Blizzard Entertainment executives were reportedly distant and ‘angry’ with staff at a recent Q&A meeting organized to quell questions about the company’s future, and recent employee practices world headlines.
According to Game Developer, the meeting was designed to address three major concerns from staff, raised through internal surveys: the use of ‘stack ranking’ to promote competition among employees, the cuts in large bonuses to employees for 2022, and a new notice that all staff are required. who will return to the office in the coming months. It was led by company president Mike Ybarra, who is said to have made ‘horrendous’ and ‘weird’ comments that left everyone in attendance on edge.
Employees communicating anonymously Game Developer says Ybarra made several tone-deaf statements during the proceedings, notably admitting that a planned 58% cut in annual staff bonuses would affect upper management and the lower ranks employees alike. ‘If you think that executives make a lot of money and you don’t, you’re living a myth,’ Ybarra reported.
As employees point out, some members of Blizzard Entertainment only earn US $45,000 per year. For these employees, a bonus can be the main difference between living comfortably, and almost no salary. Ybarra’s salary, though not public knowledge, is likely to be much higher — and therefore less likely to be affected by cuts in bonuses.
The anger of these comments is compounded by Blizzard Entertainment experiencing strong financial results in the last quarter, and a new, company-wide order to return to the office.
Blizzard will reportedly ask employees to return to the office in the coming months, at least in part. This tends to eat into employee income, while the cost of living and housing pressures grow. Cutting staff bonuses in this economy is seen as adding insult to injury – with Ybarra’s seemingly ignorant comments reportedly worsening staff sentiment.
Adding to this matter is the recent revelation that Blizzard Entertainment ranks the staff on a bell curve, from worst to best performance. This ‘stack ranking’ system reportedly forced the recent departure of Brian Birmingham, Blizzard’s lead software engineer and a 20-year veteran of the company. While concerned employees say this system has led to low esteem and ‘punitive’, unfair management, Ybarra tries to downplay concerns.
Read: Blizzard lead quits in protest of unfair ‘bell curve’ employee rankings
‘We won’t [sic] stack rank employees 1 to X in Blizzard. We have high expectations for our teams. Managers set goals for each employee and we measure performance against those goals,’ Ybarra said. ‘We give managers guidelines on how to consider performance ratings in larger teams to ensure they are fairer and more impartial, and have flexibility.’
Despite these assurances, the employees remained dissatisfied – and were reportedly pushed over the edge by Ybarra’s insistence that, ‘[Blizzard Entertainment] want[s] people to be happy, and if the decisions about [sic] to be happy do not align with where we are going, and you are not happy, then you have to do what can[s] [you] happy’. The comment was interpreted as a push at the door for employees who disagree with Blizzard’s current management practices – bottom line: if you don’t like it, leave.
After several turbulent years at the company, plagued by lawsuits and allegations of mismanagement, it appears that employees are now more fed up than ever. The Q&A meeting did not please Ybarra or the broader Blizzard Entertainment team of employees, who were reportedly disappointed, dissatisfied, and angry at this response to valid, growing concerns.
Whether the push for better conditions is being heard at Blizzard Entertainment, or the employees are simply following Ybarra’s implied order to leave, it’s clear that change is on the horizon for the company.
