Ubisoft PR director fired amid ongoing harassment allegations
Ubisoft PR director Stone Chin has been fired as the company continues to conduct investigations into allegations of harassment and abuse in the workplace.
In a statement published via TwitLonger, Chin said that he had not been fired due to the result of any investigation into allegations, but had instead been terminated for his management style.
"I was terminated by my employer last week," Chin wrote. "My employer told me that the reason for my termination was its conclusion that I have failed to uphold the company’s code of conduct over the course of my career at the company. My employer did not cite the allegation of sexual assault as a reason for my termination."
"Specifically, it cited my management style, which it found consisted of passive aggressiveness, disrespectful language to former direct reports, and giving the cold shoulder to coworkers," Chin added.
Chin mentions two incidents in which he asked coworkers out for dates and proceeded to give them the "cold shoulder" after they declined.
"I have not been given the full investigation report so I cannot speak directly about any findings made by my employer or its lawyer," he wrote, before adding that he failed to understand the gender power dynamic and had been ignorant of the struggles women face every day.
However, Chin has apparently been accused of multiple counts of harassment for years. One tweet from 2018 reads, "Will Stone Chin ever face consequences? Probably f**king not." Also, it is worth noting that Chin is the first person to have been fired from Ubisoft over the last three weeks. All of the other employees accused of harassment resigned.
Chin's termination comes in the wake of widespread firing and resignation at Ubisoft in recent weeks, all of which has to do with investigations into misconduct.
After admitting that it had "fallen short" in terms of addressing misconduct allegations in the past, Ubisoft suspended two executives (Tommy Francois and Maxime Beland), one of whom (Beland) has since resigned. A further three execs - Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët, Managing Director of Ubisoft’s Canadian studios Yannis Mallat, and Global Head of HR Cécile Cornet - have also resigned.
Hascoët in particular had massive influence on Ubisoft. It was recently revealed that Kassandra was supposed to be the only playable lead in Assassin's Creed Odyssey until Hascoët said, "women don't sell."