A former SCUF employee has claimed that they witnessed sexism and harassment while working for the company.
On August 9, gaming controller company SCUF put out an official statement that they are investigating a recent claim of sexual harassment and a toxic work environment from a former employee.
A second former member of staff at SCUF, who requested to remain anonymous, has since reached out to Dexerto to make additional claims of sexual harassment.
“I personally had an issue with a co-worker who I had to work fairly closely with,” they alleged. “He would often get way too close to me, try to flirt, and just, in general, be really weird around me.
“Eventually things escalated when instead of asking me to hand him a controller I had on my leg, he reached over me without any warning to grab it, touching my inner thigh in the process. I was so uncomfortable and shocked, so I went to the break room. I talked to another co-worker about the situation, but was told: “he probably didn’t mean it”. I felt very conflicted about what to do, and was too anxious to report it to HR.
“He often would ask about my weekend plans – to which I always said I was busy with xyz – and got very persistent, tried to use a one liner, and gave me his number. At this point I reported it, but was met with “he probably didn’t mean it” and that HR couldn’t do anything about it. I was absolutely crushed that I worked up the courage to try and end it there, but had no support. I also had to continue working closely with him.
“People know HR isn’t going to do much at all, especially if it’s a higher position employee, so they pretty much just suck it up.
“I have listened to co-workers talk about how they have cried during meetings while being yelled at. I have also cried during meetings. I have spent time in therapy working on how my experience there affected me.”
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The allegations continued, “SCUF’s diversity is a huge issue. They have POC working in production who are treated like second-class citizens – they can’t even go into work through the front because their keycards only work for the back half of the building (which HR is in the front, mind you). Most of the POC working in the front office and marketing left entirely.”
However, another former Scuf Gaming employee told Dexerto that the entire production team, regardless of race, enter through the back door.
The individual later clarified that they reached out with the hope of their comments leading to improvements in the Scuf Gaming workplace environment.
“I want SCUF to do better, and be better for all of the brilliant employees who deserve more,” they concluded. “There are a lot of people who work there that do great things, and I just want them to have a better environment to excel in.”
Dexerto has reached out to SCUF and Corsair for comment on the situation.
Update, August 11
Former SCUF employee vivi used Twitlonger to make clarifications on her earlier comments about her time at Scuf Gaming in a follow-up post regarding the work environment.
https://twitter.com/vivisquid/status/1425376910037725189
After her initial post, SCUF confirmed they were immediately investigating the sexual harassment claims.