A toxic work environment. The Kotaku website reported on Tuesday, August 16, the testimonials of several professional video game testers who work at Nintendo of America (NoA). These women say they have been victims of sexual harassment and sexism for several years within the company.
One of the main testimonies tells the story of Hannah (the first name has been changed). After nearly a decade at NoA, this tester left the company two years ago. In the Kotaku article, he says that Nintendo of America employees were members of a Microsoft Teams chat group called “The Laughing Zone.” The atmosphere of this convivial space would have changed in a negative way when a male translator joined.
a poisonous atmosphere
According to Hannah, this colleague made sexual comments about the Pokémon games and Genshin Impact. The employee in question would have notably posted a copy of a Reddit post explaining why Aquali was the best Pokemon to have sex with. She would also have justified why it was completely normal to be sexually attracted to Paimon, a character from the Genshin Impact game whose appearance is, however, very childish.
Words and images that go wrong with the tester who takes screenshots of the translator’s comments and sends them to Aerotek, the recruitment company that hired her. In vain: her structure orders her to ignore these facts and, furthermore, her own colleagues accuse her of having denounced the behavior of the employee she has questioned.
Harassment and sexist behavior
Hannah also discovers that she is paid $3 less than one of her younger male colleagues. As a queer person, she also claims to have been the subject of inappropriate comments from male colleagues.
Another victim said she had daily panic attacks because the colleague who was terrorizing her would have threatened to fire her if she ever reported it. According to Kotaku, women are underrepresented in the business. A fact that would be one of the main reasons for these problems. Nintendo’s contract testers only make up 10% of the workforce and rarely get full-time contracts.
Kotaku interviewed various sources who have worked on NoA for the past ten years. All confirm sexist behavior within the company and its inaction in this regard. Nintendo has not yet reacted to these new statements.
Source: BFM TV
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