Video game giant admits botching workplace abuse & sexual misconduct response

Video game behemoth Ubisoft seems to have finally officially acknowledged that it did a poor job of handling claims of workplace abuse and harassment, which first came to light back in June 2020

ABetterUbisoft, a worker group consisting of disgruntled Ubisoft employees, has hurled numerous criticisms at the company’s management over failing, for months on end, to follow up on reports of misconduct in the workplace.

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Now, Ubisoft’s Chief People Officer Anika Grant has come out with a statement acknowledging the shortcomings of the company’s management in dealing with the issue.

“At the beginning of the crisis, we spent a lot of time making sure that we had the right process in place – that we were able to very quickly and efficiently run an investigation and get to some outcomes,” Grant said.

“What I think we missed, though, is the employee experience through that. I don't think we always communicated enough back to the people who had raised an issue in the first place about what we found as part of the investigations – the decisions that we made and the actions that we took. And so I think, unfortunately, people lost trust in that process.”

While the ABetterUbisoft group seems to have somewhat appreciated the admission, they have nevertheless lamented the ‘black box nature’ of the investigation process. The group noted that there is a lot more to be desired from management, and that many of their demands and criticism have still not been addressed.

Reports of alleged abuse and sexual misconduct started pouring in from numerous Ubisoft employees back in June 2020. CEO Yves Guillemot responded with a promise to implement changes at the company, establish a reporting system and hold perpetrators accountable. Several executives lost their jobs in the aftermath.

According to Grant, the number of allegations of misconduct has significantly dropped since then, and the severity of allegations has lessened as well.

“Not only has the volume of cases that are being raised or of alerts happening declined enormously, but what we're also seeing is that the severity of the kinds of things that are being reported has decreased,” Grant said.

However, according to AbetterUbisoft, in practice the response has been far less impactful. The group claims that many of the offenders have simply been moved to other studios or teams, with little to no actual repercussions for them.

The group insists that there must be more substantial changes and has issued a list of their demands from the company.

While many of those points are yet to be addressed by Ubisoft’s management, Anika Grant has said that she recognizes the ‘long journey’ ahead. “I know we are not yet where we want to be. But I do think that we are seeing incremental improvements every day.”