Kate Anderson 🇵🇸 FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸
@RebelComicNerd
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They/She 💙ABetterABK💙 Science Fiction/Fantasy writer. Artist. Poet. Gamer. Comic nerd.🧚♂️Your local forest fae🧚♂️Pantheist Pagan🌿
Joined June 2012
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Pinned Tweet
"More!" cries the tyrant from his gilded throne of greed.
"Have mercy!" cries the worker, who wants only what he needs.
"Help!" cries the Earth, engulfed in flood and in fire,
But the worker's busy working as the tyrant builds his bloody empire.
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EXECUTIVES 👏SHOULD 👏NOT 👏 BE 👏 EXEMPT 👏 FROM 👏 ZERO TOLERANCE POLICIES 👏👏👏👏💙
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Gamers™️, if I see ANY of you shitting on laid off devs today like I've seen you do to others, I will not hold my tongue. You deserve every curse that comes your way, verbal or metaphysical.
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@the_debijackson
Minnesota proposed a bill to make the state a trans refuge state for trans folks fleeing other states with hostile legislation
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If you are a fan of Overwatch, Hearthstone, WOW, COD, Crash Bandicoot or any other ABK title but harass or celebrate laid off ABK devs, you were never a real fan in the first place.
Real people make your games. Without game devs, you would have no games.
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Just a reminder that Bobby threatened to have an employee killed. Also he knew about the sexual harassment.
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The funniest thing I've heard today is "unions will make the workplace hostile". Homie, you just did surprise layoffs. I'm pretty sure we're already there.
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Kotick makes an obscene amount of money hourly, yet employees had to fight just to get a small pay raise and paid vacation. It's absolutely inexcusable that our CEO makes so much while most of us live paycheck to paycheck and can hardly afford our bills while working 40-80 hrs/wk
#Kotick
CEO of
#Activision
earns 1,560 times the average salary of its employees.
He earns $77,306 on average per hour.
This is absurd and obscene. Especially in an industry so rich and so plagued by crunch and job insecurity.
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Executives at Activision Blizzard can work remotely whenever they need/want to.
The workers who have a direct hand in creating the games, however, have spent months trying to get remote work accommodations and are still denied, even when disabled, even when sick.
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ABK Worker's Alliance will still be advocating for employees, no matter who our leadership is. Whether it's Bobby Kotick or Phil Spencer, we will keep addressing the issues that we see within the gaming industry.
Some sentiments I’ve heard from Activision Blizzard employees today:
- Optimism about management changes and the positive culture at several Xbox-owned studios
- Fury toward Microsoft for giving Bobby Kotick a big payday and soft exit
- Determination to keep organizing
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Very tired of people saying that organizing in the workplace doesn't work. So, some food for thought. Here is what we have managed to accomplish so far:
- Paid holiday vacation for everyone at the company, including contractors.
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It's been two months since we released our demands and in that time ABK has gotten in trouble for shredding evidence, then agreed to settle for 18M providing they were able to continue shredding and destroying evidence.
Not ONCE have our demands been acknowledged. Not once.
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Reminder that many ABK and Raven QA are still on strike. The strike is a protest against the lay offs of Raven folks, but it is also part of a larger conversation that we need to have about the exploitation of temporary workers.
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Epic games hiring all their contractors as full time employees MUST set a precedent for the game dev industry. So many contractors are exploited for minimal pay and benefits
This got buried under everything else happening but this is a huge moment for the game industry.
Like just got told everyone contract on my team is becoming full-time. That's massive and I hope this sets an example for the industry as a whole.
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@_TechJess
I still CANNOT believe I woke up to this. Life feels surreal. LOVE it when my employer and their law firm insults me and coworkers. That's absolutely a healthy and non-toxic work environment. Totally. (/S obv)
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This is exactly my experience. I went from working 6-7 days a week, 12 hour days, to 4 days a week, 10 hour days. Turns out, working less is way better for your health and mental health. Who would've thought?
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Striking employees have received countless similar emails also saying "we hear you, and we feel your frustrations" yet leadership refuses to communicate directly with us. The state of COD games right now is a direct result of their inability to lead responsibly.
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Word of advice, game companies: maybe don't tell your player base what they do or do not want. In regards to Ubisoft's recent NFT comments, it's not that your player base just "doesn't get it" it's that they just don't want it.
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The Game Awards is a perfect mirror into the current state of the video game industry - focused entirely too much on the monetization of the products instead of the developers who make the products.
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Good afternoon, friends! It's been far too long since we released our demands and we have yet to receive any response or meaningful action. Employees in the gaming industry deserve to work somewhere that is safe and equitabl.
#abetterabk
#ABetterUbisoft
#EndAbuseInGaming
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Hey just a reminder that ABK strikers woke up to a PRESS INTERVIEW where the company said they were working with RavenQA to move forward. Friends, this was the first time strikers had even gotten a response from the company, and they didn't even bother to do it directly.
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QA is a valid career path and should be treated like such. We ARE developers. We are the support class for game development.
Blizzard leadership alluding to some roles only being stepping stones is such an incredibly insulting thing to say to workers
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Being called "lazy" while trying to push for a better remote work policy for those who need it is really something. Y'all need to unlearn any ideas you have about remote work and realize that not everyone thrives in office environments, especially disabled and chronically ill.
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Just to remind y'all saying that laying off 12 people isn't a huge deal: Most of those workers relocated out of pocket with no help from the company, were told that their jobs were secure, and then were randomly let go.
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The amount of people I see deriding disabled gamers or people with certain needs over accessibility options in Elden Ring is awful. Anytime someone mentions they wish the game had accessibility options, people will go on a long rant about how the game is supposed to be hard.
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QA is part of the development team and you can't convince me otherwise. Creating the divide between QA and "real devs" just makes our work a million times more inefficient and allows for us to be abused and harassed without consequences more often.
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Our Raven colleagues were promised raises and job security. Some relocated out of pocket with no help from the company. Meanwhile, the company repays them for all of their hard work by laying them off.
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I feel very sad for the people who have nothing better to do but harass game devs who are trying to change their workplace culture into one that's more safe and equitable.
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I'm not sorry this person got named and shamed after saying such awful things. This is often the treatment that minorities like women, LGBTQIA+, disabled people, mentally ill people, etc. experience in the gaming industry, either directly or indirectly.
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I understand that people are upset their games are broken. I just wish they wouldn't take it out on QA. The bugs that people see in game live, I can guarantee there is already a bug report for them in.
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Bobby is not only devaluing the company's shares and financial assets, but he also poses a safety risk to employees and sets a precedent. If he has made death threats and protected abusers before, what's to stop him now?
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There is a special place in hell for game companies that create accessibility options in their game but not within their workplace, and it happens more often than you think.
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I would love it if gamers didn't harass public-facing devs, especially those who are pushing for change in the industry. It would be so neat.
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Today is labor day, a day in which we remember all the workers who came before us that fought for better working conditions. With that said, it's been over a month since ABK employees performed a walkout and sent our demands to our leadership.
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Activision's permanent remote work accommodations process is ableist as hell as well as incredibly difficult and confusing.
They only give us 14 days to make an appointment with our doctor to get the required paperwork.
14 days.
It can take months to get an appointment.
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ACCESSIBILITY OPTIONS =/= EASY DIFFICULTY. Accessibility options are things like the ability to turn off motion blur, a color blind mode, etc. Y'all are showing your ableism by how much you are willing to dunk on disabled gamers instead of listening to them.
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An Activision Blizzard representative told Polygon that “it is clear [the union does] not understand the studio’s business needs, day-to-day operations, nor the gaming industry in general.”
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There is a lot of renewed interest in unionization within the video game industry. For those interested, you can fill out this form below to get in contact with a CODE-CWA organizer who can provide you with the next steps and resources you need to begin unionization
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#BootTheBoard
because, when they learned that Bobby Kotick threatened the life of another employee and protected sexual assaulters, they endorsed him and said they were confident in his leadership.
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ABK will tell you that Raven's leadership is working with QA testers on how to move forward. However, Raven QA testers say that leadership refuses to communicate directly about the strike.
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All right friends, now that Game Worker's Alliance is announced, I want to take a moment to talk about union busting tactics. This is an important discussion for labor organizers everywhere.
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Nobody wants to be exploited anymore
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This is especially needed for disabled, chronically ill, and immunocompromised people in the game industry. We are still in a pandemic and I have seen this request be met by executives saying they will determine who is "disabled enough" to work from home.
👉🏻Every game studio needs to allow full time remote for anyone that wants it 👈🏻
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Don't tell me it's only an issue with people at the top when I have co-workers calling my colleagues shrill and other horrible names in a fucking WORK CHAT. This shit's systemic and needs to change.
#EndAbuseInGaming
#ABetterABK
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@BlizzJess
is one of the most dedicated, outspoken, and inspiring organizers I have ever worked with. When most of us were terrified of speaking up for fear of retaliation, she was on the front lines creating a space where employees felt heard and recognized.
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- The end of forced arbitration in cases of sexual harassment and discrimination
- More benefits for contractors
-Pay raise for all employees
-13 paid holidays a year
-increase in sick paid time off for temporary employees
-New career growth and learning programs for advancement
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Having a really awful time lately thinking about Rowling's comments and about Hogwarts Legacy, the book series, and what it meant to me, so honestly coming across this quote from Daniel Radcliffe was very heart-warming
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I think the thing that really pisses me off most about ABK's latest union busting statement is when they talk about how "job security is tied to making great games".
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It's time to stop allowing behavior like this in the game dev industry. Leaders, if you are constantly berating your employees, they will leave in droves. How much better would games and dev cycles be if we simply had better leadership that encouraged employees?
The struggles of Ghost Story Games raise questions about auteurism in the video game industry and the mistreatment it can sometimes mask.
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Hey maybe instead of calling women and feminine presenting people SJW whiners for calling out sexism and harassment in the video game industry, just, idk... Listen? We're just asking you to listen.
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Bobby Kotick being scolded by a US Senator made my day today
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@deathbybadger
Unionizing game devs hear this too and it's just like... Can't we all want better for our workplaces? Why do people automatically resort to telling us to leave rather than fixing the problems?
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Just because an industry practice is the norm doesn't make it okay. It's time to take a stand against abusive industry practices.
#VoicesForChange
#WeAreRaven
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This is an incredibly bold statement considering workers are a direct part of this process and executives are not. Perhaps it's just the company who does not understand the way these day to day processes affect the workers.
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"Never accept the world as it appears to be. Always dare to see it for what it could be. I hope you do the same."
-Jeff Kaplan
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@lulumeservey
Hey
@lulumeservey
remember that open dialogue you were talking about in a read only channel? The worker committee against Sex and Gender Discrimination has been waiting for it since May. We'd be happy to have it anytime! 🙂
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Until QA is recognized as a respected discipline in its own right, we will continue to be viewed as expendable, unskilled labor despite being a necessary part of the functionality of a game.
Until then, we will continue to stand together in solidarity and support each other 💙
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So at this point I feel like a broken record. I know we all do. But we won't stop until meaningful action is taken. These continue to be our demands. The longer they go unacknowledged, the more time we have to discuss about harmful industry practices that need to change.
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I put my two weeks in at Activision today 🥲I look forward to what the future brings me, but I'm sad I had to leave
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Wanna know why people are quitting in droves? People are really fucking tired of being treated this way by executives and managers. Especially with the grief and loss this pandemic has caused, it's absolutely insane to expect perfect performance. Corporate culture needs to die.
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@_TechJess
14 hour days were also common on Cold War. And they would never tell us we were on OT/crunch until like 5 mins before end of day so a lot of the time I ended up either having to cancel plans or work while having guests over because they failed to inform us ahead of time.
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This is why the Committee Against Sex and Gender Discrimination at
@ABetterABK
is pushing to implement more protections against toxicity for our Frontline agents (customer support, community managers, etc.) These folks feel the brunt of toxicity and it takes a big mental toll
More developers are pushing back against player toxicity
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Can we acknowledge that harassment of women, LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, disabled people, and other marginalized groups doesn't happen in just the game dev community? Gamers from these marginalized groups often face more harassment in multiplayer games and online spaces.
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There is nothing more evil than harassing laid off devs or developers who are trying to make the industry better.
We care about games. You know who doesn't? The executives whose boots you are licking
Show some fucking class consciousness or shut the fuck up forever.
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Activision, I'm looking at you and every single statement you have ever made to both your employees and your players 👀
If a CEO ever says “I see you, I hear you,” just know nothing was seen nor heard
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The fact that we are expected to just go back to work and are given no space to grieve the things that happened in the last two years says a goddamn lot about corporations and the people that run them.
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These are all things that would have never happened if employees hadn't been willing to organize and agitate and demand better working conditions. I hope employees at every company do this. Don't be afraid to demand better for your workplace. It's within your legal right to do so
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The changes ABK is making "in partnership" with the EEOC are the bare minimum. There has been no acknowledgement of our demands and no accountability among executives. We're still having discrimination issues (see last week's "shrill" incident).
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I am an Activision employee. I have never directly tweeted at Fran Townsend but because of being spoken out about the situation, she has decided to block me on Twitter. She is actively silencing the voice of victims and employees who she has collectively disregarded.
#ABetterABK
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I'm so happy for the folks at Bungie, which just ended mandatory arbitration. That being said, I'm upset that our primary demand at ABK Worker's Alliance was met by a different company than our own.
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Have I missed anything? Let me know.
We still have a very long ways to go before things are safe and equitable for employees, especially employees from marginalized communities. But I think it's important to celebrate our wins.
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@_TechJess
I'm tired. I'm so very tired. Also, I'm not willing to die for this company. ABK has shown repeatedly that they are willing to brush aside the concerns of their disabled, chronically ill, and immunocompromised employees
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Everyone deserves to play video games. Everyone. Why should disabled gamers "just deal with it" when we have the tools and resources to make games more accessible?
@emperryspl
@overallnoprob
@OatmealDome
Since gamers with disabilities are in the minority, yes. Game devs should and will focus on the majority. The players that can easily play videogames without issues.
Is it unfair? Yes. But this world is unfair to begin with. No choice but to deal with it.
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There have been wayyy too many people coming into my recent thread about how accessibility in games is important to tell me that disabled gamers shouldn't be playing certain games because they aren't for them.
Yes, really.
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I am begging more game dev companies to open their QA positions to be remote. Disabled and immunocompromised game devs exist, and we are in the middle of a pandemic still. Plus, I am sure many other game devs could benefit from remote work.
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@BrownEyedGuy420
@_TechJess
I don't have experience in the construction industry, that is why I don't speak on the issues in that industry. By all means, I urge construction workers to unionize and negotiate better working conditions for themselves. We can all thrive without comparing our hardships.
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Unionize the game industry.
No more layoffs.
We need change. This is not sustainable.
Get in contact with an organizer now and begin the process.
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We need to have a serious talk about how crunch in the game dev industry effects the quality of a game. When game devs are put under crunch, we often cannot produce our best work because we are so exhausted. Crunch entails working anywhere from 10-16 hours a day, 5-7 days a week.
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@aCorns__
Couldn't this technically be illegal as it could be construed as them not allowing you discuss your support for unionization? A pin is a great start to a conversation about unionization.
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For people supporting ABK Worker's Alliance and other game industry initiatives, I need y'all to understand just how difficult this kind of organizing work can be for victims of SA.
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Oh, you mean the same Mike Ybarra that said if employees think executives make more than them then we're living in a fantasy? That Mike Ybarra??
Former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra thinks tipping game creators $10 or $20 on top of the $70 price is a great idea. "Some games are that special."
Tipping culture is evolving:
#Blizzard
#ActivisionBlizzard
#games
#gamenews
#videogames
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There was another group of people that called for the sterilization of LGBTQ and disabled people once. What were they called again? Oh, right. Nazis. Eugenics has no place in a discussion about equality.
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Apology not accepted 🥰
QA are game devs. We are a part of the process of game development. End of story. This take shows just how little respect you carry for the QA discipline.
Please accept my apology for deleting this tweet. I attempted to steer clear of the conflict. I have been a dev all my life and you are NOT a web dev because you test websites. And you are NOT a game dev because you test games. You are part of the process, but not a dev....💀
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Activision Workers Fight to Unionize
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I feel like the sentiment of QA testers not being devs comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of what the responsibilities of QA are in the first place. We are not just game testing as a player might do. In fact, we might not even play the game normally at all.
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Activision Blizzard leadership hasn't changed at all. This is only their latest attempt to silence employees who were victims of harassment and discrimination and sweep allegations under the rug.
Despite numerous complaints, apologies, employee terminations, lawsuits, and settlements, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick says the company "did not have a systemic issue with harassment—ever."
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It's weird to think that after almost 3 years of busting my ass for Activision, I'll be pushed out of my job in just two weeks because they won't let their chronically ill employees work remotely anymore 🥲
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I want to be clear, all the "major investments" that ABK has made in QA have been the result of
@WeAreGWA
and
@ABetterABK
pushing the company to implement things that employees are in desperate need of.
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If you say something like this on a layoff announcement, i have no sympathy for you whatsoever. It's not about whether someone is good at their job or not. It's about how the corporation decided they needed to cut costs so they took away someone's entire livelihood with NO NOTICE
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Hey, just a random thought, but maybe harassing or insulting game devs that are already dealing with workplace hostility and discrimination is probably something that we shouldn't do.
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If you take ABK at their word when they say they have been working with RavenQA and other strikers to move forward, idk what else to say besides they are lying No efforts have been made to fix trust. Leadership's strategy is to make sure they look good and hope that it blows over
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Get ready for a bunch of union stuff on my timeline today, and I'm not sorry for it
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All right, who's down to play some bingo? I feel like I can already start checking some of these off
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Today's my last day at Activision. What a bittersweet day. I'm going to miss everyone there. I'm sad I was forced to leave because of the RTO policy, but I'm looking forward to hopefully better things ahead.
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I'm going to lose my mind if I see one more post like "It's not guns, it's hearts that don't have God, schools that don't have prayer, homes without discipline."
No, it IS the guns. It absolutely is the unfettered access to guns. We need to stop shifting the blame.
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This is what happens when we collectively organize. This is a direct result of that. Every. Voice. Matters.
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