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An important statement from Naughty Dog

entremet

Member
They haven't found evidence of the allegation, which actually ramps this whole episode up considerably.

To be fair, the HR person could easily be lying and never wrote anything down. Then it becomes someone's word against another, nothing conclusive.

If done by email, Ballard could have a paper trail.
 

Boke1879

Member
I mean this whole thing could totally blow open, but this statement was most likely vetted by lawyers who most likely looked into this.

This isn't a statement just thrown together.

They never called him a liar, just that they have no evidence of his allegations. If there is no paper trail then there is nothing really more that can be done unless Ballard has something.
 

Justified

Member
I always tell people get your complaints and grievances in a paper trail. Especially if you know your principles will not let you be "bought off"

Before going to HR, I would have sent an email, setting up a meeting or something at the very least
 

duckroll

Member
No. It' a very legally couched statement. All it says they haven't found evidence.

I agree. It also completely ignores the allegations that he was terminated following his complaint. It's not addressed at all, because to address that would be to draw attention to the possibility that HR did not do a proper job. Instead they're putting this out to try and defuse the sexual misconduct angle which is the hot topic at the moment.
 
I am sure they totally put in the time, over the weekend noless, to really find out what happened and where quickly able to get to the bottom of it in less then 24 hours



(Sarcasm)
What they likely did was look at what they had on file with David and it wasn't logged as being due to him reporting sexual assault (because yknow, that'd be really smart to put down in writing). They made a statement because if they didn't make one ASAP then they look even worse.
 

entremet

Member
I agree. It also completely ignores the allegations that he was terminated following his complaint. It's not addressed at all, because to address that would be to draw attention to the possibility that HR did not do a proper job. Instead they're putting this out to try and defuse the sexual misconduct angle which is the hot topic at the moment.

That's what I'm guessing. Lack of a paper trail could be intentional if there's a coverup. This is why BCC is important with these things.
 
That's an incredibly weak statement. It's just a flat denial, no promise of an investigation or anything. Whether or not the incident took place, I at least want to know that they're looking into it.

We have not found any evidence of having received allegations from Mr. Ballard that he was harassed in any way at Naughty Dog or Sony Interactive Entertainment.

But they're even implying that David is a liar and never went to HR at all.
 
So they're denying it because there are no evidence right now. Which put the ball back at the accuser court. I hope David has some evidence of all this. Then ND and Sony going to have to explain why they just lied.

He says he reported being sexually harassed and then he was fired the next day. If that's the case then obviously HR never did an investigation. If he only made a phone call or reported it in person, and there was no email trail he probably has nothing unfortunately.
 

ByWatterson

Member
I'm not sure you guys understand how this stuff works at large companies. There are several designated channels for receiving harassment claims, and mountains of record-keeping that go on. It's official, developed, and orderly.

All ND is saying here, likely, is that those official avenues have no evidence of allegations.

If you want to assume cover-up without any evidence, have at it, but HR people that screw this up expose the company to enormous legal jeopardy, and risk their own livelihoods. The odds are far greater that he didn't properly report it, and was let go for an unrelated reason.

He could be telling his truth here, without it being THE truth.
 

Quonny

Member
This is big. They’re claiming they never even received reports of it. There’s a massive difference in ‘we found nothing’ and ‘we didn’t even know this was an issue’.

It’s a huge denial.
 
To be fair, the HR person could easily be lying and never wrote anything down. Then it becomes someone's word against another, nothing conclusive.

If done by email, Ballard could have a paper trail.

Not if there was a severance offer or a pay off offer of $20k, there has to be a trail for that surely?
 

Marcel

Member
I'm not sure you guys understand how this stuff works at large companies. There are several designated channels for receiving harassment claims, and mountains of record-keeping that go on. It's official, developed, and orderly.

All ND is saying here, likely, is that those official avenues have no evidence of allegations.

And these structures in place for the "protection" of employees are given to corruption and cronyism if the Weinstein scandal is any indication.
 

MisterR

Member
I'm not sure you guys understand how this stuff works at large companies. There are several designated channels for receiving harassment claims, and mountains of record-keeping that go on. It's official, developed, and orderly.

All ND is saying here, likely, is that those official avenues have no evidence of allegations.

Yep, they have no record of complaint. If he really filed a complaint there should be a paper trail. Let’s see what evidence he has.
 
Do companies actually expect us to believe the “we’ve investigated ourselves and have found nothing wrong” bit? We need more proof than that.
How are they supposed to prove this? And hell, how is Dave even supposed to prove this from his side, assuming he doesn't have any saved emails or texts, etc?

Cases like these are so complex since proof is practically impossible to provide.
 

Instro

Member
Unfortunately I doubt this guy has any evidence to support him, which means he's going to be under attack by various trolls and rabid ND fans now that the company has made this statement.
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
He says he reported being sexually harassed and then he was fired the next day. If that's the case then obviously HR never did an investigation. If he only made a phone call or reported it in person, and there was no email trail he probably has nothing unfortunately.

In one of his tweets he says:

...ended the call and fired me the next day. They cited the company was moving in a different direction and my job was no longer needed.

Not clear if that was a call with ND or SIE reps, though.
 

autoduelist

Member
I am sure they totally put in the time, over the weekend noless, to really find out what happened and where quickly able to get to the bottom of it in less then 24 hours

It's just ND. You could probably go through HR's file folders in an hour or two. And ask everyone who worked with him if they'd heard anything about it over the course of... what, 3 or 4 hours? Scan his email... 5 hours? So yes, you could probably state, with near certainty, that they had no record of it pretty quickly.
 

Rad-

Member
Not if there was a severance offer or a pay off offer of $20k, there has to be a trail for that surely?

This deal was very likely offered verbally and when he didn't take it, that's it. No trails.
 

ViviOggi

Member
It's just ND. You could probably go through HR's file folders in an hour or two. And ask everyone who worked with him if they'd heard anything about it over the course of... what, 3 or 4 hours? Scan his email... 5 hours? So yes, you could probably state, with near certainty, that they had no record of it pretty quickly.
Just ND? They're also speaking for the entirety of SCE
 

Justified

Member
So they haven't contacted him?

Why should they?

He made has publicly stated his side of the story, what would he said differently when they contact him?

ND followed up on their side, check the records, and complaints and found nothing. And major corporation have retention policies to keep paperwork for years especially in a firing exactly for case like this. (This is not to say that it didnt happen, but that its no official paper trail)
 

Marcel

Member
Unfortunately I doubt this guy has any evidence to support him, which means he's going to be under attack by various trolls and rabid ND fans now that the company has made this statement.

"You should believe victims of sexual assault...unless it's a studio you like that's been accused of it and then you should smokescreen, complicate the discourse and apologize for your favorite corporate entity" is what I get from some folks.
 

Boke1879

Member
So now we wait for the evidence to surface.

If there is any. Which I'm not positive there will be. The burden is on Ballard now to show any conversation he may have had.

And very likely there isn't a paper trail. If he went straight to HR and he claims they fired him the next day. They didn't do shit as far as investigating.

They probably said they'd let him go and offered him severance pay. When he refused to take that. That was most likely the end of all that. Very little paperwork if any.
 

MUnited83

For you.
Why did anyone expect that there was a paper trail? If the allegation that Sony paid him off 20$K to shut up, you better believe any records ever made of the inccident have been burned a long time ago. You don't spend 20K to shut up someone without cleaning up the rest of the shit.
 

Phu

Banned
It's just ND. You could probably go through HR's file folders in an hour or two. And ask everyone who worked with him if they'd heard anything about it over the course of... what, 3 or 4 hours? Scan his email... 5 hours? So yes, you could probably state, with near certainty, that they had no record of it pretty quickly.

It's just ND and SCE and they did it over a Saturday night/Sunday morning, when they were surely firing on all cylinders.
 
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