IGN: Blizzard - Men would walk into the breastfeeding room and just stare

A Blizzard source points to the World of Warcraft team as an example of this dynamic at work. “WoW makes money, so the people at the top of WoW are untouchable, which means they get away with lots of shit. Also if you were there a long time, which most of the WoW team leadership was, you were ‘in the family’ and pretty much untouchable, which is the breeding ground for behavior like this.”A woman formerly in one of Blizzard’s hourly service roles talked about the agonizing process of trying to get time off approved by her manager in order to go to the doctor. When an ultrasound raised the possibility of serious medical complications for her unborn child, she was told she had to return in two weeks to check again, only to be told by her manager that she couldn’t. She said she remembers "crying in the waiting room" trying to explain that Blizzard wouldn't let her go to the appointments even though she had paid time off available.A source who has since departed Blizzard talked about how the room designated for breastfeeding didn’t have locks. “Men would walk into the breastfeeding room. There was no way to lock the door. They would just stare and I would have to scream at them to leave.” IGN understands that breastfeeding rooms have since been updated, with locks added to doors.As IGN has previously reported, Blizzard has tended to treat developers as special while the various support services have suffered the brunt of cutbacks and layoffs. This has put additional pressure on everyone, but especially marginalized groups.I think it's really easy to groom people who are vulnerable financially, who really believe that what they're doing is good. And there was so much pressure to make it more of a job.”To some degree people have a lot of positive associations and passion with Blizzard,” another source said, “and that makes them identify with the company, which makes a breeding ground for power dynamics and abuse.”https://ift.tt/3idSmRT