binary". That isn't half.

There is - but its not a stretch to assume that there are far more tech jobs. And it would make sense if the artists jobs is around 50/50(i actually have no idea how the gender distribution is in this line of work) and the tech are 80/20 or quite possibly more like 95/5 in favor of men that it would draw the average gender distribution grealy towards male dominated

If we're working on assumptions though, you could also assume there are women/non-binary who don't go into tech strictly because of the reputation it has in the field. Although there's actually reason to believe that, considering how many programs have shown up to allow younger girls to explore the tech field and encourage any with interest to pursue it.

[Hellobolis]

As others have pointed out this is going to worsen their product(s) by a lot. Can see them collapsing over this.

5 years is enough time to not have to hire unqualified women. but chances are some exceptional male candidates will fall through the cracks. then again if you are an exceptional man or woman you can probably find a better opportunity than blizzard anyways.

[ClassicPeon]

The facts would not be 50/50. They said this, and I've repeated it a few times, their goal is "over 1/3rd women and non-binary". That isn't half.



If we're working on assumptions though, you could also assume there are women/non-binary who don't go into tech strictly because of the reputation it has in the field. Although there's actually reason to believe that, considering how many programs have shown up to allow younger girls to explore the tech field and encourage any with interest to pursue it.

All we have are assumptions. We literally have no evidence to work from.

Statistics show that the more egalitarian a country gets the less diversity we get in fields like tech. One of the most egalitarian countries on earth is Denmark. We have more females graduating universities then males these years and yet even with a lot of effort to push females into tech its almost going the opposite direction.

So i would say a fair assumption is that in general - females just arent as interested in tech as males are.

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5 years is enough time to not have to hire unqualified women. but chances are some exceptional male candidates will fall through the cracks. then again if you are an exceptional man or woman you can probably find a better opportunity than blizzard anyways.

i quite honestly dont think the best developers would work at gaming companies like Blizzard. The pay just isnt good enough compared to what else you can get - and its not like you are sitting there making your own game. Chances are you are writing just as repetitive and boring code as you would in any other company. You would have to be really really hardcore in love with making games to do that, but if thats the case you would probably choose an indie studio instead where you would be a much larger part of the equation meaning you would have your hands in quite a bit deeper.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Working at Blizzard must be nervewracking if you have to expend a tremendous amount of mental energy trying to dance around the thought police and refusing to interact with other people because all it takes is for someone who doesn't like you to lob an accusation at you and then you get fired. Must also be extremely frustrating for the vets if they're having to work with incompetents who were hired just to fill a quota. Little wonder why all of the old guard have bailed out of the sinking ship.

[mbit]

then again if you are an exceptional man or woman you can probably find a better opportunity than blizzard anyways.

This exactly, Blizzard was known for low pay for years and now also horrible work place practices. Anyone they hire will be bottom tier which is why in reverse it probably wont matter much if they hire for good boy points to make people forget that kotick wants you erotic. From that viewpoint it makes sense - if you already hiring bottom barrel at least hire presentable people that get you some approval for good deeds.

[mmocfd1b0ab5a3]

So does this mean if tomorrow I identify as any other than man I have better chances to get hired by Blizz?

[uuuhname]

So does this mean if tomorrow I identify as any other than man I have better chances to get hired by Blizz?

[RoKPaNda]

Cool. The pay cut thing is actually probably pretty rough for him. It doesn't matter that he's a millionaire, he's expected to do the same job for significantly less pay. If you became wealthy tomorrow would you have any desire to keep working in your same job for significantly less pay? It's a downgrade for him any way you look at it, and he definitely deserves that. He'll get no sympathy from me.

Getting hired by Blizzard just became much easier -> males, just identify as non-binary! Fast track!

As others have pointed out this is going to worsen their product(s) by a lot. Can see them collapsing over this.

Where are you people getting the idea that they're not also hiring based on merit? What ever gave you the idea that they're going to hire a mediocre non-binary person for a position over an exceptional CIS male candidate that has also applied? Is this just inventing problems to be upset about or what?

Working at Blizzard must be nervewracking if you have to expend a tremendous amount of mental energy trying to dance around the thought police and refusing to interact with other people because all it takes is for someone who doesn't like you to lob an accusation at you and then you get fired. Must also be extremely frustrating for the vets if they're having to work with incompetents who were hired just to fill a quota. Little wonder why all of the old guard have bailed out of the sinking ship.

Zero tolerance policies are quite common and nobody sensible is living in perpetual fear of being accused of something horrible. And again where are you getting the idea that they stop hiring based on merit just because they have a goal of hiring 50% more women? lol.

[mmocfd1b0ab5a3]

Where are you people getting the idea that they're not also hiring based on merit? What ever gave you the idea that they're going to hire a mediocre non-binary person for a position over an exceptional CIS male candidate that has also applied? Is this just inventing problems to be upset about or what?

I think he meant if you identify as non-binary person you increase your chances to get the job. Pretty solid tip.

[Poppincaps]

Gotta love how people always out themselves as bigots in these threads. The thought that there are actually capable and talented people who aren't white or aren't men, just shocks some of you folks and it's hilarious.

[deenman]

government report from 2019 says 87% of IT graduates are men and 82% of technology graduates are men. so yeah there aren't all that many women/non binary people who have the skills for the job.

but that's only a concern if they want to reach 33% women for all departments. they could just make all the janitors/caterers/etc women and reach the 33% quota in no time while the dev teams remain a sausagefest, which i would guess is how they are able to reach their current 25% number.

what a surprise when you live in a patriarchy that tells women their role is housekeeping and raising kids,its amazing women have had a hard time getting in to these spaces

[Xath]

Non-binary people are widely considered to be under the trans umbrella though, jsyk. They also usually suffer gender dysphoria. Aso you don't need HRT to be valid as trans*. Some people cannot do HRT for medical reasons also, it doesn't make them less valid. Not everybody's struggle looks the same, so don't make sweeping generalizations like that.

I agree you don't need hrt but in my personal experience people who identify as non binary tend to drop it as soon as they consider it to be not beneficial for their careers. Those are the kind of people who give ammunition to the jerks who claim being trans isn't an actual thing.

[mbit]

what a surprise when you live in a patriarchy that tells women their role is housekeeping and raising kids,its amazing women have had a hard time getting in to these spaces

Or maybe women are smarter and dont take shit jobs. Imagine believing this bullshit. Why are women not doing sevage work 50%? Somehow never a problem and no push here.

[Xath]

what a surprise when you live in a patriarchy that tells women their role is housekeeping and raising kids,its amazing women have had a hard time getting in to these spaces

Unless you live in the middle east that isn't a thing.

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Except that's also not the situation being described.

Also it's a bit weird to say qualified doesn't mean skill, but then try to defend your qualifications through your skills.

It's pretty simple to realize that the situation you're describing was already outlined by the other poster who already said that if there was an exceptional applicant they would be handled appropriately.

But in the situation where everyone is equally qualified (AKA- All meet the standards they need), that's where this policy will take hold.



Do you understand what qualified means?

If a qualification is "Needs 5 years experience" and both of you have that, congratz! That's both equally qualified in that regards. Hence why the other poster also mentioned if someone is far exceeding the rest in terms of skill.

Qualifying is just to pass the preliminary part.




The amount of times people think pointing out a mod title is some sort of weird "GOTCHA!" moment is crazy.

Instead, realize it invalidates what you say if you have to stoop to such statements because it pretty much admits you don't have anything else to actually prove your point with.

Especially since you say this after I already pointed out that it's silly to trust ActiBlizz to be handling women/non-binary applicants as equally as male ones.



You realize your own statement here highlights part of the issue that's been going on?



No, they've been hiring based on gender too, which is the issue. Claiming now "Oh, but we shouldn't factor in gender at all!" isn't fixing the issue because there's already such a ridiculous imbalanced caused by hiring based on gender to begin with. The only way to actually fix that would be to flip it to give those who haven't had the chance they deserve that chance.

Once we're actually closer to being even, THEN we can consider disregarding gender/race.

So you don't understand what equally qualified means. If I barely meet the asking requirements of a posistion and you far exceed them I am not equally qualified to you I have lesser qualifications.

[mbit]

So you don't understand what equally qualified means. If I barely meet the asking requirements of a posistion and you far exceed them I am not equally qualified to you I have lesser qualifications.

Their HR Head hired his wife. Your discussion over qualification in some ideal hiring process is pointless.

[Jester Joe]

So you don't understand what equally qualified means. If I barely meet the asking requirements of a posistion and you far exceed them I am not equally qualified to you I have lesser qualifications.

You're talking about equally skilled. Qualifications are just the bar to pass.

It's more like you don't know what qualified means.

[Every Pwny]

I like how this announcement coincides with the release of a new mount. Hahahah

[MoanaLisa]

A few points:

1. The meritocracy argument that so many are relying on doesn't hold up when you're talking about recruits for entry positions. Those recruits looking to get their first job in development, art, music, whatever are going to be pretty much blank slates. Othewise it wouldn't be an entry position. It's likely that a lot of the balancing will be done at this level.

2. Recruiting will be wider and more formalized. That's a good thing. Moves internally should be put up and applied for just like any other job including outside recruitment. A job bid is a job bid and should seek the widest possible range of applicants.

3. Hiring 'bros' of current employees will probably end.

The real takeaway from Kotick's memo is that better pay transparency and no forced arbitration are things that employees wanted. They won. Good for them. And, if they can manage it, there will be no more bullshit among what are supposed to be professional colleagues. That's good too.

[Combatbutler]

Gotta love how people always out themselves as bigots in these threads. The thought that there are actually capable and talented people who aren't white or aren't men, just shocks some of you folks and it's hilarious.

There is a very easy solution to the whole thing, no pictures, no direct interview, just the qualifications and boom hired.

And, if they can manage it, there will be no more bullshit among what are supposed to be professional colleagues. That's good too.

I very much doubt it