Riot Games faces gender discrimination charges in employee lawsuit

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Riot Games, known most for having developed League of Legends, has faced allegations of sexism in the workplace in the past few months, with reports of at least 28 employees describing Riot's workplace as "toxic". The company addressed the complaints by stating that they're working on making for a better working environment for all of its team. These allegations began in August, with the official statement from Riot following nearly a month thereafter. Now, as of November 5th, it appears that two workers, one former and one current, are in the process of suing Riot Games on the grounds of gender-based discrimination through unequal pay, bias, and harassment. Plaintiffs Jessica Negron, an ex-employee, and Melanie McCracken, still employed, are looking to receive compensation for improper treatment during their time at Riot, with the following stories describing their greivances.

Negron's claim is that she was hired onto the company, but once her manager left shortly after her hiring, she was forced to take on all of her superior's duties, but was not promoted to the job title that she was filling in for, or paid more for her extra work. She says that despite asking to be promoted, three other men were hired in succession, who all ended up quitting after a time. When she tried to ask for the promotion to the job, she instead was given the workload of the role, but without the title or pay that it came with.

McCracken states that for the past five years that she has worked for Riot Games, she was also denied promotions, which she ascertains are due to her gender, and not her capabilities. When she felt that Riot's COO had acted inappropriately, she had contacted the HR department, only for the HR worker to break confidentiality, and "leak" her comments to her supervisors. In another supposed incident with her COO, Scott Gelb, McCracken was told by Gelb to "cover up" assorted rumors about his actions at a dance club. After reports had broken about inappropriate behavior at the company, McCracken says the male workers blamed her for it, and she was moved to another building, away from the main team.

After the lawsuit, Riot Games made the following statement:

Riot Games said:
While we do not discuss the details of ongoing litigation, we can say that we take every allegation of this nature seriously and investigate them thoroughly. We remain committed to a deep and comprehensive evolution of our culture to ensure Riot is a place where all Rioters thrive.

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deinonychus71

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Negron's claim is that she was hired onto the company, but once her manager left shortly after her hiring, she was forced to take on all of her superior's duties, but was not promoted to the job title that she was filling in for, or paid more for her extra work. She says that despite asking to be promoted, three other men were hired in succession, who all ended up quitting after a time. When she tried to ask for the promotion to the job, she instead was given the workload of the role, but without the title or pay that it came with.

I'm officially a software engineer but I've been the goto person for project management and meetings with client for a good year and a half (Architect role). I also have to teach to others how to do their job (Senior Software Engineer role) and I never got promoted, even though I asked for it.
Once you're "in", it's much harder to get a promotion "to fit the position" right away than when you're hired for it. This... happens whether you're a guy or not.
 

Song of storms

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I'm officially a software engineer but I've been the goto person for project management and meetings with client for a good year and a half (Architect role). I also have to teach to others how to do their job (Senior Software Engineer role) and I never got promoted, even though I asked for it.
Once you're "in", it's much harder to get a promotion "to fit the position" right away than when you're hired for it. This... happens whether you're a guy or not.
Don't be ridiculous. She's a woman! You're supposed to give to her what she wants! Nevermind that all the problems she described happen to men on a daily basis!
 

Jonna

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I'm officially a software engineer but I've been the goto person for project management and meetings with client for a good year and a half (Architect role). I also have to teach to others how to do their job (Senior Software Engineer role) and I never got promoted, even though I asked for it.
Once you're "in", it's much harder to get a promotion "to fit the position" right away than when you're hired for it. This... happens whether you're a guy or not.
But why? You need to be compensated if you're doing more work than what is legally documented for you to do.
 

kuwanger

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Negron's claim is that she was hired onto the company, but once her manager left shortly after her hiring, she was forced to take on all of her superior's duties, but was not promoted to the job title that she was filling in for, or paid more for her extra work. She says that despite asking to be promoted, three other men were hired in succession, who all ended up quitting after a time. When she tried to ask for the promotion to the job, she instead was given the workload of the role, but without the title or pay that it came with.

So, three men were hired and quit, possibly because they weren't willing to put up with the bullshit of being assigned several positions simultaneously without the appropriate pay or title, and it's gender discrimination because she stayed on? Sorry, if your job keeps pushing work on you and refusing to give you better title or pay, they've found a sucker. Like others have said, this isn't some gender-specific thing.

But why? You need to be compensated if you're doing more work than what is legally documented for you to do.

Depends on the location, you're only guaranteed either salary (some places require overtime pay) or agreed upon hourly wages (again with overtime pay). Beyond that, your only option is to quit.
 
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osaka35

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This is a summary. If you think there are details missing, acknowledge them, but try not to fill them in with assumptions.

But to add to this, not overly surprised. Glad they're standing up for themselves. Only way things get better is by saying "nah, that's bull" and doing something about it.
 

tiliarou

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As usual, some men (boy ?) are denying that discrimination based on gender exists.
Let the court give a judgement before stating the usual "I'm a men who didn't get promoted as well so it's not discrimination": that's absolutely not the issue, and you are not working (AFAIK) in Riot. You might or might not have faced discrimination. It's not because you think you haven't been discriminated that others weren't.
Bottom line is: we don't know all the elements presented in this case, so we can't judge.
 

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I'm officially a software engineer but I've been the goto person for project management and meetings with client for a good year and a half (Architect role). I also have to teach to others how to do their job (Senior Software Engineer role) and I never got promoted, even though I asked for it.
Once you're "in", it's much harder to get a promotion "to fit the position" right away than when you're hired for it. This... happens whether you're a guy or not.
I was thinking the same thing My colleague also took over the job of a senior software engineer, but didn't get that title (or privileges). And in my previous job, they t reorganized so much that in the end I did the job of art last six other guys (probably more around ten, but I'm excluding partial tasks) The most surreal part of that was that the network was maintained by an external firm. When a change was needed (which happened almost daily), this needed to be coordinated by the "system manager". This was my job, but as i "wasn't a manager", I had to hide this from HR. And because everyone else needed to come to me, I did had to communicate this to everyone else. :glare:

Don't get me wrong : it sounds like a very toxic workplace and I hope she'll win the case but the way it's described it seems to me more like this is done because of circumstances ("how do we save money? Well replace someone by someone cheaper! ") than because of gender.
 
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grossaffe

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This is common in the business world. Don't see anything that indicates sex has anything to do with it. Employers are cheap.

In software development in particular, if you want to make more money, you have to leave your company and work for someone else. Your current employer will rarely compensate you as much as you'll get from someone else, which is ironic since the knowledge you've built is of more value to your current employer.
 
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deinonychus71

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Bottom line is: we don't know all the elements presented in this case, so we can't judge.
True, if this is a case of discrimination against women though, this has to be proved. Otherwise you're just drawing a conclusion that isn't supported by evidence. From my experience what is described here happens regularly in this industry, male or female.

As usual, some men (boy ?) are denying that discrimination based on gender exists.
Nobody is denying it.

But why? You need to be compensated if you're doing more work than what is legally documented for you to do.
Absolutely. In my case i've tried to push. But if I push too hard, I could be "that guy that keeps complaining" and not get the promotion anyway. At some point it's basically get a new job or suck it.
 

tiliarou

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Nobody is denying it.
I beg to differ when some messages are "When you don't get what you want because you're a bad worker, cry sexism. Pathetic."
What I mean is that we can see the typical denial messages, or the typical diminishing messages that would mean that it's not a big deal. Yes, gender discrimination (or any form of discrimination) is a big deal. I just don't understand why first thing that comes to mind for some is a form of denial instead of empathy.

The software/gaming industry is partly rotten in essence when they make you think that because you are in a "tech" company or "startup", you have to work extra unpaid hours or that you can overpass some rules. The law is here for everyone and applies to every companies. And it's not because your boss asks you to do something in a certain way that it's legal. Moreover, it's not because he thinks that he can fire "annoying" employees without proper compensation that's it's legitimate.

After all, it really depends of the labour law in each country, since some are so unprotected that you don't even need to justify and motivate your decision to fire someone.
 
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Jonna

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Absolutely. In my case i've tried to push. But if I push too hard, I could be "that guy that keeps complaining" and not get the promotion anyway. At some point it's basically get a new job or suck it.
Yeah, I'm probably not telling you anything new, nor am I any professional career counsellor that you must heed my every word, but I'll chip in and say you should explore some other options.
 
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RivenMain

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https://i.imgur.com/V0l2ZSW.gif Sounds like a load of bs to me. Maybe if they cosplayed into the job interview it may of went better :D but the scene isn't against females. Remy was a trans girl and she was openly accepted as a pro team in rem. And there's C9's Sneaky that is a trap. The games just full of males as is the community. Who knew?
 

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https://i.imgur.com/V0l2ZSW.gif Sounds like a load of bs to me. Maybe if they cosplayed into the job interview it may of went better :D but the scene isn't against females. Remy was a trans girl and she was openly accepted as a pro team in rem. And there's C9's Sneaky that is a trap. The games just full of males as is the community. Who knew?
It's not because we all know/knew that it's acceptable. And in this case we are not talking about the pro gaming scene but more about the dev and game industry. Although you are right that in both cases it is mostly populated of males.
 
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Ericthegreat

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I'm officially a software engineer but I've been the goto person for project management and meetings with client for a good year and a half (Architect role). I also have to teach to others how to do their job (Senior Software Engineer role) and I never got promoted, even though I asked for it.
Once you're "in", it's much harder to get a promotion "to fit the position" right away than when you're hired for it. This... happens whether you're a guy or not.
Yeah, though it's quite sad I think companies these days just expect you to move on to another company to move up, or to get more then a 10% pay increase a year.
 

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