The rallied Ubisoft staff are still waiting to see the changes after 200 days since they asked for a better work environment and have provided updates to the situation.
The group, A Better Ubisoft, was formed last July 2021 as a coalition to raise awareness of the toxic work environment Ubisoft was plagued with for many years. This was around the same time that Activision Blizzard employees also walked out against the company over similar allegations of sexual harassment and assault in the workplace.
However, the group of employees is still awaiting changes to happen that was promised by Ubisoft’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, who stated he would do “everything in [his] power to ensure that everyone… feels welcomed, respected, and safe.” Today, A Better Ubisoft released a new update to what has been happening with them and the internal management at the company.
It began stating how the chief people officer, Anika Grant, released an internal video that would reveal the results of how their employees around the world were satisfied, according to a survey given out. The survey was said to have had “40 questions, with room for comments under each.”
The main issue the employee group found was that the eight-minute video was very brief, structured and made it difficult to find and offer feedback on the video. The statement from A Better Ubisoft also discussed how the video did not release any statistical data or numbers from the survey, leaving the employees wondering how the employees felt about the survey on specific areas. The video was said to have used ‘you told us…’ or ‘we heard from you…’ statements to sum up the results.
The group stated, in a follow-up email on December 14, Grant revealed that “71 percent of employees feel comfortable being ourselves at work.” The email also discussed how management would be doing more research by understanding the feedback from minority and under-represented groups.
A Better Ubisoft felt that the video and email from Grant was unsatisfactory as they felt the data was not analyzing the issues the employees were concerned about, which were that they felt they had to “hide [their] true selves for fear of judgment or reprobation from peers or managers.” The group then added their original demands to the end of this updated letter with the following points:
• “Stop promoting, and moving known offenders from studio to studio, team to team with no repercussions. This cycle needs to end.
• We want a collective seat at the table, to have a meaningful say in how Ubisoft as a company moves forward from here.
• Cross-industry collaboration, to agree to a set of ground rules and processes that all studios can use to handle these offences in the future.
• This collaboration must heavily involve employees in non-management positions and union representatives.”
The Ubisoft management team have not yet responded to yesterday’s update as the issue and resolution has been ongoing as of 2020.
