A group of Ubisoft employees campaigning to improve working conditions publicly criticized the company Ubisoft, but the results were not as expected.
Last summer, the group that calls itself the organization A Better Ubisoft, wrote an open letter to workers calling out within the company following revelations of misconduct involving sexual harassment and discrimination. discrimination.
Signed by more than 1,000 new and old employees, the letter accuses Ubisoft management that “The company has always made empty promises for their actions, inability to deliver on their promises, ready to eliminate those who violate despite knowing the reason in advance”. The team has now tweeted a new statement claiming that 200 days have passed since that open letter and Ubisoft management doesn’t appear to have responded to any of their requests.
According to the statement, employees were emailed by chief human resources officer Anika Grant an internal video showing the results of Ubisoft’s global employee satisfaction survey over the past year. However, the presentation of Grant’s statement was not only very succinct but also extremely clear, with the entire survey summed up into six salient points that included three positives and three negatives.
The statement also read: “In an email on December 14, Anika said that 71% of employees feel comfortable being themselves at work. This is not acknowledged, as how many people feel that they have to hide their true selves for fear of being judged or reproached by their peers or managers.”
It also stated that despite Grant’s assurances during the presentation, “We are tired of constantly explaining these seemingly obvious points to a group of management who inadvertently lack the knowledge or simply do not want to listen” in the concluding statement.
“We keep going because we care about our work. We care about the people we work with, the games we make, and we’d love to fix this company. Our goal is a fairer and better Ubisoft.” The group also reiterates four key requirements they have made previously. Ubisoft said last July that it had “read carefully” the open letter and was taking the issues raised “very seriously”. In the statement, which reads “implementing significant and meaningful changes” to improve working conditions in response to poorly treated employees, Ubisoft also acknowledged that it still has a lot of work to do. .
The publisher’s CEO Yves Guillemot later echoed those comments in a company-wide email in response to the open letter. In it, he mentioned some of the structural reforms Ubisoft had implemented in the previous year, such as the appointment of Grant, the introduction of an anonymous harassment reporting mechanism, an update to the code of conduct, and the implementation of countermeasures. Mandatory sexism throughout the company. “These are important steps if the company is to be revived, but it is a long process and there is still much work to be done in the future,” Guillemot wrote.