Former Blizzard Co-lead Jen Oneal Was Only Offered Pay Parity with Male Co-lead After Her Resignation

Activision Blizzard’s troubling systemic issues have come to light in devastating fashion over the last few months, and things have only become more dire of late, with reports shedding light on issues that go all the way to the top with CEO Bobby Kotick. Something else that recently came to light was the circumstances behind the departure of Blizzard’s former co-lead Jen Oneal. Among several other issues, Oneal was not offered pay that was equal to that of her fellow co-lead Mike Ybarra, and now, a report by IGN has elaborated on that matter.

As per messages sent by Ybarra and Oneal sent in a Blizzard slack channel (screenshots of which were viewed by IGN), when the duo came into their new positions, their pay remain unchanged from their previous roles- formerly, Ybarra headed up Battle.net, while Oneal was in charge of Vicarious Visions. The two apparently made multiple requests to Activision that they be paid equally, which were rejected, and only after Oneal tendered her resignation was she finally offered equal pay.

“Jen and I shared with management that we wanted to be paid the same to co-lead Blizzard together,” Ybarra wrote.

Meanwhile, Oneal elaborated, explaining: “When Mike and I were placed in the same co-lead role, we went into the role with our previous compensation, which was not equivalent. It remained that way for some time well after we made multiple rejected requests to change it to parity. While the company informed me before I tendered my resignation that they were working on a new proposal, we were made equivalent offers only after I tendered that resignation.”

Activision Blizzard’s persistent and systemic issues have been met with understandable backlash from all corners of the industry, which includes employees of the company itself, who are demanding the resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick. Read more on that through here.