• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Top Director at Bungie Was Fired After Misconduct Investigation - Bloomberg

clarky

Gold Member
Its either a full on creepo or its blown way the fuck outa proportion. Just lately my bias is always against media in general that I have a hard time believing it.

We ALL know the article will paint the situation in the absolute WORST possible way.
Option B. Dude text a few birds. Thats it, not even dick pics
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Yah, harmless flirting that led 8 different people to feel unsettled enough to make an HR complaint and subject themselves to investigation against a powerful leader in their workplace.

Some of y'all lack a fucking brain.

There are many examples of people being wrongly accused or people jumping the gun. This ain't one of them.

Receipts or back off. Unless you have some unique insight you're no better equipped to make a judgement than the rest of us.

Number of complainants could actually be viewed as a mitigating factor, not an intensifier. Because if the behaviour was commonplace how "victimized" can each person claim to be by it?

And before you argue behavioural "normalcy" cannot be taken as a defence, remember, we're not talking about serial criminal acts here. We're talking about unwanted compliments. Not pussy-grabbing. Not rape.

Micro-aggressions basically.

Do you not get that just because a group has an issue with a behaviour, it proves nothing more than *that* group shares a certain outlook or set of behavioural norms which they demand be imposed on everyone else.

Now you could take that as bullying behaviour, it all depends on how the cultural conflict is framed.

See my the whole issue with the way the situation is described, is that it works outwards from a starting point where actions in themselves not harmful or negative (complimenting, offering career assistance, playing jokey social games) must be treated that way PURELY because of the gender and power dynamic of those involved.
 
Could be innocent, could be sinister, really depends on interpretation.

To be honest, my opinion is that any culture that treats flirting as a sackable offence is fucked from the jump.
Its an overcompensation that only makes sense when completely submerged in a mentality of oppressed vs oppressor.

So much for resilience, eh?

The problem is it's only considered flirting when there is an attraction that goes both ways. The moment a woman is not interested, it's considered sexual harassment.

This is the kind of idiocy that follows such overly broad definitions.
 

baroquemack

Banned
you left out details, also, i want to ask you, is it normal for YOU to do this to people beneath you within the org? Don't flirt with lower level employees, they are automatically more submissive because you are their boss and will do things they deem inappropriate because they think it'll help them move up/get a raise/promoted. Corporate is more about relationships and optics than performance.

It feels like some of you never had jobs lol
Threads like this bring out the orcs. Giving the benefit of the doubt that they’ve worked real jobs I wonder how they’d handle being harassed by their gay boss
 
Last edited:

tmlDan

Member
Until I see those txt messages posted, I dont trust it. Need the receipts boy.
Thats not really for you to see, privacy is important.

Trust me when i say, HR and corps do far less than they should to mitigate this behaviour. There are a ton of bosses who do this type of stuff, especially when i worked in an ad agency 3-4 years ago.

Threads like this bring out the orcs. Giving the benefit of the doubt that they’ve worked real jobs I wonder how they’d handle being harassed by their gay boss

There have been gay bosses ive worked with who did the same type of thing, its crazy its allowed at a lot of places
 
Last edited:

Draugoth

Gold Member
This is his wife. Bro got greedy, put him in horny jail for life

Dr. Disrespect:

9faa33080e50d041.webp


For creeps, it's never enough.
 
Last edited:

Sethbacca

Member
The problem is it's only considered flirting when there is an attraction that goes both ways. The moment a woman is not interested, it's considered sexual harassment.
The way to avoid this is to just not shit where you eat. Every company everywhere gets trainings about this type of thing. It's employment 101 at this point.

The simple way to avoid sexual harassment issues is to shut up and work. That's literally it.
 
Last edited:

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
For real. In general, you’re there to work, not to get chicks. That’s it. Keep your work relationships professional and call it a day.
Actually I remember reading statistics about how common it is to date coworkers. And not just that, somewhere around 1/3rd of office couples go on to get married.

It's not illegal to hit on your coworkers. Of course, he's in a senior role which complicates matters, but everywhere i've worked, people fuck each other and even get married to their bosses. My current job has at least seven marriages between coworkers. two have gone on to become VPs.
 

SHA

Member
I seriously do not get grown up men behaving in this fashion in a professional setting. Most of these idiots are rich enough to buy sex from escorts. Why do such things and lose your comfy job?
They maybe rich but maybe it's one of their ways to get out of rich mindset, they can't play the rich guy 24/7, no one does.
 
The way to avoid this is to just not shit where you eat. Every company everywhere gets trainings about this type of thing. It's employment 101 at this point.

The simple way to avoid sexual harassment issues is to shut up and work. That's literally it.

I agree.

But that's not the point being discussed. The point is, should it HAVE to be that way? Society has become way too sensitive over the smallest things, meanwhile at some companies disgusting, outrageous actual examples of bullying and sexual harassment occur and nothing happens. It's like companies are either way too oversensitive, or completely useless in combating a toxic work culture. There's no middle ground, it seems.
 

Sethbacca

Member
Sounds more like prison to me.

Productivity is not the same as captivity. Unless you're too far gone to tell the difference!
I mean, I personally agree with you and hate it, but that's how corporations work. At the end of the day they exist to protect their bottom lines and you're just a cog in the machine. Never fuck with the cash flow or you pay the consequences. I mean, I've definitely dipped my pen in the company ink at times, but always as another cog never as a leader.

In this era, I would never.
 

MrRibeye

Member
Many years ago at a big game studio, I changed the wallpaper of my co-worker to firemen gay porn while he was away from his desk and we all laughed hysterically about it when he came back and said it was punishment for not locking his PC for security reasons when leaving his desk.
 

tmlDan

Member
I agree.

But that's not the point being discussed. The point is, should it HAVE to be that way? Society has become way too sensitive over the smallest things, meanwhile at some companies disgusting, outrageous actual examples of bullying and sexual harassment occur and nothing happens. It's like companies are either way too oversensitive, or completely useless in combating a toxic work culture. There's no middle ground, it seems.
I think people promote the hard and fast rule because a lot of people don't understand social cues, you have to be very careful when you're interacting on a social level at work and a lot of people are terrible at gauging what makes someone uncomfortable.

I agree that being social and interacting is extremely important and as slimy said, you CAN date coworkers, but a hard and fast "don't date coworkers" is an easy way to just get rid of stuff like this.

lastly, this guy the thread is about is married, he's a weirdo
 
Last edited:

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
you left out details,
No I didn't, Bloomberg has.
also, i want to ask you, is it normal for YOU to do this to people beneath you within the org? Don't flirt with lower level employees, they are automatically more submissive because you are their boss and will do things they deem inappropriate because they think it'll help them move up/get a raise/promoted.
Corporate is more about relationships and optics than performance.
Let's take it a step further: Don't flirt with any employees. Ever.
Nevermind that this type of thing was normal not too long ago.

For real. In general, you’re there to work, not to get chicks. That’s it. Keep your work relationships professional and call it a day.
So where is it viable and allowable to seek a dating life in your view?
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Let's take it a step further: Don't flirt with any employees. Ever.
Nevermind that this type of thing was normal not too long ago.

Receiving advances from someone in a much superior position to yours is not normal, it just wasn't reported like this before.

Also, you're missing the part where he was fired *after* an HR investigation took place. HR's job isn't to side with employees, it's to save company's public face, if they fired him, it means they likely saw credible evidence. Not because someone at HR felt empathetic towards those 8 women.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
A CEO is not your co-worker, he's the fucking boss of your boss.

A person who holds that position cannot interact with the staff the same way regular teammates do.
He's not the CEO. he's the director. Big hollywood directors fuck actresses all the time. Steven Spielberg actually married an actress he directed and had like 7 kids with her. Roman Polanski dated Sharon Tate, Darren Aronofsky dated Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Coen married Francis Mcdormand, James Cameron married Linda Hamilton..... this list goes on and on.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
He's not the CEO. he's the director. Big hollywood directors fuck actresses all the time. Steven Spielberg actually married an actress he directed and had like 7 kids with her. Roman Polanski dated Sharon Tate, Darren Aronofsky dated Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Coen married Francis Mcdormand, James Cameron married Linda Hamilton..... this list goes on and on.

You're not wrong.

But the power imbalance is completely different here. Lead actors often have the same, if not more, sway and control over their employment and projects as the directors.

This would be more like a director sending texts and promising advancements to a production staffer.
 

Sethbacca

Member
He's not the CEO. he's the director. Big hollywood directors fuck actresses all the time. Steven Spielberg actually married an actress he directed and had like 7 kids with her. Roman Polanski dated Sharon Tate, Darren Aronofsky dated Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Coen married Francis Mcdormand, James Cameron married Linda Hamilton..... this list goes on and on.
Probably shouldn't be bringing up Roman Polanski when having a discussion about how to act with propriety and not fuck up your life.......
 
Last edited:
He's not the CEO. he's the director. Big hollywood directors fuck actresses all the time. Steven Spielberg actually married an actress he directed and had like 7 kids with her. Roman Polanski dated Sharon Tate, Darren Aronofsky dated Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Coen married Francis Mcdormand, James Cameron married Linda Hamilton..... this list goes on and on.

Getting a promotion because you fucked someone is not ok. Only in a degenerate environment like Hollywood that's accepted.
 

Haint

Member
As far as #MeeToo's go, these are some pretty Mickey Mouse allegations if this is really all he did. "Line blurring" texts, like offhandedly referring to a woman as attractive, asking people to play truth/dare, and making what were very likely jokes about wealth/promotions don't really seem like fireable offenses for a mission critical employee. More so suspension, paycut/demotion, or losing promotional track territory. There don't seem to be any claims of sexual assault or even overt sexual advances/harassment, just what Resetera employees interpret to be "line blurring" and "flirtatious in nature".
 
Last edited:

ProtoByte

Weeb Underling
Receiving advances from someone in a much superior position to yours is not normal, it just wasn't reported like this before.
Well, firstly I wasn't referring to advances from superiors in that quote. But on that subject, you can say that it's not ethically correct, but to pretend like it wasn't normal (as in statistically significant and generally accepted) at some point in living memory is just delusion.

Depending on how that standard is applied, it can also reach to the infinite. We have seen people of "superior position" in general society have been purged from their given industry due to advances and interactions made on and with people that have nothing to do with that industry.

Also, you're missing the part where he was fired *after* an HR investigation took place. HR's job isn't to side with employees, it's to save company's public face, if they fired him, it means they likely saw credible evidence. Not because someone at HR felt empathetic towards those 8 women.
No, I'm not missing that part, that's the whole predicate of the article. The details the article end at sending flirtatious texts as a person of influence at the studio.

I think that he was profoundly stupid and possibly unethical, but what is in the article foes not satisfy any reasonable definition of "predacious" behavior. Verbiage to which I was responding.

Not at work with your subordinates. This isn’t a fucking hard concept to grasp.
Yes yes, we agreed on that. In fact, you said "shut and work" in a general sense before I did. I'm asking you the question, because unwanted advances can and do happen anywhere, and as has been stated already, work was (and apparently still is) a place where people meet and fraternize.
 
Last edited:

StereoVsn

Member
As far as #MeeToo's go, these are some pretty Mickey Mouse allegations if this is really all he did. "Line blurring" texts, like offhandedly referring to a woman as attractive, asking people to play truth/dare, and making what were very likely jokes about wealth/promotions don't really seem like fireable offenses for a mission critical employee. More so suspension, paycut/demotion, or losing promotional track territory. There don't seem to be any claims of sexual assault or even overt sexual advances/harassment, just what Resetera employees interpret to be "line blurring" and "flirtatious in nature".
Again, there was an HR investigation and he was fired because of it. Corpos don’t do that out of their largesse to their employees.

He had a senior role, was married and behaved inappropriately to 8 different subordinates. That’s just not how people should behave.

Yes, people flirt, go out, date, etc at work. But it’s usually very much frowned upon when it happens between folks with much different seniority at the company.

Edit: and while it doesn’t look like there was any criminal conduct, companies will still boot people for that shit because they don’t need the publicity nightmare. And as a senior leader that guy should have known better.
 
Last edited:

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
This would be more like a director sending texts and promising advancements to a production staffer.
He never specifically said that. He simply said he was rich and had pull in the studio and the women apparently took to mean that he was stating that to get them promotions. Maybe he was being coy about it but the whole promising advancements didnt exactly happen. it was inferred at best and most probably just some dude boasting about his wealth to pull chicks.

The investigation found that Barrett called lower-level female employees attractive, asked them to play truth-or-dare and made references to his wealth and power within the studio, suggesting that he could help advance their careers, according to two people familiar with the case.
Jason shouldve posted the texts and blurred out the names of the accusers.
 
Last edited:

tmlDan

Member
He never specifically said that. He simply said he was rich and had pull in the studio and the women apparently took to mean that he was stating that to get them promotions. Maybe he was being coy about it but the whole promising advancements didnt exactly happen. it was inferred at best and most probably just some dude boasting about his wealth to pull chicks.


Jason shouldve posted the texts and blurred out the names of the accusers.
dude, he's married, why is he "pulling chicks" or joking about giving promotions, be real ffs
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Jason shouldve posted the texts and blurred out the names of the accusers.

Unless someone leaks them, I doubt we ever see those texts. Bungie will probably C&D them instantly. Even with the names blurred.
 
Last edited:

Haint

Member
Again, there was an HR investigation and he was fired because of it. Corpos don’t do that out of their largesse to their employees.

He had a senior role, was married and behaved inappropriately to 8 different subordinates. That’s just not how people should behave.

Yes, people flirt, go out, date, etc at work. But it’s usually very much frowned upon when it happens between folks with much different seniority at the company.

Ironically the very article we're discussing here suggests HR initially didn't take action (presumably due to the lack of severity in the allegations/offenses, and questionable evidence/witnesses/accounts), but says after Noted Lesbian Game Maker and BLM Advocate Sony took over, and due to the efforts of activist journalists/employees pushing for action "to change the industry", it's implied they decided to make an example of him.
 
Last edited:

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
dude, he's married, why is he "pulling chicks" or joking about giving promotions, be real ffs
what am i not being real about?

you guys are acting like workplace relationships should never happen. I pointed out that they are very common, very much legal and even end up in marriages. Then you moved goalposts and said that CEOs shouldnt be dating coworkers. I once again corrected you and pointed out that directors date actresses and coworkers all the time even in hollywood. Then it was said that he offered promotions which is literally not true according to Jason himself. It was taken as if he was offering promotions. Big difference.

now we are like he's married, he shouldnt be pulling chicks. Yeah, no shit sherlock. That has nothing to do with what I am saying.
 

tmlDan

Member
what am i not being real about?

you guys are acting like workplace relationships should never happen. I pointed out that they are very common, very much legal and even end up in marriages. Then you moved goalposts and said that CEOs shouldnt be dating coworkers. I once again corrected you and pointed out that directors date actresses and coworkers all the time even in hollywood. Then it was said that he offered promotions which is literally not true according to Jason himself. It was taken as if he was offering promotions. Big difference.

now we are like he's married, he shouldnt be pulling chicks. Yeah, no shit sherlock. That has nothing to do with what I am saying.
you did not correct me at all, other people responding to you are not me.

I also said dating coworkers common but this guy is not a normal scenario. Stop justifying this type of behavior. Not only is he a boss, but the coworkers KNOW he is married, that puts their guard down. Then he boasts his power within bungie and insinuates that he will get you promoted and asks to hangout with females specifically? If you can't read the room, you're lost. It was 8 female employees, not just one.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom