Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier in a material on the publication’s website told the story of one of the leading developers of World of Warcraft Classic, Brian Birmingham, who was fired by Blizzard Entertainment due to criticism of the employee rating system.
Since 2021, Blizzard has had a ranking table in which managers rate their subordinates. A certain percentage of workers (5%) are required by managers to assign a special “developing” status, which deprives workers of part of the bonuses and the prospect of promotion in the near future.
“This policy encourages competition among employees, sabotage of other people’s work, the desire to join low-performing teams in order to be the best there, and ultimately undermine trust and destroy creativity”Birmingham wrote in a letter to colleagues.
Birmingham said he and other managers on the World of Warcraft team have managed to bypass the quota for low employee ratings over the past two years, but he was recently forced to give an employee an “evolving” status. Instead of subordinates, the heads of departments were forbidden to assign such a rating to themselves.
The leaders of Blizzard motivated the need for the system by the importance of helping the weakest workers with professional growth. A spokesman for the company told Bloomberg that the evaluation process includes conversations with several managers, which can also affect the status of an employee.
The employee evaluation system came to Blizzard from the parent company, consisting of Activision, Blizzard and King (ABK)
Birmingham might not accept the current state of affairs and decided to quit: “If this policy is removed, then perhaps my Blizzard can still be saved and I will happily continue to work there. If they don’t cancel, then the Blizzard Entertainment I want to work for no longer exists, and I will have to look for another job.”.
Before Birmingham sent a letter to his colleagues, he was called to the personnel department, where he was fired. The developer was asked not to make criticism of the rating system public (“We don’t want Activision executives to come in and make things worse”), but he refused to gloss over the issue.
Microsoft, which is seeking to acquire Activision Blizzard, abandoned the ranking table back in 2013
It is noteworthy that shortly following the publication with a statement in his microblog spoke Birmingham itself. According to him, he was surprised to see the Bloomberg article. The publication did not contact him and did not ask for a copy of the mentioned e-mail, but the quotes were correct.
Already the former creator of World of Warcraft Classic added that depriving employees of their honestly earned income “deeply unfair”and the management of the parent company should be ashamed: “Hopefully Blizzard’s positive culture can take over ABK’s poison, but so far it hasn’t been able to.”.
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