Xbox exec says she was pushed out after refusing – Business News
A former Xbox government says she was pressured out of her job after refusing to put on a bathrobe handed to her by a colleague in a resort room during a main gaming convention.
Laura Fryer, who was director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group on the time, mentioned the incident occurred in 2004 during the Game Developers Conference, the place her staff had simply delivered the keynote unveiling Microsoft’s XNA project.
According to Fryer, she spent a number of hours on a stage giving a presentation earlier than ultimately heading back to a resort room alongside an Xbox government and a public relations official.
Laura Fryer mentioned she was “reorganized out” of her position as director of the Xbox Advanced Technology Group after what she described as a resort room incident during the 2004 Game Developers Conference. Laura Fryer/YouTube
“Next thing I know, I’m handed a bathrobe and asked to put it on. I laughed like it was a joke and I got out of there as fast as possible, but I was freaked out,” she mentioned.
Fryer mentioned the results adopted virtually instantly.
“I barely really thought about it much until the next week when I got back, and that’s when I was suddenly told that I was being reorganized out of my job. I was being kicked out and replaced from the job I loved,” she mentioned.
She mentioned a pal believed the GDC incident triggered the transfer and reported it to human sources on her behalf.
“He believed that the reason I was being pressured to get out was because of this incident. He told me I needed to go and talk to HR, and while I was thinking about that, he did instead, and that’s when everything flipped,” Fryer mentioned.
She mentioned the matter went nowhere regardless of corroboration from one other particular person within the room.
“Unfortunately, even though the other person that was in the room confirmed my story, it didn’t matter. I was pushed out and nobody would help me. My career had gone from red-hot to radioactive,” she mentioned.
Fryer added that assist from management evaporated.
“I had a VP mentor who dumped me after this. I was doing what I thought was my forever job, a job I could never imagine giving up. It was perfect,” she mentioned.
Fryer mentioned of her job at Xbox, “I was pushed out and nobody would help me.” dannyburn – stock.adobe.com
In hindsight, she mentioned, the episode mirrored deeper cultural issues inside the company.
“Looking back, this incident showed how the culture at Microsoft was breaking. Instead of holding everyone to the same high standard, they decided on performative solutions that killed me,” Fryer mentioned.
The Post has sought remark from Xbox company guardian Microsoft.
Laura Fryer mentioned the episode confirmed how “the culture at Microsoft was breaking,” describing what she mentioned occurred after GDC in 2004. Microsoft Via Wikimedia Commons
Microsoft has confronted prior scrutiny over office harassment and discrimination allegations in recent times, together with incidents involving groups linked to its gaming business.
In 2018, Reuters reported that Microsoft disclosed inner criticism information exhibiting 83 harassment complaints and 84 gender discrimination complaints filed in its US-based workforce in 2017.
The company mentioned almost half of the harassment claims had been supported a minimum of partially after investigation.
The disclosure adopted unsealed courtroom paperwork tied to litigation that cited more than 100 gender bias complaints filed between 2010 and 2016, figures Microsoft disputed partially.
The following 12 months, staff shared dozens of harassment and discrimination tales in a prolonged inner electronic mail thread. Some staff mentioned prior complaints to HR had not led to significant motion.
Within Microsoft’s gaming ecosystem, a 2022 report cited by Game Developer and PC Gamer detailed allegations of sexism and office hostility at Undead Labs, a Microsoft-owned Xbox studio acquired in 2018.
