Paizo Jessica Price (ex Paizo employee) spills the beans

[TheSword]

Just say what you mean. You're upset about the dreaded ... cancel culture! You know, that thing that doesn't actually exist, except in the fever swamps of right-wing rhetoric. In the real world there are very, very occasionally consequences for bad workplace behavior, but in general management types can survive just about any accusation, whether it's backed up or not.

But also, the person she was saying was fired didn't quit the company amicably. They left in protest because of a colleague's firing. That's still an extremely bad look for Paizo! You can go ahead and complain about the travesty of a non-journalist posting on Twitter without living up to some sort of journalistic standards of source-checking and corroboration, but, ultimately, you're flipping out about a relatively minor detail that has almost no bearing on the larger accusations being presented here. And yes, you'll die on this hill for a while, railing about how "Facts matter!" and such, but this story is exponentially bigger than your rage over a mistake (again, from someone who isn't a journalist, and has no relevant professional code of ethics that they're violating). This is simply how it goes in the real world. Social media is messy, people are messy, the way news travels is messy, that's just how things have always been, long before Twitter threads were a thing.

Woah. No need to go personal. I’m a left wing supporter of the Green Party not a right wing cancel-culture-nut. I just believe in natural justice and accountability… neither of which Jessica Price is displaying. You are right, she isn’t breaking a social media code of ethics… I’m saying there should be one.

The people she talks about aren’t faceless execs. They’re household names in the gaming industry that have had some serious accusations leveled at them. These people stand up at conventions and are accessible to the public, through their work, social media. Scrutiny and oversight is a good thing, but it should be measured, judicious and considered. Not vengeful and salacious.

If she has stuck to the key, matters, and delivered them professionally, I would have a lot more respect. If she had approached the matter with less sarcasm, less sensationalism and less personal animus then her points would land with far more respect.

The stuff reads terribly for Paizo. I don’t accept that ‘social media being mess’ is grounds for Jessica to behave unprofessionally either.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Presumably they refused to clean a carpet because of cost and effort (that's the reason management always gives when avoiding things like this). Well, how much is it costing your company now? Some things I just don't get. The short sightedness I see in this industry (see also Blizzard/Activision) blows my mind. I'm a low level manager for a corporation, and I don't claim to be a management genius, but some of the decisions these people make. I don't get it.

 

[darjr]

It makes more sense when looked at in the light of bigotry being done in secret or with plausible denial. I’m not saying these particular instances are it, but sometimes it’s what makes sense. The other is management with toxic privilege, which can make it impossible for management to see the real issues or even recognize them.

 

[payn]

I love Paizo products and its too bad to hear about this going on behind the curtain.

 

[Retreater]

Curse my old man unfamiliarity with Twitter. I'm not sure if I'm reading the entire thread or not, but I haven't seen anything that bad in what I've read so far. Most of it has focused on carpet cleaning. Haven't seen anything about actual discrimination, etc.

 

[Ancalagon]

Curse my old man unfamiliarity with Twitter. I'm not sure if I'm reading the entire thread or not, but I haven't seen anything that bad in what I've read so far. Most of it has focused on carpet cleaning. Haven't seen anything about actual discrimination, etc.

Hello

I had the same difficulty, and you are indeed missing a fair amount of stuff. I do wish this was published in a more readable format. In the meantime, at the bottom of the tread (if you are on desktop), you will see this:

What you have to do is click "show replies" and NOT "show more replies"... yes, I know, this is TERRIBLE design from twitter. But if you do so you will be able to see the rest of the thread - and you will have to do it more than once.

(edit: you have to do this in the twitter thread, not here, this is just an image so you can see what to click (and what not to click)

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's not a great look for paizo and I'm not doubting the veracity of the post in anyway, but before any conclusions are made it must be worth hearing paizo's side of the story?

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen Paizo employees talking about a toxic culture, but I also don’t see what we will learn from what will doubtless be a corporate doublespeak statement that says next to nothing aside from “fake news!”.

Curse my old man unfamiliarity with Twitter. I'm not sure if I'm reading the entire thread or not, but I haven't seen anything that bad in what I've read so far. Most of it has focused on carpet cleaning. Haven't seen anything about actual discrimination, etc.

There’s a lot more than carpet cleaning, for sure. Hopefully someone will do a blog breakdown or soemthing soon, but one highlight for me was an exec propositioning a subordinate and then sabotaging her work when she politely declined.

The proposition itself, not necessarily anything bad.

He wasn’t her direct boss, different departments, and she didn’t suggest anything disrespectful or anything like that about the initial exchange, other than that he had a rep for hitting on all single female employees in the office, which is a bad look regardless of anything else.

It’s the retaliation that ends up being a big damn deal.

Maybe someone has done a “thread unroll” thing, idk.

 

[kenada]

Thread by @Delafina777 on Thread Reader App

@Delafina777: Welp, Paizo just fired their two most senior customer service people (one a woman, one a POC) for apparently being too willing to push back on abusive management. Of course, this also means that the...…

threadreaderapp.com

 

[Parmandur]

As someone who greatly enjoys paizo products, reading this troubles me greatly. I'd always come to regard them as a progressive company, who championed inclusivity. It would seem this is just an image they portray to grab the dollar.

However saying all that there are two sides to every story, and before I dive in with both daggers, I shall wait to see paizo's response. Until that time I've cancelled all my current orders for paizo products.

The nice part about having a negative expectation of human nature is that you never get dissapointed, only pleasantly surprised.

 

[JediSoth]

Carpet cleaning sounds like it's petty, but when it's SEVEN years of built-up dust, dirt, and God knows what else has been tracked in from outside (and remember, this is the Pacific NW, where there's rain, snow, road deicing chemical, pollen, etc), to the point where it's triggering asthma attacks in people, that's a serious safety violation. When the physical work space affects people's health and management's reaction is to roll their eyes and say "deal with it," that's some serious disregard for the health and safety of your employees right there.

It's probably actionable. No one should have to work in an environment that makes them physically ill, or exacerbates conditions they already have. An indoor office environment should be free from problems like that, it's not a freakin' construction site where you'd expect dust and dirt to be all around.