California's Department of Fair Employment & Housing has widened its anti-discrimination lawsuit against Activision Blizzard and claims the publisher has been shredding vital documents relevant to the ongoing investigation.
A recent report from Kotaku described the department as offering poorly paid, highly insecure positions, with a culture of hostility towards LGBTQ+ testers. The DFEH's rewording of "employees" to "workers" now hopes to take these contractors' experiences into account.
"As a contract employee, I feel there's a lot of pressure to excel, impress, and move through the ranks as fast as you can before your contract ends and you're forced to go 3 months without income or find another job," Axios reports one worker saying. "I take pride in what I do, but it feels like it's never enough."
Activision's contentious hiring of union-busting third-party law firm WilmerHale "directly interferes" with its own investigation, it says. By going to WilmerHale, Activision appears to be claiming that all work related to the investigation is privileged and can't be shared with DFEH.
The suit also claims that Activision HR shredded documents related to "investigations and complaints", against its legal obligation to retain them during the investigation. The relevant parts of the updated lawsuit were shared by Axios reporters Stephen Totilo and Megan Farokhmanesh, the former also noting that the DFEH "fixed their misspelling of Bill Cosby's name".
"DFEH is also informed and aware that documents and records have not been maintained as required by law or by the DFEH's Document Retention Notice," the complaint reads, "including but not limited to documents related to investigations and complaints were shredded by human resource personnel and emails are deleted thirty days after an employees separation."
Blizzard employee Jessica Gonzalez suspects that the costs of fines associated with destroying these documents may have been an easier blow for Blizzard to take than any penalties drawn from their existence in helping the lawsuit go through.
In an email to Kotaku, Activision denied the shredding allegations and issued a statement outlining steps it had taken to improve company culture—including the ousting of high-level executives like Blizzard president J. Allen Brack. The full statement reads:
"Throughout our engagement with the DFEH, we have complied with every proper request in support of its review even as we had been implementing reforms to ensure our workplaces are welcoming and safe for every employee. Those changes continue today, and include:
"We strive to be a company that recognizes and celebrates the diverse talents and perspectives that lead to the creation of great, globally appealing entertainment. We have provided the DFEH with clear evidence that we do not have gender pay or promotion disparities. Our senior leadership is increasingly diverse, with a growing number of women in key leadership roles across the company.
"We share DFEH’s goal of a safe, inclusive workplace that rewards employees equitably and is committed to setting an example that others can follow."
Beyond Activision Blizzard, California's DFEH has also probed into League of Legends creator Riot Games, accusing the studio of dragging its heels over sexual harassment allegations dating back to 2019. Riot denied the allegations, telling us that it "will never retaliate against anyone for talking to any government agency".
Code 42 Error is referred to as a Device Manager Error code. Before we explain what this code indicates, it is important to understand what ‘Device Manager’ is and its functions.
Device Manager is basically a Windows tool that helps manage devices attached to the system such as the Printer, Scanner and the USB Device. The Device Manager Error code 42 occurs when a duplicate device is detected.
Error Code 42 is displayed in the following format:
“Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because there is a duplicate device already running in the system. Code 42”
Narrowing down to one particular cause for error code 42 is not virtually possible because it may be triggered due to many underlying reasons. These include:
No matter what the reason for this error code,, to avoid inconvenience and to ensure proper hardware performance, it is advisable to fix it right away without any delay.
If you’re not technically sound, the code 42 message display can panic you. But don’t worry, the error message sounds complex but it is quite easy to fix.
To resolve code 42 in a few minutes, simply try the methods given below. These methods are easy-to-perform, effective and more importantly require no technical expertise.
Code 42 can pop up due to some temporary glitch in the Device Manager. By simply restarting your PC, you can resolve this problem.
Therefore, first things first, restart your system. However, in case it doesn’t work out, try other methods.
Launch the troubleshooting wizard to find the underlying problem and resolve it accordingly. To do this, proceed with the following steps:
Another method to fix code 42 is to use the System Restore tool to restore your PC to its previous working state before the error popped up. To do this,
Creating backup manually can be time-consuming and a painstaking task. The best way to create backup and restore your PC to its normal state is to download DriverFIX.
It is a user-friendly device driver management software that helps create data backup automatically and simultaneously restores your PC back to its normal working state in a few seconds.
This software is compatible with all Windows versions.
Click here to download DriverFIX on your system to resolve error code 42.
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Get-AppXPackage -Name Microsoft.Windows.Cortana | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml"}