Wizards of the Coast Employees Walk Out Over Hasbro's 'Tone-Deaf' Response to Overturning of Roe v. Wade

[Dausuul]

It seems Polygon has an article on WotC employee's feelings about the company's response...

Workers behind D&D, Magic are speaking up about their company’s stance on abortion rights

Origins of the Twitter account are unclear, however

www.polygon.com

They note that at least 13 employees they spoke to were unaware of the "Wizards for Justice" account or post. This suggests to me that the thing's a bust, not necessarily because they disagree with it, but due to lack of reach in the notice.

Also... reading the actual letter from Chris Cocks, and the bit about "enhanced travel benefits," it sure sounds like Hasbro does intend to cover travel costs for abortions; they are just being extremely cagy about saying so in public.

Which is a problem for some folks, I suppose. Personally, I put very little weight on what corporations say. I care about what they do. I don't believe a public statement by a corporation ever accomplishes much*.

*The one exception is where the public statement is a threat or promise, aimed at getting somebody to do or not do a specific thing: "We will pull operations out of your state if you pass this law." Even then, however, the statement only carries weight if the corporation appears willing to do something which carries weight.

 

[Ondath]

So it seems from the Polygon article that the internal memo says that Hasbro is adding travel benefits for healthcare. So they are taking care of their employees, and the gripe is mostly that the corporation hasn't made a political statement.
Personally, I'm satisfied with that move as a customer. It's more than most businesses I know.

Yeah, from the Twitter thread I had imagined the internal memo to be something like "We know it's an upsetting time but we won't do much to help if you're living in one of the states where abortion is banned now", but they seem to have pretty much implemented what the thread wanted in the first place, bar a public statement about the matter. The statement would've been nice, for sure, but I feel like their actions are more important than that for the safety of their employees.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

Good luck to the WotC employees who are standing up against their cowardly corporate leadership. I may be done spending my money on Hasbro products.

Having read the actual memo now, I feel like I can continue to to spend money on Hasbro products.

I know some people were upset that they used the euphemism "reproductive health" instead of "abortion" but abortion provides have been doing the same thing for decades or using the now somewhat deprecated term of "women's health."

Was there more to the memo than was posted in the Polygon article? Some of the Twitter conversation seemed to be referencing a "we need to listen to all sides" tone that I am not seeing in the memo presented here..

 

[billd91]

Having read the actual memo now, I feel like I can continue to to spend money on Hasbro products.

I know some people were upset that they used the euphemism "reproductive health" instead of "abortion" but abortion provides have been doing the same thing for decades or using the now somewhat deprecated term of "women's health."

Was there more to the memo than was posted in the Polygon article? Some of the Twitter conversation seemed to be referencing a "we need to listen to all sides" tone that I am not seeing in the memo presented here..

My guess is the “tone deaf” part was more along the “let’s all just get along and respect each others’ views” part of the statement. And I know people are feeling more than a little hard done by the SCOTUS decision.

 

[Gradine]

This seems more and more like it's actually a complete non-story, and I honestly don't know if that's a relief or disappointing

 

[Jahydin]

Having read the actual memo now, I feel like I can continue to to spend money on Hasbro products.

I know some people were upset that they used the euphemism "reproductive health" instead of "abortion" but abortion provides have been doing the same thing for decades or using the now somewhat deprecated term of "women's health."

Was there more to the memo than was posted in the Polygon article? Some of the Twitter conversation seemed to be referencing a "we need to listen to all sides" tone that I am not seeing in the memo presented here..

Sounds like it was this:

“We know there are many perspectives over what is at stake with the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court announced last week,” Cocks and Atkinson wrote. “It is important we continue to respect all employees’ perspectives in the workplace.”

They continued: “Let’s continue to prioritize and nurture inclusion at Hasbro. Regardless of your individual views, this is a time to demonstrate understanding, empathy, and kindness for each other.”

As someone that works in a political diverse workspace, the response seems pretty reasonable to me.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

So, what, people are mad because they didn't agree hard enough?

This frames the issue as a discussion between two or more morally acceptable stances. It isn’t.

My guess is the “tone deaf” part was more along the “let’s all just get along and respect each others’ views” part of the statement. And I know people are feeling more than a little hard done by the SCOTUS decision.

Yeah seems that way. And yeah, I think it’s fair to start holding companies accountable for silence as well as for what they do say.

 

[Baron Opal II]

This frames the issue as a discussion between two or more morally acceptable stances. It isn’t.

Well, from what I've been able to determine so far it's-
A) Yeah, we'll help you out.
B) This is morally repugnant and we will assist you in this manner.

With "A" being what Hasbro did vs. "B" being an announcement more like Dick's Sporting Goods.

(Now that I've been able to read the article)
There's no outrage in the message, implicit or otherwise, certainly.
And, no, I don't think that it frames the issue that way, unless there is something I am misunderstanding.

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah. Hasbro has done more than enough with that memo. It wasn't their responsibility to provide the enhanced travel benefits, but they did so anyway. I have no issue with the company.

 

[MGibster]

As someone that works in a political diverse workspace, the response seems pretty reasonable to me.

Prior to 2016, we really didn't have a lot of employee relations issues stemming from political disagreements between coworkers. And while I wouldn't say they became common, they happened a lot more frequently until 2020. But like most employee relations issues, this largely came to an end when we all fled for the safety of our homes because of COVID. It is perfectly reasonable for an employer to send a message to their employees establishing expected behavior in the office.