Sexual harassment at Naughty Dog..?

Sadly happens a lot.

Last year I had a colleague come to me for help as her boss was sexually harassing her and sadly HR did a s*** job and the result was her leaving due to being suicidal and him being promoted despite that and being under investigation for stealing.

But she said if she hadn't met me she probably wouldn't have come forward so yeah it's not an easy task and can have looking term effects.
 
Sasquatch Montana said:
If it goes to court and Naughty Dog has to swear under oath, I hope the judge asks them what their definition of 'real time trailer' is.
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I hope the judge asks them what their secret is to being the best developer in the world so we get more games the quality of Uncharted and The Last of Us on platforms other than just PS4. Would be nice to get a top tier narrative driven game elsewhere.

Although, i suspect the secret is more simple than people think. Allow your devs to do what they want, trust in them and good things will happen instead of relegating them to one franchise and focusing on microtransactions and loot boxes to rob gamers.
 
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TDbank24 said:
I hope the judge asks them what their secret is to being the best developer in the world so we get more games the quality of Uncharted and The Last of Us on platforms other than just PS4. Would be nice to get a top tier narrative driven game elsewhere.

Although, i suspect the secret is more simple than people think. Allow your devs to do what they want, trust in them and good things will happen instead of relegating them to one franchise and focusing on microtransactions and loot boxes to rob gamers.
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Going to look weird if it turns out the guy is telling the truth.....
 
TDbank24 said:
I hope the judge asks them what their secret is to being the best developer in the world so we get more games the quality of Uncharted and The Last of Us on platforms other than just PS4. Would be nice to get a top tier narrative driven game elsewhere.
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I honestly think sexual assault on anyone is too high a price for videogames. Feel free to disagree.

TDbank24 said:
Although, i suspect the secret is more simple than people think. Allow your devs to do what they want, trust in them and good things will happen instead of relegating them to one franchise and focusing on microtransactions and loot boxes to rob gamers.
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Well we're seeing the repurcussions now. Refuse to 'comply' and get fired.

The Wolf King said:
Going to look weird if it turns out the guy is telling the truth.....
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Ouch. Now I wonder if they made Ellie gay because Druckman wanted to watch the mocap sessions of two woman portraying underage children to see his fantasies come to life. Makes you wonder.
 
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Sasquatch Montana said:
Ouch. Now I wonder if they made Ellie gay because Druckman wanted to watch the mocap sessions of two woman woman portraying underage children to see his fantasies come to life. Makes you wonder.
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Do you have any basis to insult him like that?

It's weird to even think that
 
https://kotaku.com/former-naughty-dog-employee-says-he-was-fired-after-fil-1819557683

Three current and former Naughty Dog employees, all speaking under condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize their careers, all said they had not heard anything about Ballard’s sexual harassment allegations until this weekend and that they were disturbed by the news. Those employees said they did not know or want to speculate who the alleged sexual harasser may be. Each discipline at the studio typically has two leads, and by one estimate there are around two dozen at Naughty Dog.

One current Naughty Dog employee said that he and co-workers he spoke to were “blind-sided” by the news, and that while he believed Ballard’s allegations, he also believed that the studio had been unaware of them. “There definitely is not a culture of covering up bad behavior,” that person said. “I and quite a lot of other people wouldn’t be here if there was.”

It was clear to Ballard’s co-workers that he was upset during his final months at Naughty Dog, those three sources said, and they said his self-acknowledged mental breakdown was clear to everyone at the studio. But people who worked with Ballard said they had thought it was the result of Naughty Dog’s long hours and high-pressure culture
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Probably the most important part of that article

Ballard worked at Naughty Dog in Los Angeles from around February 2009 to around August 2014 before leaving for San Francisco, where he briefly took a job at Ubisoft, per his online resume and co-workers. In the fall of 2015, he returned to Naughty Dog. One person who worked with Ballard said that the difficulties began then, and that Ballard had told people he was filing HR complaints, although to that person’s knowledge, those complaints were not about sexual harassment but about other issues. Ballard had said he felt harassed for leaving and then returning to the studio, that person said. The person added that they did not know about the sexual harassment allegations until Ballard posted them on Facebook last weekend.

In early 2016, the situation worsened, and Naughty Dog employees confirm that, as Ballard said on Twitter, he had a difficult mental breakdown. Some of Ballard’s troubles became more widely known in late February of that year after he sent a hostile e-mail to a tech artist that was CCed to everyone at the company, two people said. Various rumors circulated at the studio and the situation was escalated from Naughty Dog’s internal human resources department to Sony’s HR.
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I think we need to also really define sexual harassment in a real life way, to me it's when your career is directly affected by refusing to give in to a superiors advances or when a co-worker starts pushing themselves on you and won't stop even after you make it clear you aren't interested. What I don't like is people calling dirty jokes sexual harassment, people all have a different type of humor that appeals to them and I've seen instances where someone claimed sexual harassment simply because someone made a dirty joke in their presence, it wasn't even directed at them and all the people involved thought it was funny but just because their virgin ears heard it they were offended.
 
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yankeessuck said:
Probably the most important part of that article
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Based on what they say here it seems more like he needed to be let go and now he's just trying to come up with an excuse as to why. I don't blame him for feeling burned-out and having a breakdown as these companies all seem to overwork their employees and I hope the industry changes in that regard. These are still human beings and we all have limits, either give the games more dev time or larger teams to help reduce the overall workload on the individual.
 
Not looking real good for Ballard.
https://kotaku.com/former-naughty-dog-employee-says-he-was-fired-after-fil-1819557683

I'm taking his report with a grain of salt. He sounds a bit fishy to me.

Doesn't sound like he ever filed a formal complaint. Maybe he blurted something out in the middle of his meltdown and getting fired over it.

I love the part where he cc's everyone in the company on his email chewing out a tech artist. :txbrolleyes:
 
"Ballard had told people he was filing HR complaints, although to that person’s knowledge, those complaints were not about sexual harassment but about other issues."

Hmm.

Has he been at all specific in his allegations? What does the "sexual harassment" consist of?
 
TDbank24 said:
Happens everywhere unfortunately. As a victim of female on male sexual harassment, i can say it goes unreported often. It was in a joking manner but i liked it because i'm straight and a guy, right? No, i just chose to handle it with the harasser and not make a big deal out of it. This guy bringing it up after 17 months, after collecting the paychecks like nothing was wrong just sounds like sour grapes.

We need details. Not that it matters, harassment is harassment but was he physically touched? If he was and didn't report it then he's an idiot. Plain and simple. My boss(female) got harassed by a male co-worker every day, verbally and physically. She didn't report it, but she didn't like it. They were somewhat friendly, as she gave him rides to and from work. But it still happened, and it was still wrong.
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That's basically saying his behavior was acceptable. You can't give a dude rides then flip and say he was harassing. She was giving him signals that his behavior was ok. If she didn't like it, she should have made it more clear. I'm sorry, but you have to take some responsibility.

Hell, that sounds like 'hard to get, not 'leave me alone. If she wasn't into it, then she did a terrible job of letting him know.

Harassment is repeated unwanted attention, not plain unwanted attention that you reinforce by sending mixed signals.
 
Frozpot said:
That's basically saying his behavior was acceptable. You can't give a dude rides then flip and say he was harassing. She was giving him signals that his behavior was ok. If she didn't like it, she should have made it more clear. I'm sorry, but you have to take some responsibility.

Hell, that sounds like 'hard to get, not 'leave me alone. If she wasn't into it, then she did a terrible job of letting him know.

Harassment is repeated unwanted attention, not plain unwanted attention that you reinforce by sending mixed signals.
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Yeah, as long as it's not a superior you need to try to handle it yourself first, we are all human and sometimes people get their signals crossed. If you tell them you aren't interested and they keep pushing then report it but be an adult and at least try to handle it yourself first. When it's someone who's your boss and they say or imply your job depends on you giving in than of course you go to HR and the person who your boss reports to.
 
I know sexual harassment is a serious thing and should NOT be joked about. BUT, why on earth am I never sexually harassed. DAMN IT.
 
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wshowers said:
Eww. That's disturbing and seriously unprofessional. What possibly could ND's response be to that?
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The response behind closed doors: "Well, does she?"

House of Cards is a great show! She should be flattered that she is being compared to it.

At least it she wasn't being likened to a Kardashian or that show about tortured slaves owned by an orange slug... Umm.. what was it called? The Apprentice!
 
"Hi, the name is Megan Fragzdsasdpfash, reporter from Polygon. Nice to meet you!"

"Do you gonna fuk lik all yer sources on netflix original House of Cards?"

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Hedon said:
I know sexual harassment is a serious thing and should NOT be joked about. BUT, why on earth am I never sexually harassed. DAMN IT.
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Funny thing is this, somewhat relates to the subject at hand, my friend and I were talking the other night about when we were in school back in the day, where were all these hot teachers that you hear about on the news now sleeping with with students!!! Lol!!! Hell... I wouldn’t have said a word ! Heh
 
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