Starting in January 2024, Activision will be enforcing a new mandate that ends hybrid work situations for QA staff based in Minneapolis, Austin, and El Segundo, meaning they will need to return to the office full-time and can no longer work from home.
Employees received an email about this on Nov. 30, but on Dec. 18, the ABK Worker’s Alliance made this information public by sharing its own statement on X opposing the mandate. According to them, many QA employees have already been forced out of the company after Activision introduced hybrid work and denied their requests to work from home permanently.
The alliance believes the complete removal of hybrid work will only lead to more employees being forced to quit in what it calls a “soft layoff”—one that will impact the most vulnerable, such as disabled employees and those with financial issues.
“Taking away the one day that affected employees had to work in an environment that was better for their health, mental health, finances, and work-life balance means that more employees will be forced out of the company,” the alliance’s statement reads. “However, this decision also affects employees who choose to stay at the company. With many employees being forced out, their responsibilities will fall on the ones who will remain, creating a more stressful environment and lower quality products.”
Activision will be offering severance to anyone who does leave the company as a result of the mandate. Plus, it seems to refute the alliance’s claims that it doesn’t do enough to accommodate its most vulnerable employees. A statement to IGN reads, “We take our support for employees with disabilities, differing abilities, mental health requirements, and changing medical needs seriously. We are focused on finding appropriate, reasonable accommodations for team members who experience barriers to performing their essential job functions. We thoroughly manage all requests and work with the individual confidentially to understand their medical needs and offer a variety of individualized solutions.”
The company also provided a reason for its decision to end hybrid working, saying that these QA teams “work more effectively and efficiently in person, thanks to improved broadband speeds, seamless team coordination, and better hardware access.” However, some employees have contested this, arguing that they’ve proven they can do their jobs effectively without being in the office.
“The vast majority of our team worked remotely for the entirety of 2021 and 2022 without issue, so we’ve already proven our jobs can successfully be performed while working remotely,” one anonymous QA worker told IGN. “In the email announcing the change, they cited that the team is more effective when working on-site, but correlation does not equal causation.”
Another, named Andrew Snell, adds that Activision has been setting sales records on its Call of Duty franchise and mobile division since the COVID-19 enforced lockdowns, even when its employees had to work from home. He’s not wrong either; just last week, Modern Warfare 3 broke $1 billion in just 16 days (via The Verge) and that’s still despite its poor reputation as glorified DLC, with many describing its campaign as the worst one in the entire series.
Published: Dec 19, 2023 06:31 am