After employing a man with a rumored history of abusing female colleagues at their former company, Just Cause producer Avalanche Studios allegedly experienced internal turbulence. Human Resources at Avalanche was blamed by former employees for dismissing their concerns about working under the controversial leader, and the company’s CEO acknowledged making errors during his tenure.
Unidentified sources told IGN that the prowler was recruited in 2021 for a senior position on a secret project. As soon as employees at Avalanche expressed complaints to HR and senior execs, the company disregarded them and refused to provide further information about its recruiting practices. An earlier commitment by Avalanche management to shield workers from troublesome hiring was breached in 2022 when regular office hours were reinstated.
Employee trust in management was damaged even after the accused harasser departed the firm in the spring of 2022. An Avalanche employee who was “no longer satisfied with the moral consequences of outsourcing my work to Avalanche Studios Group” announced their resignation on the firm’s Slack on November 9. The Boss of Avalanche, Pim Holfve, was mentioned in the post and reacted later that day, restating the firm’s zero-tolerance stance and denying that the employee’s resignation had anything to do with the allegations made against him at his previous employment.
At the end of the discussion, Holfve said he would launch an inquiry into the situation, which prompted an all-hands conference on November 14 during which Holfve took a call from staff. “Why do we not listen to our coworkers’ feelings?” was the most often cited reason for “why the concerns stated by Avalanchers were not responded on when taken to management or HR supervisors.”
“I can honestly say that your concerns have not reached me in the past year, and I did not know about them, or I would have acted on this information. For that, I’m really sorry.” A few days later, another email was sent to Avalanche employees, admitting that the situation “highlights a number of flaws in our processes. For this, we are truly sorry. I said it to everyone on Thursday, and I’m saying it again today: we fucked up.”
A comprehensive inquiry into the situation was launched by Avalanche on November 21 and is being led by an independent firm.
