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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kevin corms

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Social justice, or any form of justice is what we shall all seek. Doing otherwise doesn't make you an "enemy".
Tolerating misogyny or discriminating people based on their appearance is not acceptable to my standards, if it is for you, that's entirely your right to have a different opinion.
That's why we are debating, it's ok to to not agree.
Heres the thing, people who are known as social justice warriors just fight everyone who doesnt agree with them. Hence the term warrior. Some of their ideas are completely insane, but nobody is calling them out without being attacked. Its to the point where most people just wont speak out unless they are racist or a troll, normal people are too scared. Hell they even attack Jordan Peterson, who even if you dont agree with certainly he isnt racist or a bigot.
 
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Taleweaver

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Wow...this thread really derailed into some debate.
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.
Okay, I really don't know whether to agree or disagree with that.

First things first: @whateverg1012 's post is just garbage. You want to speak to him her about what you think about his post, please do so (I absolutely agree to that). But please, don't go all "everyone's agrees with that narrow point of view", because that's not right. Denial? Diminishing? Sorry, but you're wrong on that. I said I don't think it's a gender issue because I can't read anything in the OP that would make it such an issue. I might be wrong...but rather than making claims about what you think we say*, it would help your case more if you attempted to convince us why you think it is a gender issue. :)

Gender discrimination is indeed a big deal. And that's why it's all the more important to make sure that they are applied correctly. You call posts like mine a form of denial/diminishing of the events, but at least some of us (I can only speak of me, but I pretty sure @deinonychus71 is in the same boat) went through the same thing (please...read the rest before you reply, okay? :) ). We want her to win the case, because being loaded with responsibilities and tasks while being denied the rewards is very damaging for your self worth. That's why we want her to win the case.
And then of course, I might be wrong and there really IS gender discrimination in play (I agree that's up to the judge to decide). In that case, I (we) think she should win ever more than we already think.


If you want to talk more about it, you can always shoot me a private message. That usually works out better than this sort of open discussion where everyone seems to want to shout at everyone else. :)

Cheers. :)


*small tip: that never works. We know what we said because we were there when we said it, and we know our own intentions better than anyone else. Guessing them incorrectly...it doesn't make you good friends. :unsure:
 
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kevin corms

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Yes, but
nRUfScX.png


Social Justice Warrior isn't a title one should wear with pride.
Not to mention where this mentality leads, slowly they keep pushing further and further until it becomes a tragedy. They really need to start teaching what happened in the ussr... we arent nearly to the point where the USSR was 100 years ago, but we are heading in that direction one small step at a time. And I get why people are attracted to these ideas, on the surface they seem excellent until you really think about them logically or even research human behavior.
 
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deinonychus71

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I do agree, yes.

I also think that social medias arent the right place to judge whether there is sexism at play or not.
I can just relate to what I know of this: Not getting promoted while you should is an issue that happens quite a bit in this industry. There is tough competition at play (even between colleagues sometimes) and you kinda have to suck it up and show you're willing to do more sometimes.

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.

I'm actually from France too so I understand this mindset. Thats just not exactly how it works in the US sadly because as you said, you're not protected. Also in my case i dont have a set number of hours, i dont even have a set number of vacations. Its a well known trick to make you compete more for recognition in a company and you end up taking less vacation and working 50/60 hours a week.

All im saying is... dont attack that on the angle of sexism. You have a case to complain about the company anyway.
I wish the internet in general would stop making everything a race or gender issue nowaday.
There are really bad issues in the core of a lot of theses tensions, like lack of safety nets such as healthcare (in the US), poor access to education etc that should make people talk and complain a lot and instead we're all wasting our time on individual cases in the name of empathy (looking at you mr. g&w).
 
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CathyRina

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Not to mention where this mentality leads, slowly they keep pushing further and further until it becomes a tragedy. They really need to start teaching what happened in the ussr... we arent nearly to the point where the USSR was 100 years ago, but we are heading in that direction.
I fully agree. I was born in Poland and am now living in Germany, history classes in both countries teach WW2 and why Nazi ideology led to the dark times of European history, simply because it's harder to repeat mistakes once you're aware of them. We watched Schindlers List in school and read about other Stories from back in the day about People who were against Hitler and actively opposed him, and how the population lived in fear. This is why It's difficult for me to believe someone who uses the word Nazi in today's day and age. Most of then have no clue what real Nazi's actually are.
 
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whateverg1012

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My bad...I fixed it. :)

...but really: is that really what concerns you about my opinion of your post? :unsure:

I knew this thread was going to be a dumpster of misinformed posts (not saying all of them are though), so I turned off all notifications from this thread, I forgot to turn off @mentions though so I still got yours.

Regarding your opinion, I'm not denying gender discrimination exists in the workplace, it obviously exists at some level and I've personally experienced it. My post specifically refers to the people in this case, and from my own personal experiences and what I've seen with my colleagues and in the media, I stand by my post. If you really want to talk more PM me (cause I won't get notifications otherwise lol).
 
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kevin corms

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I knew this thread was going to be a dumpster of misinformed posts (not saying all of them are though), so I turned off all notifications from this thread, I forgot to turn off @mentions though so I still got yours.

Regarding your opinion, I'm not denying gender discrimination exists in the workplace, it obviously exists at some level and I've personally experienced it. My post specifically refers to the people in this case, and from my own personal experiences and what I've seen with my colleagues and in the media, I stand by my post. If you really want to talk more PM me (cause I won't get notifications otherwise lol).
There is always some truth behind SJW rants, but they tend to oversimplify things to the point where its madness. For example, yes black people are often oppressed, but there is so much more to how much power/social standing a person has than just race or gender. I mean the president and attorney general were black and had high high approval ratings, so maybe we should try and look at people individually like we used to again? They do the same with the pay gap, they don't look into any reasons why it exists and just call it sexism.
 
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kevin corms

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When you see women being treated unfairly, play victim of the non-existent "male-oppression" to draw the attention away from the real issue. Pathetic.
The thing is there is some sexism in the work place, but if you live in a western country the SJW are obviously exaggerating it. They also call the way things are now completely evil and terrible, yet things are more equal than any other society ever... They also completely ignore the obvious hierarchy patterns in our dna, the same sort of patterns other animals have. You cant just reprogram people in any way we want. You are already seeing this experiment fail badly in some European countries, and its still starting in north america, especially Canada.
 
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ChaosEternal

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I actually perfectly understood your message, even more so with this second one confirming the first.
So you are actually saying that you can find out the political opinion of a person just by looking at how they dress ? You are saying that tattoo and/or piercing and/or different hair color means a certain political bias ? So you just rule out people based on what they look like in your eyes ?
We seem to agree on one point at least: "Indeed it is not even their appearance that is of concern in and of itself for me"
Just trying to emphasize that you cannot make generalities based on the loudest minority.
To some extent, you can make such guesses. If you see a black person in the US, for example, you can guess their political leanings correctly 9 times out of 10 if you guess Democrat. If you see a white evangelical Christian, you can guess their political leanings correctly probably 7 times out of 10 if you guess Republican. The idea itself isn't invalid. The problem arises when you stop at that and make decisions based on that alone. Of course, this only works if you're dealing with something that has a high correlation to political leanings. If it doesn't, then you'll get wildly inaccurate results.
 
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FAST6191

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I actually perfectly understood your message, even more so with this second one confirming the first.
So you are actually saying that you can find out the political opinion of a person just by looking at how they dress ? You are saying that tattoo and/or piercing and/or different hair color means a certain political bias ? So you just rule out people based on what they look like in your eyes ?
We seem to agree on one point at least: "Indeed it is not even their appearance that is of concern in and of itself for me"
Just trying to emphasize that you cannot make generalities based on the loudest minority.
No. Recall the earlier reply wherein I mentioned some of the false positives you might get doing that (to say nothing of the false negatives) and instead suggested questions to be a good plan instead or in addition to.
 
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Purple_Shyguy

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If you consider people with whom you interact as equal, and respect their own self space and consciousness, then there is no reason for you to be worried to be charged of harassment.

Except lots of these psychotic liberal feminist progressive types are lunatics who will falsely accuse people of anything and everything. Respecting someone wont do shit to stop some psycho feminist from accusing you of something if she perceives it in her mind that she's been done wrong.



So you are actually saying that you can find out the political opinion of a person just by looking at how they dress ? You are saying that tattoo and/or piercing and/or different hair color means a certain political bias ?

How do you think these people are politically aligned? Hmmm? I wonder. I bet they all voted Trump!! Lol

rEwsWtJ.jpg


--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I'm female.

Vagina female or penis female?

There's 112 genders you know. We need more details these days.
 
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TeamScriptKiddies

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I don't know enough about this particular case to say whether or not this is gender based discrimination, however I do know that companies pull this kind of crap all the time on people, regardless of gender. Its all about penny pinching, why promote someone and pay them more money, when you can get a sucker to do the same work for less pay? As wrong as that is, its common practice for a LOT of companies regardless of the industry. Whether or not this is gender based discrimination, I'm glad these women are sticking up for themselves. If you aren't being treated right, you have the right to stick up for yourself.
 
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