What’s new? after the sacking of Sony Music boss Denis Handlin in Australia following allegations that Sony was a toxic workplace, staff at Sony’s PlayStation Division are again seething over an email that urged employees to “respect differences of opinion” on abortion rights, it appears that some have got their knickers in a twist over the mention of cats and abortion rights in the same email.
The controversy blew up after a leaked draft of a US Supreme Court opinion was revealed that signalled an intention to overturn the landmark 1973 case Roe v Wade, which legalised abortion nationwide.

Playstation boss Jim Ryan
PlayStation boss Jim Ryan wrote that he “would like to share something light hearted” after mentioning abortion rights before entering into five detailed paragraphs about his two cats’ first birthday.
The email opens by addressing several current events including the recent leak of a draft US Supreme Court opinion that signalled an intention to overturn the landmark case.
In the email seen by Bloomberg, PlayStation president Jim Ryan did not take a stance on abortion rights.
Instead, he wrote that the company and its community were “multi-faceted and diverse, holding many different points of view”.
He wrote that “we owe it to each other and to PlayStation’s millions of users to respect differences of opinion among everyone in our internal and external communities. Respect does not equal agreement.
But it is fundamental to who we are as a company and as a valued global brand.”
Mr Ryan then went on to write that he “would like to share something light hearted to help inspire everyone to be mindful of having balance that can help ease the stress of uncertain world events”. He then shared that it was recently his two cats’ first birthday.
He wrote that “we owe it to each other and to PlayStation’s millions of users to respect differences of opinion among everyone in our internal and external communities. Respect does not equal agreement.
But it is fundamental to who we are as a company and as a valued global brand.”
The CEO elaborated over the next few paragraphs about his cats’ birthday cakes, their noises, and his desire to one day get a dog.
The email seriously upset several employees who immediately expressed their displeasure at the tone of the email.
Some women wrote that they felt their rights were disrespected or trivialised by the message.
One employee said they had “never been so mad about a cat birthday before”.