Activision Blizzard has problems retaining its quality assurance (QA) testers and customer service representatives. This part is by design: all employees in this part sign temporary contracts. But employees said that the work done by Activision Blizzard’s QA and customer service staff in California, Texas, and Minnesota offices are demanding, especially considering the low pay, intense pressure and the need to withstand the anger from customers.
Current and former employees who spoke to Polygon described how they felt defeated during their work at Activision Blizzard due to cruel overtime and job evaluation. When I got the job, I cried, a current employee told Polygon. I am very happy to participate in this process and enter this industry. Working in the gaming industry has always been my dream. And now I feel overwhelmed.
The company’s job has cost me a lot of things, Sami King, another former QA employee, told Polygon. A large part of Activision Blizzard’s QA department, which focuses on game series such as Call of Duty, is contract workers working in offices away from the publisher’s California headquarters in Austin, Texas and Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Hundreds of contractors work under a small number of full-time salaried employees, who lead the QA process to identify and report game errors. The Blizzard employees interviewed by Polygon stated that they were employed by the company as paid employees, and Activision included most of the company’s contract workers.
Fifteen current and former employees of the QA and customer service departments told Polygon that the structure of Activision Blizzard’s QA and customer service programs, especially in offices in Texas and Minnesota, made employees feel undervalued and exploited. A dozen other Activision Blizzard employees confirmed these reports in statements sent to the media (including Polygon) through the ABK Workers’ Union. These employees described the constant rotation of QA employees, causing many people to wander back and forth between three months of unpaid leave and a new job.
The employees said that the company specifically requires employees to work for a certain length of time under the contract before they can terminate the contract. After termination, a period of time must elapse before a new contract can be obtained, and everyone can obtain the contract repeatedly in this way. This creates a system in which it is very difficult to get promoted in a QA career; employees cannot bear the consequences of not having a job for three months, and many people usually just find a new job and never return to action. Depending on Blizzard.
The employees pointed out that the company culture outlined in the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit filed last month is the source of the company’s problems. In the lawsuit, employees accused the leadership of perpetuating widespread gender discrimination and workplace misconduct, which has permeated all levels of the company.
Activision Blizzard staff told Polygon that the leadership of Texas and Minnesota has always positioned the lawsuit and its so-called toxic culture as an issue only directed at Blizzard Entertainment, which is often mentioned in court documents. But employees in other studios told Polygon that this was not true: the problem was in every aspect of the company, and contractors in the QA and customer service departments stated that they felt vulnerable due to lack of job stability.
Before the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in 2020, employees stated that they would take one day off every three weeks to one month. That’s a gift they gave you at a critical juncture, a current employee. I know some people work for 28 consecutive days. Twelve-hour shifts. That may be the most chaotic period.
[The salary] is never enough, another current employee said. I just really want to be able to afford life. Current Blizzard Entertainment employee Jessica Gonzalez, who has worked in QA at Activision and Treyarch, told Polygon that the company should be held responsible for creating working conditions that allow those who abuse the system. She said that because of all these uncertainties, the system created a rat race culture.
Gonzalez said: Job security is so uncertain that people feel it is necessary to use these methods to attract others and enter the gaming industry. The power imbalance caused by these actions directly leads to harm and psychological abuse of QA employees. We believe in The products we develop, we love games, we love the community. We love the work we do. I think this has been used as an excuse for low salaries to play with our livelihood by hanging this full-time carrot over our heads, let us do our best and be seen as people willing to do anything for the company. Then your contract will be extended.
Employees said that because there is no clear promotion path, Activision Blizzard has reinforced a misunderstanding that QA is a non-technical job – something that monkeys can do, a source told Polygon. In fact, the contractors who do QA for Activision Blizzard are doing critical and tedious work, but these workers tell Polygon that their superiors often emphasize to them that real developers are more important, and QA personnel are easily replaced. New employees are introduced every week. During busy periods and large-scale recruitment, a large number of new testers are brought in during critical periods. People work up to 7 days a week.
The situation in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is terrible, but this is their best-selling Call of Duty game today, which reinforces their thinking: ‘Yes, these methods work. Why do we want (for better Contract employment system) to spend more money?’ a current employee told Polygon.
Several employees told Polygon about what they claimed was an imbalance of power between full-time employees and contract workers, which created a harsh environment. Some reported incidents of sexual harassment were allegedly ignored by the human resources department (HR). Employees describe a culture in which the quality assurance (QA) and customer service departments are isolated from the rest of the company; most QA employees interviewed by Polygon stated that they are prohibited from talking directly to developers.
In the past few weeks, Activision Blizzard’s current and former employees have united to go on strike and demand that the leadership take action and take responsibility for cultural issues that are said to have severely affected marginalized chemical workers. Although contract workers are still heavily involved in the protest movement, they also expressed that they are hesitant to report misconduct or participate in hearings proposed by the leadership because the contract structure puts them in such an unstable situation that contract workers feel they may be fired at any time.
Three sources confirmed that, in some cases, contracted QA staff were not even invited to participate in the proposed listening sessions—especially staff from the Texas office contracted with third-party agencies. Although they are also working on Activision Blizzard products, these employees find themselves excluded from the company.
Employees stated that these working conditions also apply to customer service employees throughout the company. Like QA, customer service is considered a low-skilled job in the development pipeline. The wages are low, the work is not taken seriously, and it is often challenging. A current customer service employee said that managers often make the department feel like a burden-a cost, not a revenue-generating department.
Several customer service employees described how to deal with threats and abuse from angry players. A former customer service employee recalled an example during the release of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth when a player told the customer service that they hoped that the Blizzard office would be burnt down in the California wildfires in 2018. Another former customer service employee described a situation where angry players would threaten to appear in a company office. Some employees said that considering their opinions of others in the company and low wages, makes them feel particularly burdened.
Several employees said that during disputes, including after the DFEH lawsuit, the customer service department was often angrily shocked. Although these comments may not be directed at me personally, they can cause psychological harm. We were told to remember that the object of their anger is not us,'” a Blizzard employee said. It’s a bit difficult to help someone who makes me commit suicide every day because of games.
QA testers described having to encounter similar abuse from players during live testing with the public. I saw this situation caused serious harm to more than one person, said a current QA staff member. Working 7 days a week, listening to gamers swearing all day is really a good time’.
Employees say that the system of isolating contract workers from the rest of the company has led to top-down bad behavior. People feel that the leadership seems to belittle the value and humanity of employees in these departments, making them victims in the project. This is where the abuse formula comes from, Gonzalez said. This is where I think Activision Blizzard should be held responsible. The rot must have its roots. This is a problem that needs to be resolved and repaired.
