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Former Naughty Dog employee says he was sexually harassed by a lead in late 2015
- Thread starter chadskin
- Start date
GHG
Member
No, it doesn't work like that, when a company gets a name amendment any activity that took place under the previous name carries forward to the new one.
i just think the worst way to cover up sexual harassment would be to wrongfully dismiss the person. and then not only that but offer to pay them to be quiet about it. couple that with the fact that the guy mentions no names, admits he has mental health problems, and the timing of the accusations. i'm sorry for being jaded but its the world we live in. i've worked with batshit crazy people in the past and i feel for them but i also know what kind of shit they can pull.
Resident_UA
Member
I mean hes been without job for a while. What is there to loose. Also do we know what specific allegations were? One persons Hello could be anothers sexual harassment. Once again Im not saying its the case, but its a bit more complex than what people are making it out to be.
Hot Coldman
Banned
David: "I was sexually harassed and Naughty Dog & Sony tried to make it go away."
ND: *tries to make it go away*
Excellent strategy lads, sure to work wonders. Clowns.
ND: *tries to make it go away*
Excellent strategy lads, sure to work wonders. Clowns.
Sad Affleck
Member
Pathetic.
GHG
Member
Severance letters tend to be all encompassing, they don't need to specifically mention things like sexual harrasment because if written correctly it will fall under the broad agreement. They are designed to prevent any type of legal action from a former employee.
TheModestGun
Neo Member
I'm not saying they are innocent, but how would you have them address it if what they are saying is true that they have no records of him ever coming to anyone about sexual harassment?
How can you and why would you admit to something as a company you have no record of happening and nothing corroborating it?
Again, not saying that it isn't possible that they are lying. But how can you be so certain?
Reading some of replies post-ND_reply it seems to work somewhat well.
Hesemonni
Banned
Seriously?
Resident_UA
Member
I mean thats true. It doesnt excuse ND if the employee complained. Still shitty of them. But sometimes its the case. People tend to misunderstand each other. Or maybe it was blatant sexual harassment. Thats why Im asking.
Exactly what ive been trying to say
Random Human
They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
.
this shit is dumb. you already said we don't know who the harasser is so why are you concerned about us being the "judge, jury and executioner"? and if people come out of this with distaste for sony and naughty dog, guess what? that's completely their prerogative.
Damerman
Member
pretty much. if this victim decides to put out proof of his harassment or even just the slightest evidence that he escalated his harassment to HR, it will be a very bad look for ND and Sony. they should have kept it open ended and said they were investigating.
TheModestGun
Neo Member
Yeah that's a fair point. I would like to see them investigate this deeper as well. Maybe reach out to him and get a name, see if there are any other incidents reported by other employees or anything indicating the issue.
That aspect does seem handwavey. I do agree with you there.
I just don't see it as being sensible to apologize for something that was never reported and it appears that they have nothing to investigate as of right now.
Apologizing for something that you don't know is true or not, could be interpreted in court as incriminating.
I guarantee there is a lawyer team determining what they can and can't say beyond that they have no records of a report or that he didn't report anything to them.
Either they are in light panic mode and going stupid with wording OR they are very confident that Ballard has nothing to counter this statement with.
They are very intentionally and clearly painting Ballard as disgruntled ex-employee with axe to grind with this statement, because "if there ever was sexual harassment and it was reported we would have held offenders accountable!"
They either get away with this in court of public opinion or will end up looking very bad.
Again the accused harrasser could no longer be there, the people in charge could no longer be there,so a substantial investigation would probably take time, whose to say sony and nd aren't taking this seriously? Some people made their minds up 15 hours ago and no statement released would have satisfied them anyway.
That statment opens the door of evidence about the harassing showing up and Naughty Dog and Sony shielding with "You didn't tell us anything/we had no idea".
Still on wait and see mode, but I can't believe someone would destroy their entire career making up a harassment story, when there is nothing significan he could win out of it (if it's a lie)
Still on wait and see mode, but I can't believe someone would destroy their entire career making up a harassment story, when there is nothing significan he could win out of it (if it's a lie)
Faxanadu 2: Breadaloo
Neo Member
I am a labor and employment attorney who has handled these types of lawsuits for many years on both sides (representing plaintiffs and defendants). As a preliminary matter, pretty much every single mid-sized or larger company has had allegations very similar to this brought against it at some point. Most of the time it is done privately, through attorney letters, which then typically lead to either resolution or a lawsuit being filed. Here, for whatever reason, the accusations came over twitter. My point is this type of thing is extraordinarily common - which I guess does not speak well for us as a society.
Its an obvious point I know but it is important to remember that we do not know exactly what occurred here. In general, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle of what both sides in these type of situations claim occurred. I could give a couple educated guesses at what really went down here but in the end they would be guesses and it would not be fair to either side.
I also do not think very highly of most people in my profession, and its important to remember that at the end of the day outside attorneys (like me) are often calling the shots for companies, and we are generally shitty people (I'd like to think myself excluded!). This whole thing reeks of bad attorney advice.
Its an obvious point I know but it is important to remember that we do not know exactly what occurred here. In general, the truth is usually somewhere in the middle of what both sides in these type of situations claim occurred. I could give a couple educated guesses at what really went down here but in the end they would be guesses and it would not be fair to either side.
I also do not think very highly of most people in my profession, and its important to remember that at the end of the day outside attorneys (like me) are often calling the shots for companies, and we are generally shitty people (I'd like to think myself excluded!). This whole thing reeks of bad attorney advice.
There's a lot of probabilities for what really happened here as these are currently simply twitter claims with no evidence at the moment, but seeing people jump to conclusions and blame and boycotting and such is sad.
Could Sony and ND be evil corporations terminating and silencing victims with hush money? They wouldn't be the first company to do that. And if so, bad on them.
Could this fellow be mentally troubled and engaging in a smear campaign against a former employer? False allegations of sexual assault resulting in legal reprocussions to the accuser happen. People can and do lie. This is why innocent until proven guilty is a cornerstone of the judicial system.
Best to wait for the facts and be a bit more rationale on these matters.
Could Sony and ND be evil corporations terminating and silencing victims with hush money? They wouldn't be the first company to do that. And if so, bad on them.
Could this fellow be mentally troubled and engaging in a smear campaign against a former employer? False allegations of sexual assault resulting in legal reprocussions to the accuser happen. People can and do lie. This is why innocent until proven guilty is a cornerstone of the judicial system.
Best to wait for the facts and be a bit more rationale on these matters.
Amen.
This trend of just wanting to burn things down without proper discussion and scrutiny is disgusting.
This is extremely, incredibly weaselly language.
Of course it's working on it's intended audience. The kind of people disinclined to take allegations of sexual misconduct seriously, always demanding "receipts", but absolutely willing to believe their favourite corporation can do no wrong.
Meme Master Flux
Member
I call bullshit on ND's part, but I want to see what David will say. I don't think that it's right to start and finish an investigation in less than 24 hours.
zombieshavebrains
I have not used cocaine
That's not how neogaf works. If you're accused, you're guilty...duh.
lol a person can't harass someone and be innocent. I get what you mean, but I couldn't help poking fun at it.
Neogaf also don't work the way you are trying to say, since there is a large portion claiming "innocent until proven guilty".
How did u come to that conclusion? If i go to your job tomorrow and say youve been making racial slurs towards me, should hr just discipline or fire u based of my single testimony without proof, shame on us for demanding an accuser have proof or the accused for defending themselves?
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
The allegation specifically said that he went to HR and his allegations were heard.
ND now denying that they have any such record is a necessary answer and the only thing they can do, if its actually true.
If its a lie that'll blow up so hard in their faces they won't even know what hit them.
Who said they finished an investigation? Likely a group of sony lawyers looked at his employee file and didn't see anything regarding allegation and released a statement.
Justice often moves at a slow pace
you must have been a riot in the nick robinson threads
DanWensing
Banned
Ok, he is a man, don't seems fragile at all, and had a sexual harassment by another man. I mean, come on dude, you need to be able to defend yourself. At least for this kind of things. It's just embarrassing.
I'm with ND here, we don't know the level of this harassment. Could have been nothing so serious and the guys it's just mimiming.
I'm with ND here, we don't know the level of this harassment. Could have been nothing so serious and the guys it's just mimiming.
wumster3000
Member
And a lot of people use the term if true.
Oh my god please stop.
So because he is a man, he is immune to harassment?
There is only one thing embarrassing here...
Weltall Zero
Member
What information? Do you expect someone suddenly saying "hey, yeah, I got all of that recorded"? No proof is forthcoming, it's always going to be his word against theirs, but do you think the rational thing to say here is "until proven wrong I'm going to assume he made it all up and make himself a huge target for no reason"?
Adults generally don't believe that problems will disappear if you wish them gone. But I guess if you're going to be delusional, why not feel like the better person about it too, right?
Damerman
Member
lmao. i think ur way out of line. you got a lot of growing up to do bruh.
SlipperyFishes
Banned
Jesus fucking Christ youre an abomination. What an awful thing to say. Sexual harassment is real no matter your gender. I have also had the experience of a former coworker from ten plus years ago putting my hand on her thigh under a table at a party and had to yank it away. Its embarrasing to have to think to yourself that you did anything wrong by asking for that attention or action when really its not your fault at all.
I certainly wasnt asking for it and neither was David.
Edit: not that it makes any difference - she was married and I was in a relationship at the time.
They are accused, and need to defend themselves. No matter what they do there will be always that shadow over the whole company now, and that is also unfair.
This needs to be investigated, of course, but even knowing these things unfortunately happen almost in every industry, to consider someone guilty, that has to be proven first. And also not blame the whole company for what one (or more if someone covered this) did.
I wonder how much thought you put into this, because it is a very disgusting post. No one should have to be able to defend themselves from sexual harassment, sexual harassment just shouldn't happen period.
Exactly, the wrong calling out of "outrage" is really annoying.
Brotherhood93
Member
I think the rational thing is to not take sides in an argument where you know none of the facts but we can never help ourselves. We all have an opinion on what did or didn't happen, which I think is fine, but we should maybe take a minute before outright accusing anyone of being a liar or being guilty of/covering up sexual harassment. The best we can hope for is whatever happened is properly investigated and the truth comes out. Unfortunately, not everytime somebody claims to be a victim they actually are but I also have full sympathy for Ballard given there's no evidence he's making anything up.
What if you're a man who is being sexually harassed by his male boss? Sure, you can defend yourself physically, but you're in such a position of power imbalance that it's hard to defend yourself professionally.
Weltall Zero
Member
You are such a wonderful person.
If you read Ballard's tweets again, it doesn't sound like he ever informed anyone at Naughty Dog.
Weltall Zero
Member
I agree with all of the above. The user I was replying to basically said there should be no discussion until there's hard proof, which likely may never come (also low-key implying that no proof = lying).
No, but in that situation there was a paper trail, dms and emails. Vox suspended him pending an investigation. Robinson was the harrasser and his accusers reported him and had proof.
Ballard still hasnt officially accused a specific person, so how is an complete investigation to be carried out. With no sense of direction. Do any of u even know if the person being accused is still there?