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R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Practical Tips to Prevent Abuse & Build Team Trust

Emily Greer

Co-Founder & CEO, Double Loop Games

Game Developers Conference 2020

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Who Am I?

2007-09

Built Kongregate.com

15-17 Employees

SF, Portland OR, Remote

2013-16

Built mobile publishing

70-80 employees

SF, PDX, Remote

2006

Co-Founded Kongregate with my brother Jim

2010-12

Bought by GameStop

30-40 Employees

SF, PDX, Remote

2017-18

Sell to MTG, buy studios

120 Employees

SF, PDX, SD, CHI, Remote

2019-20

Left Kongregate to start a mobile studio, Double Loop Games

1997-2005

Previous career in catalogs, retail, & e-commerce

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Abuse/Harassment is Widespread

Surveys show consistently that around 60% of U.S. women have experienced sexual or gender-based harassment*
Numbers are lower for men, but still high at 20%*
It mostly happens at work → ~70% in both women and men

*Numbers are consistent between Quinnipiac’s November 2017 poll and a 2016 US EEOC report

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And It Goes Way Beyond Sex

The %s add up to >100% because harassment can be across multiple categories

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A Few Bad Apples...

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...Spoil The Whole Bunch

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Emily’s General Theory of Human Behavior

Respectful

Abusive

Group Norms

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Lots of Things Influence Group Norms

What behavior is modeled by leaders
What behavior is rewarded or incentivized
What behavior is tolerated
Cultural norms of individual employees
Norms of past workplaces for individual employees

✔

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Emily’s General Theory of Human Behavior

Respect

Abuse

Group Norms

Toxic Leadership

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Emily’s General Theory of Human Behavior

Respect

Abuse

Group Norms

Positive Leadership

2.0

Shocked by Gamergate, BHG leadership decided to focus on inclusivity as they restarted

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So Why Is This Worth Doing?

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The Costs Are Real

“Employees experiencing harassment are more likely to report symptoms of depression, general stress and anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and overall impaired psychological well-being...as well as headaches, exhaustion, sleep problems, gastric problems, nausea...”

-2016 EEOC Report

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Individual Costs → Organization Costs

Per the EEOC, harassment is associated with:

Debilitating job dissatisfaction and work withdrawal
Strained team dynamics/team member avoidance
→Turnover←
Lawsuits
Reputational damage
Hiring/recruiting impacts

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Your Team Will Be More Effective

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Google has done extensive research on teams and found psychological safety to be “far and away” the most important factor in team effectiveness

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The Games Outcomes Project did extensive research across projects of many sizes and found that psychological safety/team trust was one of the few factors strongly correlated with financial and critical success

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Personal Story Time

Story about the first GDC dinner I was ever invited to, organized by a AAA publisher. I was a sub for my brother, having a great time, felt like I was really a part of the game industry for the first time. Towards the end of dinner people stand up and start mingling, I end up in a corner talking to a very senior exec from one of the fast rising social gaming companies. We start talking about a potential cooperation deal with Kongregate traffic but then, with his back to the rest of the party, starts talking about the deal in sexual terms “we don’t need to get married, it could be a one-night stand” while making sex and blow job hand gestures that only I could see.

Confused, what’s going on? Is he proposing I sleep with him for a distribution deal? Left quickly, feeling small and gross, wanted to take a shower. All that feeling of belonging gone. Told my brother and Kong co-workers about it, but otherwise felt helpless. But key element of this story: if he really wanted to sleep with me (or do a deal) this was a TERRIBLE way to go about it

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Harassment is sometimes about sex. It’s ALWAYS about power.

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Quote from Libération article on Ubisoft execs, 7/10/20

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In-Group vs Out-Group

Gender
Race
Class
Ethnicity or Nationality
Religion
Sexual Orientation
Political Affiliation

Job Role
Industry Segment
Company Tenure
Employment Status (Intern, Contractor)
Weight/Height
...Many More

Helpful to abstract a little because what’s in-group and out-group might shift by region or company context, and they intersect and layer on top of each other. In groups and out groups in any situation usually start with things we bring from our cultural context, like gender, race, class...but there are all sorts of other groups that can form based on almost anything. Dev team vs support, AAA vs mobile f2p,

Harassment probably looks different in high fashion, say, than games, but that’s mostly because what’s in-group is different. I think the fact that I was from Flash games, a lower-status hinterland of games in 2009, contributed to that exec feeling comfortable harassing me. At Kongregate at one point we saw significant in-fighting between the web and mobile teams that could easily have sparked harassment, too.

I suspect gender harassment may be worse in the game industry because it’s set within a broader “gamer” culture that proudly has a “boy’s club” mentality, though cause and effect are hard to distinguish.

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Again, Research

EEOC’s 2016 harassment report listed major workplace risk factors including:

Homogeneous workforce
Young workforce
Workplaces with “high value” employees
Workplaces with significant power disparities
Workplaces that rely on customer service/satisfaction
Isolated or decentralized workplaces
Workplaces that tolerate or encourage alcohol consumption

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Harassment Happens on a Continuum

problematic

illegal

abuse

respect

“that’s kinda gay”

teasing put-downs

“ironic” racist joke

repeated request for dates

ball taps

dismissive attitude

yelling at underlings

groping/

grinding

quid pro quo sex requests

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You Can’t Half Ass This

Your culture is defined by what you choose to do when it’s inconvenient, not by what you say when it’s expected.

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Reduce the Power Differential

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Balanced Party, Not Leaderboard

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Servant Leadership

Key Priorities	Key Principles	Key Practices
Developing People	Serve First	Listening
Building a Trusting Team	Persuasion	Delegating
Achieve Results	Empowerment	Connect to Mission

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Leaders Watch Their Words

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Niceness <> Respect

Organizational cultures that discourage conflict may be comfortable but they still fall short of the goal.

The ability to make and hear thoughtful criticism is crucial for both individuals and organizations to flourish.

Undercover harassers can thrive where complaints look like troublemaking and individuals are never fired.

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Set the Tone Early

Things that helped at Kongregate:

Morning greeting from me
New hire orientation designed to teach company history & values
Sharing my worst mistake

New hires feel insecure, and often have had bad experience at previous workplaces. Make them feel safe and respected as quickly as you can.

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No VIPs

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Share Communal Responsibilities

Take some necessary, potentially unpleasant task that benefits everyone and require everyone to share the load, no exceptions.

Examples:

At Kongregate we had a weekly kitchen rotation to start/unload dishwasher
At a catalog company I was required to work a phone shift quarterly
At a retail/catalog company we were required to help local stores with inventory 2x a year

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Access to Leadership

Open, transparent communication builds trust & connection. Most companies do regular business updates, but you need to go beyond that for best results

Suggestions:

Have AMA sessions with the whole leadership team supporting both live and anonymous questions
Ask managers to do skip level and skip-skip level 1:1s as well as regular 1:1s
Take rotating groups of employees to lunch
Meet with remote employees whenever they visit
If multi-location, work from other offices on a regular basis

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Look For Red Flags

As a leader it’s easy to get snowed by people who are always charming & cooperative with YOU

Common red flags:

Negative exit interviews (do these!)
Higher turnover
Inter-team and peer feuds
Consider tasks beneath them
Disrespect of support staff

We’ve all encountered kiss up, kick down people, and they often get ahead because they’re charming and charismatic, and know how to play to whatever leadership values. They’re a huge danger to building a respectful culture, so you have to be on your guard and look for them.

The most substantial case of harassment between employees I dealt with at Kongregate the manager had most of these red flags over their tenure. The person harassed vehemently did not want their boss fired and I respected that, but over time the red flags continued and I worked to get them out, and I wished I’d done it much, much sooner. Manage these kinds of people out as quickly as possible.

Also note that I knew about some of this because I was accessible, going back to the last slide. The support staff told me about him blowing them off, and disrespecting them where I wouldn’t see it.

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Fair Pay & Advancement

One of the strongest ways we convey how we value employees is their pay & promotion. Typical compensation practices increase disparities over time, especially for those who don’t job hop.

	Junior Dev 1	Junior Dev 2	Junior Dev 3	External Hire
	Promoted from QA	New College Grad	New College Grad	4 Years Experience
Annual Raise	3%	3%	5%
Year 1	$50,000	$70,000	$70,000
Year 2	$51,500	$72,100	$73,500
Year 3	$53,045	$74,263	$77,175
Year 4	$54,636	$76,491	$81,034
Year 5	$56,275	$78,786	$85,085	$95,000

Comp & promotion systems that rely on individual manager action inevitably end up unfair. Companies need to fight that entropy, including reviews for fairness relative to peers & market.

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Less Binge Drinking

Things that worked at Kongregate to dial back the alcohol without losing the fun:

No alcohol without lots of food
Open bar limits (time, shots, etc)
Attractive non-alcoholic options
No peer pressure to drink
Earlier events (also parent-friendly)
More varied events

Family Picnics
Ice skating
Board games, D&D
Scavenger hunts
Music club
Hiking, Kayaking

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Dating Policy

Good base sample policy:

https://resources.workable.com/workplace-romance-policy-example

People dating at work gets messy VERY quickly

Policies need to balance preventing abuse with pragmatic acceptance it will happen. You don’t want to drive it underground, which also fosters abuse.

Base policy suggestions/modifications:

People above a certain level should not be allowed to date below their level regardless of reporting structure
Strictly prohibited for founders, C-level, HR
Maintain strict confidentiality but also require reporting of extra-marital affairs

Hot take: employees are less likely to date each other if they work reasonable hours

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There Will Still Be Abuse

Respectful

Abusive

Group Norms

Still a problem

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Abuse Goes Underground

Personal Bias

Absent or Implicit

Explicit

Permit/ Promote

Prohibit

Organizational Stance

Covert Discrimination

Overt Discrimination

Little or No Discrimination

Diagram taken from “Unseen Injustice”, Academy of Management Review, January 2008

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Personal Story #2

Me & my brother at a different party that year

Gamestop exec gropes me in buffet line at a party. I freeze, wondering if what I think happened really happened, then get out of range without confronting, not wanting to make a scene. Tell my brother about it, who is skeptical, thinks I imagined it. But i’m 4’11”, no normal height man touches the lower part of my ass/genital area by accident. Debate taking to Gamestop HR, but he’d deny, nothing would happen, I’d have an enemy and probably damage myself within GS, so decide to do nothing. Feel angry that the guy gets away with it, guilty that guy may be doing worse to other women, and betrayed by my brother (we’ve talked about since #metoo started, he’s very apologetic)

I don’t want to talk badly about Gamestop. Overall I found it to be a mostly good culture or I wouldn’t have stuck around for years after my earnout ended, and I have tremendous respect for a several people I worked with, particularly my boss. But even a company with a mostly good culture at the corporate level (I can’t speak to stores) wasn’t a place I felt safe making a harassment report.

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My Experience Was Typical

Formal complaints are made in only 5-10% of cases because people (accurately) anticipate:

Disbelief of their claim
Inaction on their claim
Being blamed for the incident
Social retaliation (humiliation, ostracism, etc)
Professional retaliation/career damage

The most common responses are to avoid the harassers, downplay the situation, try to ignore or forget, and get support from friends or family.

All info per EEOC 2016 Study of Harassment in the Workplace

People are more likely to report the most severe cases, but probably still less than 30% of those get reported. One 2003 study showed that 75% experience retaliation, even though that is specifically illegal

Victims won’t risk coming forward unless they have some real hope that they will believed and action will be taken. So you need to think about how do we make them feel like they’ll be believed? How do we set up systems so complaints are handled quickly, thoroughly, with appropriate actions? How do you make them feel safe through the process?

You also need to accept that to a certain degree getting harassment complaints is good: it means that your team has faith that you will take it seriously. You see public social media posts when people have lost faith in any other recourse succeeding

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Have A Real Harassment Policy

Don’t leave it just to legal and HR*:

Use accessible language
Be specific, provide examples
Cover a broad range of behaviors
Ask your employees to provide feedback
Incorporate that feedback!
Have top leadership (CEO ideally, definitely not HR) introduce it
Update, get feedback, and re-release annually

*Legal counsel & HR should be part of the process of course

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Make Concrete Plans

The more you plan in advance, the more quickly & consistently you’ll act.

Choose a small group that reviews all complaints
Identify who will complete investigations/arrange training
Set expectations on response/resolution time
Pre-discuss common types of cases & how they might be handled
Identify higher risk events (company parties, conference events, etc) & create mitigation plans
Reach out to higher risk groups
After every incident review and ask “what could we have done better?"

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Prepare For Ambiguity

Some cases will be clear-cut, with witnesses or evidence. Many will not.

Either of my two stories could easily be denied/dismissed by the man involved. Other stories may involve a mix of consensual and nonconsenual behavior, bad choices, or bad behavior on both sides. With any they said/they said story you’re eventually going to have to pick who to believe. It’s important to have a fair and thorough process for the trust of the whole organization. But keep in mind the context, where complainants are risking a lot -- studies of rape accusations find only a tiny fraction (2-6%) are false. And as we’ve seen again and again with stories that come out: predation is generally not one-offs if left unchecked, but a pattern. Are you willing to let it happen again to another employee? Maybe 10 or 20 to generate even one more report? Innocent until proven guilty is absolutely the right standard for a court of law with prison as the consequence, but it tilts the balance very far in favor of clever harassers if that’s the internal standard, too.

So thinking about my groping case I would take a similar assertion very seriously regardless of denial, and consider the totality of the accused’s work interactions. Are there any other red flags? If so I would fire or manage out rather than risk more incidents. I’m less sure what I would do if there were absolutely no red flags, but I think in most cases they will exist.

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Proportional Response

problematic

illegal

abuse

respect

“that’s kinda gay”

teasing put-downs

“ironic” racist joke

repeated request for dates

ball taps

dismissive attitude

yelling at underlings

groping/

grinding

quid pro quo sex requests

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No One Is “Too Valuable” To Fire

“They’re creatives, that’s how they behave”

“He’s an asshole, but a genius”

“I can’t wait to make director so I can be asshole to everybody!”

In the games outcomes project the other factor that correlated really strong with success other than psychological safety was clarity of vision for the game. And because that is genuinely important it’s allowed the games industry to fall hard for the myth of the asshole genius. As humans we often mistake aggressiveness for leadership, but does someone really have clarity of vision or are they just good at talking over people, stifling dissent, and taking credit for the work of others? And once we tolerate that behavior, it self-perpetuates because younger people think that’s how they’re supposed to act, and more collaborative creative visionaries are not recognized or driven out.

In basketball there’s a stat called +/- that looks at how the whole team does when a player is on the floor, not just their individual stats because there are a lot of players who can score 20 points in a game but actually make their team worse, because they don’t play defense, or refuse to pass the ball, or similar. That’s the way to think about the so-called asshole genius: someone who looks good from one angle, but is actually dragging the whole team down in ways that are less visible. They’re the reason people quit. They’re the reason people are afraid to criticize aspects of the game, or make suggestions. They’re the reason people burn out even working normal hours. And outside of solo indie projects game development is always going to be most about the team effectiveness, not the individual.

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Safety First

The process of reporting abuse can be traumatic. Do everything you can to make people feel as safe as possible.

Lots of options for reporting, including anonymously
Confidentiality to the utmost extent possible
Understand that it may be really hard to talk about
No pressure to “work it out”/be okay with it
No “solutions” that punish the victim rather than the abuser
Zero tolerance on any retaliation
Listen closely to what the victim needs
...but balance that with consistency of policy

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Managers Matter

Invest in training, support, and mentorship:

Leadership (I like Servant Leadership)
(Non-Violent) Communication
Understanding harassment (this talk is free, so is the EEOC report)
Proper handling of incidents and reports

Managers and leads have the most impact on your team’s day-to-day.

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Encourage Bystander Action

“Organizational culture starts from the top. But reinforcing that culture can and must come from the bottom, middle, and everywhere else in between.”

- EEOC, 2016

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Start Somewhere

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Thank You!

More Resources:

The 2016 EEOC workplace harassment report: Select Task Force on the Study of Harassment in the Workplace | US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Psychological Safety: The five keys to a successful Google team
NY Times on Google’s research: What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team
More on The Games Outcomes Project

The Game Outcomes Project, Part 1: The Best and the Rest (5-part blog on Gamasutra)
The Game Outcomes Project: How Teamwork, Leadership and Culture Drive Results (GDC talk)

Books on Communication: Nonviolent Communication and Difficult Conversations
The Good Place and Unbelievable on Netflix

I’ll link to the full slides on my twitter: @EmilyG