Blizzard accused of abusing breastfeeding parent employees

Activision Blizzard has been dealing with ongoing gender discrimination and harassment allegations since the company was sued by the state of California. As employees continue to be frustrated with Blizzard’s handling of the accusations, including some who come out against Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, others have revealed more negative experiences had while working at the Overwatch and World of Warcraft developer.

The most recent accusations came from breastfeeding parents who stated that Activision Blizzard neglected their needs.

Blizzard accused of shocking treatment towards breastfeeding parents

Activision Blizzard activist Jessica Gonzalez tweeted on December 8 that there was “criminal” negligence towards breastfeeding workers at Blizzard happening every day. She then shared screenshots from a Slack discussion that shined some light on the difficulties that breastfeeding parents faced while working at Blizzard.

Many mothers would sit on the floor to pump due to malfunctioning and uncomfortable chairs. The wood tables were often “caked” with breast milk, leaving the surface discolored. There was a lack of plugs in the area and no way for mothers using the room to work.

But perhaps most shocking was the accusation that breast milk was constantly being stolen. Female employees stated that the storage area and fridge were supposed to be locked, but often were not, allowing other employees to come in and take the milk.

“How are women supposed to feel safe working at Blizzard?” Gonzalez tweeted.

If you've ever wanted a prime example of discrimination at ABK, this is it. This kind of negligence towards breastfeeding workers is criminal anywhere else, but it happened daily at Blizzard. Accommodating shouldn't be an afterthought. We can and should do better by our workers pic.twitter.com/ThXf5DI04z

— Jessica Gonzalez🇮🇹✨(X’s version) (@_TechJess) December 8, 2021

Blizzard employees come forward to confirm breast milk theft

A former Blizzard producer, Stephanie Krutsick, saw the tweets and stepped forward to confirm that the issues were real. According to Krutsick, she often had to label and carry her breast milk to the breakroom fridge since the breastfeeding area had no fridge at that time. A pump was also stolen from her before.

“Someone had either taken my bags and tossed them, or stolen them for some creepy reason,” Krutsick said.

Stephanie Lyon Peters, a current Activision Blizzard employee, confirmed that the tables were always unsanitary. This and many other issues had been brought up to HR multiple times throughout the years, but Peters said she saw no changes made at all until Gonzalez tweeted about it.

“After bringing this up in today’s chat, today, facilities swiftly removed the tables. What I’m tired of, is escalating things, HR says they ‘get handled,’ and then nothing happens. Now I have to be unprofessional and leverage groups, and now social media, for action to be taken,” Peters explained.

Other employees agreed that bringing up a simple request for a sanitary table shouldn’t be “nuclear” within the company. Peters revealed that she had discussed this issue three times with HR. After the lawsuit went public, Blizzard finally listened, but told Peters that a lawyer would be involved.