In Destiny 2, many details about Bungie’s shocking internal problems became known last week. Employees spoke openly about discrimination, sexism, and a highly toxic work environment. It has now become known that the head of HR has stepped down from her duties.
In an insider report from IGN.com last week, a total of 26 current and former employees were interviewed about their experiences at Bungie. The details were shocking and revealed many insights into Bungie’s work processes. There are extensive problems affecting both the story team and the leadership at Bungie.
- There was talk of a narrative lead who threw a chair through a window out of frustration.
- A female employee was not promoted because she was reportedly “not good enough in Destiny 2”.
- Furthermore, Bungie employees reported about sexist remarks and the suppression of minorities.
Bungie’s CEO personally apologized: Pete Parsons, Bungie’s CEO, issued a detailed statement (via bungie.net) after the publication of the insider report, stating that Bungie has a lot of work ahead and that they are aware of it.
Our current and future steps, focusing on our employees and their well-being, will determine the future of Bungie and are our most important goal.
The first consequence of the insider report seems to be the resignation of further leading employees, such as Gayle d’Hondt.
The protection of employees has often been insufficient: The allegations were specifically directed at Bungie’s HR department, for which Gayle d’Hondt worked since 2007. Trust in the HR department has been low among almost all respondents in recent years. It was mainly criticized that the task of protecting employees was not properly fulfilled. Instead, some had the impression that the HR department protects Bungie itself alone.
“It is a well-known fact that you put your own job at risk when you talk to HR,” was the statement. “HR was never there to protect employees. It was always there to protect the company. I’ve seen a few times at Bungie where someone went to HR and things went completely wrong for them.”
The head of HR takes personal consequences: Through an internal email, which IGN.com has, Gayle d’Hondt, Senior Employee Relations Manager at Bungie, announced that she is stepping down from her position. She justified her decision by saying that new people are needed to address the problems that Bungie has been fighting for years.
As a long-time employee, she was already part of the company when Bungie still had major problems with sexism and discrimination against minorities. It is still unknown whether she will remain in the company.
Gayle d’Hondt comments that one should ultimately be able to trust leaders because they are “advocates”, not to see them as company resources providing a safe harbor for so-called “bad actors”.
Gayle d’Hondt also mentions in her email that her time in the HR department at Bungie was characterized by “deeply challenging interpersonal conflicts,” up to the firing of colleagues due to “performance, bad behavior, as well as discrimination, racism, and sexual harassment.” In doing so, she indirectly confirms the statements of those interviewed by IGN.com.
She herself has likely also had personal experiences with abuse by employees within Bungie, as she further explains in her email. Involved were likely “a man, a leader, and someone whom I thought was my friend at Bungie, which resulted in Bungie firing him.”
What was Gayle d’Hondt’s role at Bungie? Gayle d’Hondt held the position of HR Manager at Bungie and was most recently the Senior Employee Relations Manager in the Human Resources team. She was thus a leading employee responsible for maintaining satisfaction and ensuring a good working atmosphere. This is supposed to help solve burnouts or problems in the teams.
New trust is needed for a better future: Despite everything, Gayle d’Hondt is also proud of her work at Bungie and wants Bungie to become a better version of itself in the future through her resignation.
I am proud of the work I have done in this company. I believe I have made recommendations that are in the best interest of our employees and in service of the company we want to become. I also believe we have made some mistakes and that in order to become a better version of ourselves – the company I know we can be – we need to acknowledge those mistakes and work on them in good conscience, and then grow together.
What do you think about the decision? Is this a step in the right direction for Bungie or should this change have come much earlier?
