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Former Naughty Dog employee says he was sexually harassed by a lead in late 2015
- Thread starter chadskin
- Start date
Naughty Dog has issued a statement
https://www.naughtydog.com/blog/an_important_statement_from_naughty_dog
https://www.naughtydog.com/blog/an_important_statement_from_naughty_dog
FlutterPuffs
Member
Wow, Naughty Dog's statement is interesting. Completely denied the accusation.
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
What?
They claim they haven't received any allegations from him.
So unless the abuser has proof which I hope he kept. It's going to be tough to figure out who was notified and when etc.
Permanently A
Junior Member
Oh fucking fuck.
GHG
Gold Member
If he only did it verbally then it's not going anywhere unfortunately.
Which I suspect, if the allegations are true, is the reason it didn't go further after he left the company and refused the severance pay. It's an incredibly difficult case for a lawyer to take on if there's not even an email trail to work with. It then becomes his word against theirs.
If things were all done verbally, then he might not.
Brotherhood93
Member
You've got to think Naughty Dog wouldn't put out a denial like that unless they were confident in what they were saying. I also don't understand why Ballard would make something up though. Bizarre situation.
Doctor_Thomas
Member
Their statement isn't saying it never happened, just that they never recieved any details of allegations which is potentially true.
If the person went to Sony HR directly, surely that would completely bypass the entire internal structure within ND.
They're not saying it never happened, just that they never handled anything to do with it.
If the person went to Sony HR directly, surely that would completely bypass the entire internal structure within ND.
They're not saying it never happened, just that they never handled anything to do with it.
FlutterPuffs
Member
Yeah.
If Ballard is speaking the truth, hopefully he has kept some records of it.
Also I REALLY hope some of you here arent doing anything stupid and doing something like accusing ND, or Ballard of lying on twitter at the moment. Right now we know nothing except someone's version of the events.
I hope that people won't attack David Ballard after Naughty Dog denying everything, but obviously it will be bad. I feel they could've done a better job even if they were going to deny everything anyway.
And I really hope people won't shit on Naughty Dog or any of their current or ex employees either. We don't know enough.
And I really hope people won't shit on Naughty Dog or any of their current or ex employees either. We don't know enough.
They are basically doubling down with this denial of there being any reports to ND's or Sony's HR.
Bold move.
Resident_UA
Member
He was fired and he didnt like the environment at ND. There are plenty of reasons to make this shit up. It doesnt mean that he did, Im just unsure why its a mystery to some people...
Little Monser
Banned
i mean its not like Naughty Dog is going to just say "Yes, yes, its true. It happened but we did nothing about it" now aren't they
GHG
Gold Member
Most company policies state that you should go to HR directly with something like this, especially considering the incident involved his manager at the time.
But if he didn't start the process off with an email (which most employee handbooks will instruct you to do) then there's no trail to work with.
Again is it denial if its never brought up to ND management and was handled exclusively by sony hr?
CassidyIzABeast
Member
Hoping he comes with the "I've got the receipts right here" tweet.
I hope this doesn't mean he will get even more harrased by people now, especially since this is no final punctuation to this story
they include Sony in their statement too
they include Sony in their statement too
FlutterPuffs
Member
Soul of the Beast
Member
The business world gets way more disgusting than this.
Sad, but I am not shocked.
Sad, but I am not shocked.
GregLombardi
Member
This is the nice little loophole they might be using to get themselves out of trouble. Or it could be the truth, but, when it comes to companies - I think we all know how capitalism operates by now. I tend to immediately believe an accuser, though the truth is indeed difficult to find.
Negotiator
Member
That was quick I must say on Sunday, even for a predictable, cookie-cutter, PR statement...
So, David Ballard is a liar? I sincerely hope he has kept some proof...
Sneaky PR response.
TheModestGun
Neo Member
Their statement is interesting. This puts everyone involved in a hard situation. Because there are people that want justice for something that there is no formal record of.
I hope he comes out with a name, otherwise this whole thing seems strange. If we have a name, we then at least know they can look into it specifically. Without it, they don't have anyone to investigate.
I hope he comes out with a name, otherwise this whole thing seems strange. If we have a name, we then at least know they can look into it specifically. Without it, they don't have anyone to investigate.
the story reads as true. pretty much HR is there for the company, not for the employees. if someone is disturbing the peace/bringing allegations that could take multiple people out, HR might decide to fire the accuser instead of open a case. shitty but pretty common and just another reason in the anthology of why people don't report/feel comfortable reporting assault/harrassment.
don't start witch hunts period.
don't start witch hunts period.
Sony would probably mean management at wws and not HR
JayWood2010
Member
Like many sexual assault cases, it is a he said, she said type of situation and one reason these cases don't end with the victim winning the case. A court requires proof, and without it, it is a dead end.
If you are going to say in your statement that our or Sonys system has no sign of any filed allegations you better have checked in on with all relative departments.
Brotherhood93
Member
I guess but you'd really have to have no shame to fabricate being sexually assaulted, especially in the wake of real instances being so prominent at the moment.
Denying it only makes them look worse if it is true. For example, it's not like The Weinstein Company came out and just said "nah, never happened".Little Monser;252077642 said:
GHG
Gold Member
Based on the tweets it looks like the chain of events went like this:
- He's sexually harassed but doesn't report/act on it.
- He then later has a mental breakdown at work
- Manager/other staff members report this incident to HR. At this stage the situation might be discussed between HR and his manager. There is the possibility that at this stage they can decide that there is no coming back from this incident and that they want to get rid of him
- HR talk to him figure out what happened from his side and to figure out if he's fit to continue working there
- It looks like at this stage he decides to tell them about the sexual harrasment.
Not necessarily. The abuse could have happened and he could also never filed a complaint with HR. One thing doesn't contradict the other
Story was suss only if proven to be bullshit, as such David needs to begin talks with ND to progress this further i.e. start naming names...
I hope he kept a copy of the 20k contract to stay silent. That would be a pretty damning piece of evidence. Really not sure what to make of all of this.
This is important to remember. Didn't others come out to say essentially the same thing?
This is important to remember. Didn't others come out to say essentially the same thing?
Lord of Ostia
Member
I mean, it wasn't anymore suspect that any other person coming out about harassment, especially by a superior. Not sure why you think it's suspect just because the studio denies it, it is in their interest to deny it.
Imo they should've said 'we take all claims like this seriously and will investigate' instead of this. Not saying they would actually investigate, but this makes them look worse.
MisterR
Member
Doubt he will. If he had them he would have shown them long before and would have a good basis for a lawsuit.
JordanN
Banned
Since its a game studio, wouldn't they have video/security cameras everywhere?
It should at least make it easier to verify claims if they can match the story vs what's on tape.
GHG
Gold Member
If it's a standard severance agreement letter then no it's not.
Sexual harassment can be verbal and can take place outside of the office. The case I had to deal with once took place outside of the office at a work function.
They're saying "Sony Interactive Entertainment" but technically, wasn't the company still called Sony Computer Entertainment when he was fired? I mean, I doubt that they're trying to be "clever" like that but still.
So, what we have here is a man's twitter account stating he was harassed years ago, and he believes was fired for reporting it and offered a bribe to keep quiet.
What we don't have is an actual detailed account of what happened, we don't know the perpetrator - This makes it very hard for other's to come forward. When we get into these intense situations it makes it even harder for people to give actual accounts of either this man's character, or their account of what happened. While sexual harassment awareness is an important thing, the justice should be handled in a private place with detailed accounts of accusations and the facts - we are not the judge, jury and executioner and should not be.
The fact it's hard for sexual harassment victims to come forward should not change our method of our pursuit of the truth. As of right now it's simply an accusation, where we have no corroborating evidence to support the claim. I see there's plenty of comments stating the people defending this are horrible. I'm not defending sexual harassment - I'm defending the pursuit of the truth and our discussion being based on the pursuit of that truth.
What we don't have is an actual detailed account of what happened, we don't know the perpetrator - This makes it very hard for other's to come forward. When we get into these intense situations it makes it even harder for people to give actual accounts of either this man's character, or their account of what happened. While sexual harassment awareness is an important thing, the justice should be handled in a private place with detailed accounts of accusations and the facts - we are not the judge, jury and executioner and should not be.
The fact it's hard for sexual harassment victims to come forward should not change our method of our pursuit of the truth. As of right now it's simply an accusation, where we have no corroborating evidence to support the claim. I see there's plenty of comments stating the people defending this are horrible. I'm not defending sexual harassment - I'm defending the pursuit of the truth and our discussion being based on the pursuit of that truth.
Random Human
They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
.
Lord of Ostia
Member
Not only that, but this is different from the Weinstein situation because those victims are all famous Actresses and higher ups in Hollywood, that notoriety gives them credibility and that credibility means people, including law enforcement, are more likely to believe them.
Unfortunately, David Ballard doesn't have the kind of name recognition that lends him credibility in a situation like his, so people will say 'he's just doing this for the attention', an argument that doesn't hold water when a famous actress makes a similar claim.
Obviously I'm not saying that's what occurred, I don't believe most people would lie about sexual harassment and assault, especially in this industry and about a beloved studio like Naughty Dog, because now he's going to receive a lot of harassment just for coming forward. Not worth it unless it's true.
Sadly nothing will probably be done. When I was sexually harassed, nothing happened to the harasser until myself and multiple other coworkers came forward, and my boss had seen him harassing one of my coworkers first-hand. Even then it took a month to get rid of him, and he kept up the behavior.