I wasn't going to say anything because I'm afraid but fuck it. It took me years to recover from the abuse I endured at IGN. I've posted about just one incident but working under Steve Butts and Tal Blevins was an unparalleled experience in being bullied and belittled.

Tal was my boss for a while and was horrible to me. He'd yell at me for being away from my desk for any reason. One day I broke down crying at my desk because I could never take a lunch break and Sam (who is lovely) told me I could get lunch and it would be okay.

I came back after half an hour to THREE emails from Tal demanding to know where I was and why I'd left my desk. At lunchtime. My friends had to start getting me lunch because I couldn't leave.

When Tal was let go, I was ecstatic. I thought my life would finally get better. But then Steve became my boss. It was even worse.

Steve regularly humiliated people like me and Chloi and Eric in front of others. He'd try to make me gather everyone for the morning standup because he knew it made me anxious. He'd swear at me when something was wrong.

Steve told me that if I really wanted to be an editor one day, I'd have to do a lot more editorial work to prove myself. I worked constantly, doing editorial work at home and my promotions job during the day.

When I reported my harasser to HR, Steve threatened me. He told me just wanted it to all be over and that I should just talk it out with him. He would bring me into rooms to intimidate me.

I continued to do editorial work. I did an editor's worth of reviews in 2016. I did Anime Club. I worked and worked and worked and Steve continued to taunt and bully and yell at me... and then offer hugs and apologies later, of course.

When I got the offer from GameSpot, I asked Steve if I had any hope of being on editorial after all the work I'd done. He said I would *never* become an editor at IGN. And now I'm the reviews editor at GameSpot.

I had a lot of panic attacks in the years after I quit, and a lot more issues believing that I was worthy of my job and that my colleagues actually liked me. It's a lot better now. But fuck him and fuck Tal and also fuck that one Reaction Guy you all love so much.

Anyway, they both work at a "consultancy firm" now, so maybe don't use it. https://level74.com/ 

I want to add for those who haven't seen others' tweets today that these men were awful to many, many others besides me. It disgusts me to think of all the pain they caused.

And that what you have seen and read today isn't the half of it. There are a lot of little details that I keep remembering--things I saw and things I experienced. Thanks for reading.

Just want to add for those who are unaware that I worked at IGN for a short time, from April 2015 to December 2016. I have a lot of respect for a lot of people who work there and it sounds like we all suffered in some way back then. Please don't take it out on them.