Blizzard president Mike Ybarra talks ’employee satisfaction,’ but angers many workers
Blizzard Entertainment employees throughout World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 The publisher says they are demoralized, angry, and angry after a meeting held Thursday with Blizzard president Mike Ybarra. Shortly after the meeting, Blizzard employees began tweeting about what they called a disappointing showing from leadership, and publicly challenged Ybarra’s statements. Their outward show of solidarity comes as some workers in the video game industry — including at Activision Blizzard itself — continue efforts to organize the industry’s first labor unions.
The Game Developer on Thursday published a detailed account of the meeting, which described a Q&A intended to answer an “employee satisfaction survey.” Blizzard management has pre-screened questions about the “stack ranking” process for evaluating employees, reducing profit sharing, and the company’s back-to-office order. Polygon has since spoken to several Blizzard developers who described the low morale that followed the meeting.
Blizzard spokesman Andrew Reynolds confirmed many of the points made during the meeting, and told Polygon that the company stands by Ybarra’s statements and “leadership in difficult times.”
The Game Developer said the reduction in the profit-sharing plan, which will see workers receive just 58% of their promised bonus, has come as a shock; two weeks ago, Activision Blizzard announced its quarterly financial results calling it a kickoff to a “strong financial performance in 2023.” At Blizzard Entertainment specifically, sales and operating income nearly doubled — a staggering 90% — as Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo all generated more than $100 million in net bookings, Activision Blizzard said.
Ybarra spoke about profit sharing at the meeting, suggesting that workers who believe executives earn more money are “living a myth.” The cut in profit-sharing to 58% applies to executives as well as its employees, said Ybarra. However, that doesn’t account for the stark differences in pay for executives and employees. A functional tester in Santa Monica is paid between $14 and $26 per hour, while the salary of a chief of staff is $270,000 per year. (These numbers are provided by job postings on Indeed.) They are very different jobs, but the profit-sharing cuts will undoubtedly affect workers differently.
Salaries rose again when Ybarra addressed the company’s back-to-the-office mandate, which begins in a few months and requires workers to return to the office three days a week after two year that accommodates work from home. King, the subsidiary of Activision Blizzard that produces Candy Crush, is back in the office, for example. Each of the publisher’s subsidiaries makes its own work-from-home decisions, Activision Blizzard spokesman Joe Christinat said.
Regardless of the situation, commuting to work adds another significant cost for employees, not to mention relocation costs for those hired from out of state during the pandemic. Blizzard spokesman Reynolds said Blizzard will honor current long-distance agreements, and make exceptions “for medical or religious reasons.” Customer service workers will continue to work remotely, too.
“We’re going to make decisions at times that not everyone agrees with — just like any other business leader with a team of over 4,500 individuals,” Reynolds said.
Game Developer also reported that Ybarra made comments that workers interpreted as meaning that those who disagreed with the office’s return policy should leave the company. Blizzard confirmed to Polygon that Ybarra’s statements were correctly quoted, but added that Blizzard is “listening to the team’s feedback.”
Labor experts suggest that back-to-work orders are also a way for employers to cut their workforce without resorting to layoffs, and the bad publicity and morale that follows. Matthew E. Kahn, an economics professor and author of Going Beyond: How the Flexible Work Economy Can Improve Our Lives and Our Citiessuggested that Tesla may have taken that approach earlier this year.
“In this extraordinary time where some companies want to cut their workforce, instead of firing people, when this returns to the office, the boss can count on being a captain of the industry. and you can get people off the fence,” Kahn told Polygon. “Can we agree that if people stop, that’s less ugly than shooting people?”
After responding to orders to return to work, Ybarra spoke about “some” of its disciplines not being “long-term” roles. Blizzard rep Reynolds confirmed the comments, but said they didn’t specifically mention any roles, and weren’t directed at QA or customer service.
But the developers didn’t see it that way – many on social media took it as an insult to QA and customer service, two fields that are widely undervalued in the video game industry – and also among the first of union. These roles, although important, are vulnerable to low pay and hardship, and are treated as if they are expendable. Ybarra’s comments, the workers suggested, pointed to a misunderstanding.
Behind the scenes, QA workers at several Activision Blizzard studios are organizing unions in a bid to strip the agency of their roles. Two QA departments have successfully merged – in Diablo 4 studio Blizzard Albany and Call of Duty: Warzone studio Raven Software. Both are represented by the Communications Workers of America; the next step is contract bargaining for better benefits, compensation, and workplace protections.
The outpouring of social media postings from Blizzard workers on Thursday appears to be a form of solidarity, and it’s not uncommon to see it in an industry as secretive as video games. After the California Department of Civil Rights filed their lawsuit against Activision Blizzard filed in 2021, workers quickly called CEO Bobby Kotick; many even walked out and called for his resignation.
But this time it felt different, as workers battled their leadership at individual studios.
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