QA department of Activision Blizzard – review addiction

Edition Kotaku published its next investigation on working conditions in Activision Blizzard… This time the employees of the quality control department told the journalists about their working conditions.

According to them, the tasks of the department are already difficult, but other problems are added to this. For example, many employees have a working week of 50 or 60 hours, and sometimes this number exceeds 70 hours. Because of this, they work almost seven days a week and until 21:00, often skipping lunch.

Few people named the specific salaries, but, according to one of the employees, at some point they were reduced to $ 7 per hour, and only seven years later the department returned to the previous rates. In general, the salary ranges from $ 14 to $ 17 per hour. At the same time, on average in the United States, such specialists are paid more than 50 thousand dollars a year.

Such payment does not allow paying for the most essential needs, and many have to settle down together in order to save on rent and food. Many people cannot even go on vacation, let alone have children.

The employees of the quality control department of Activision Blizzard do not receive medical and dental insurance, they are not paid sick leave, and after the expiration of the contract they have nothing to hope for: they can be fired or left on the team, again for a while.

Transgender people are especially dissatisfied with the order in the company, because in the internal programs of Activision Blizzard, official names are used, as in documents. To change them, you need to refer to the manual, and even then they may be reset.

It is hard in the company and representatives of sexual minorities. One of these reported that during his tenure there was only one training on diversity and fairness, and it turned out to be purely formal.

Activision Blizzard’s QA staff said they constantly deal with difficult people, and at the same time must remain calm. And only changes in the culture and attitudes of responsible leaders can help them.

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