A former employee of Kick has come forward with allegations of racism and discrimination towards streamers with Autism or who are battling cancer by staff at the streaming platform.
On July 17, a former staff member of Kick, who identified herself as Melissa, uploaded a video to YouTube revealing the inappropriate behavior of her colleagues.
According to Melissa, she chose to resign and depart from the company due to the “excessively hostile”office atmosphere.
“According to her, there was a persistent disregard for the opinions and beliefs of others. This included frequent use of the F-slur, not just as a joke, but directed specifically towards those it was meant to discriminate against.”
The ex-employee also claims that while passing by the socials room where employees managed the platform’s social media accounts, she would hear the use of the N-word, even in the presence of upper management.
She continued to assert that team members would find it amusing to intentionally use incorrect gender pronouns for transgender streamers.
Despite the alleged misconduct, there were further instances of mistreatment. Melissa, an Autistic streamer signed by the company, was also not treated well. When she asked about renewing her contract, Melissa remembers a staff member smirking and stating that he had drastically reduced her rate to a below-market level for an English streamer.
The event that Melissa claims “definitely solidified”her choice to depart from Kick occurred during their attempt to recruit a highly popular Twitch streamer to the platform for gambling purposes.
According to her, this streamer, who had been open about their fight against cancer, purposely incorporated it into their strategy to gain popularity. However, the conversation took a dark turn soon after.
Melissa remembered a statement made by one of the employees that made her consider resigning. The employee suggested that they could sign her up for Kick streaming Stake at a discounted rate, assuming that she believed she would pass away soon and would want to leave more funds for her family.
Despite the lack of objections to her remark, Melissa recalls feeling as though she was conversing with demons and decided to leave early.
Mel, I am sorry I didn’t get to know you better during your tenure. It’s sad to see you leave on bad terms. I wish that further working flexibility could have potentially been organised for you, but consistent department and broader company policy is also important to us as we…
— Eddie (@StakeEddie) June 12, 2024
At this time, the Kick staff has not addressed the allegations made by their former employee. However, she has stated that she is not concerned about potential legal issues and is willing to declare bankruptcy if they decide to pursue legal action against her.
Despite Melissa’s claim that she quit the company, Ed Kraven, co-founder of Kick and Stake, stated that staff were informed she was fired.
On June 12, he asked, “Could you kindly send me some examples of the issues you are dealing with concerning the comments about your resignation?”
Despite Melissa’s accusation that he was only attempting to do “damage control,”he was not willing to listen to her concerns during her time at Kick.
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