A former lead VFX artist forOverwatch 2has shared his account of working atBlizzard. Speaking on social media, Chris Sayers claims that Blizzard’s management gave him a “fake promotion”, making him work in four roles at once with no extra pay.

Sayers goes on to describe HR as “evil and unhelpful at every turn”. Eventually, he says they denied ever promoting him in the first place, shooting down requests for a pay increase along with his new responsibilities. He also says that Blizzard would fire workers who were unable to return to the office after remote work came to an end, including one instance where a dev had to work from home to care for a loved one.

“Enough time has passed now for me to talk about why I decided to leave Blizzard,” says Sayers. “A mixed year with great teammates, but a management that mistreated, lied to me, gaslit me, gave me a fake promotion, and HR that refused to help.”

He continues, explaining why he left his position at Blizzard. “I spent most of a year stressed out of my mind, working 4 people’s jobs at once, and having management make promises they had no intention of fulfilling and I ultimately felt like I had no choice but to leave for my own mental health.”

I ask HR if they think that it is ethically okay to pay me less than 50% of every person for doing the same job?

They tell me “Why would we pay you more than we have to? That doesn’t make any business sense.”

He says that the overwork came about when he was promoted to lead VFX artist just months after joining the company. This would include his previous workload, while also taking on three other roles, like handling outsourced work and managerial responsibilities.

According to Sayers, his first responsibility in the new position was to fire an employee who had been working from home, and couldn’t return to the office. He says he tried to defend the employee, sharing the following account:

Despite Sayers announcing the promotion publicly on Twitter at the time, he says that HR would later deny it ever happened. They used this to justify the alleged 50 percent pay gap between him and others at the studio, while also arguing that he can be paid less as he lives in the UK, not the US. According to Sayers, when he questioned the ethics of Blizzard paying him significantly less, HR told him it “doesn’t make any business sense” to match his pay with other workers.

Eventually, when it became clear that Sayers would not receive the pay increase, he left. However, he says that Blizzard then triggered a non-compete clause which prevented him from “working anywhere at all” for three months. This was allegedly unpaid, and when he said he wouldn’t be able to survive without work for this long, he claims HR told him, “You probably shouldn’t have signed the contract then”.

After years of controversy, working conditions at Blizzard are back in the spotlight. Activision Blizzard as a whole recently agreed to a$50 million payout over alleged gender discrimination.Bobby Kotick also recently left the companyafter more than 30 years, having been the CEO whilemany higher-upswere accused ofcontributing to a “frat boy” culture in the workplace.