It has now been a year and a half that Ubisoft has been trying to extinguish the fire born of the investigation of the newspaper Liberation, which testified to a toxic culture exercised internally by some senior executives. A new testimony today brings another point of view on the sincerity displayed by the French giant.
In the wake of a catastrophic investigation for the company’s image, Ubisoft announced its desire to do better, and proceeding with a few timid layoffs. But also by carrying out new recruitments in the various incriminated departments, starting with that of so-called human resources. But only a few weeks after these pledges of good faith, new sources came to testify to a desire to communicate on the changes undertaken, more than to actually put them in place. The story of a former Ubisoft employee today corroborates this version of the facts.
Sad repetita
The one that our colleagues from Kotaku chose to call “Valérie”, to preserve her anonymity, quotes several racist remarks that she would have been forced to wipe during her time at Ubisoft Montreal, believing that some of her colleagues “fetishized” her because of her Asian origins. Following the summer 2020 announcements, “Valérie” chose to report these inappropriate behaviors to Relais Expert Conseil, appointed by management, without winning the case:
They weren’t just late for the appointment, they didn’t really follow up on my request.
“Valérie” then claims to have been refused a professional development on the part of a manager who would compliment her only in private, and would criticize her openly in front of her colleagues. After a stop for depression, she seizes the cabinet again, and obtains for only answer a call explaining that there would be no continuation. She ended up seizing the CEO Yves Guillemot and the new vice-president in charge of diversity and inclusion, Raashi Sikka, but received no response despite several interviews.
At the start of the year, Valérie finally decides to leave Ubisoft:
I would have liked to continue my journey with Ubisoft, but I was really affected by this harassment, this discrimination and this toxicity. I hope the situation will improve for Ubisoft, but it is not yet.
This testimony will not fail to echo recent demands of the Syndicate of Video Game Workers, which recently estimated that the management of the publisher “has never had the will to do more than communication to” save face “.
Contacted by Kotaku, the French did not wish to speak on this matter for the moment.
