Bungie’s Head Of HR Gayle dHondt has stepped down after 14 years with the company.
There have been many gaming developers lately that are coming out of the woodwork with claims of abuse and in turn, multiple people in power are stepping down or being asked to leave. According to IGN’s report earlier this month, Bungie is one of these affected companies.
The report details Bungie’s toxic work culture, which spanned more than a decade and included misogyny, boys’ club mentality, crunch, and HR shielding of offenders. Bungie’s recent efforts to change this toxic work culture by quietly dismissing dangerous personnel in the last few years were also mentioned in the report.
One employee stated:
” It’s a well-known fact if you talk to HR you’re putting your own job on the line. HR has never been there to protect employees. They’ve always been there to protect the company. I’ve watched it happen a few times at Bungie, where someone went to HR and things went completely sideways for them.”
Bungie’s CEO Pete Parsons has since apologized following the report. Parsons stated:
“Speaking with the team at Bungie, reading the stories, and seeing both known and newly surfaced accounts, it is clear we still have work ahead of us.”
Gayle dHondt, the studio’s head of HR, has now stepped down, according to a newly disclosed email obtained by IGN. In said email d’Hondt explains that the HR team needed fresh blood to be seen as trustworthy and stated:
“I know that they need to be trusted to be your advocates – not labeled as ‘enablers’ or seen as company resources who provide bad actors with safe harbor”.
IGN also mentions dHondt’s 14 years in the company, which included problems such as reporting someone for personally abusing her. She commented on the incident saying:
“A man, an executive, and someone I thought was my friend at Bungie — which resulted in Bungie firing him.”
She went on to say that the company’s group of people needed to “move forward” with membership, which he described as “largely made up of people new to Bungie.”
dHondt ends the email with:
“I am proud of the work I did at this company. I believe I made recommendations that were in the best interest of our people and in service of the company we wish to become. I also believe we made some mistakes, and that to become the better version of ourselves – the company I know we can be – we have to acknowledge and confront them, in good faith, and grow together.”
It is not yet disclosed if she will stay on at the company in another capacity or will leave Bungie altogether.