Activision-Blizzard is once again electing to mistreat its QA employees according to a statement from the A Better ABK proto-union, which accuses the company of engaging a “soft layoff” after it announced the end of hybrid work and mandated that QA workers return to offices in Minneapolis, Austin, and El Segundo in January.
According to A Better ABK’s statement, QA employees who have attempted to receive full work-from-home accommodations due to disability, financial issues, or other factors have been either “outright denied” or offered “in-office accommodations that do not adequately meet the needs of employees.” As a result, many QA employees are now electing to not return to work at all in what’s being termed as a soft layoff by the proto-union.
“A one-size-fits-all mandate harms us all,” the statement argues. “Everyone loses: the company, the products, the players, and, most of all, the employees.”
According to an internal email viewed by IGN, QA employees who do decide to not return to the office are being offered a one-time separation package of a minimum of 12 weeks of pay, a 2023 bonus, 12 months of healthcare, and a payout of unused vacation time. A statement from ABK further argues that in-office work makes its central QA team more effective owing to “improved broadband speeds, seamless team coordination, and better hardware access.” Of course, these “benefits” elide the fact that many QA workers were hired during the lockdown and live a very long way from the affected satellite offices.
Many employees have expressed their additional direct opposition to the mandate. One anonymous employee claims to have worked remotely for ABK for three years and is now trying to jump through hoops to keep their job even with a disability, and another employee believes the RTO demand “ensures that the needs of our most vulnerable employees are not met.”
Readers will recall that before Microsoft’s buyout went through, ABK was already making moves to force workers to return to fill its office space. In February, Blizzard’s Mike Ybarra reportedly suggested to stunned staff that QA was unskilled, short-term labor and that workers who didn’t want to return to offices would be happier if they just quit. Apparently, little has changed since.
On November 30th, Activision QA employees in Minneapolis, Austin, and El Segundo received an email announcing that hybrid work will be ended in January for QA employees.
Below is our statement regarding this decision. pic.twitter.com/UKyRH2BggH
— ABetterABK 💙 ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) December 18, 2023
