In her internal farewell letter, d’Hondt said she believes it is necessary to “admit new people to the HR team”, writes IGN Thursday. “They should be people you can trust, not employees who are seen as extensions of the company and protectors of the bad guys.”
About 26 mostly anonymous (former) employees of Bungie spoke spoke out to IGN last week about the sexist and racist work culture and the enormous workload within the game company. HR would have regularly covered up complaints.
There is said to be “an almost universal mistrust of HR” among Bungie employees. Sources from IGN pointed out that a complaint to HR could often lead to bad consequences for the complainant himself.
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‘Improving hand’
However, the situation within Bungie is already improving. Bungie CEO Pete Parsons told IGN in a statement that “the people who deserved to be kicked out of the company are now out.” Current employees agree in the piece that things are indeed improving, but that much work still needs to be done to create a safe work culture within Bungie.
Since 2018, stories have regularly surfaced about the toxic and often sexist work culture within game companies. Game giant Activision Blizzard, known for World of WarCraft and Call of Duty, among others, was sued earlier this year by the state of California over a culture of sexual harassment in the workplace. The French Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed) is also around similar reasons under the magnifying glass.
‘We made mistakes’
D’Hondt writes in her suicide note that she has struggled a lot with “difficult conflicts” such as firing employees for “discrimination, racism and sexual harassment”. She also allegedly filed a complaint against a high-ranking Bungie employee, who was subsequently fired.
“I believe we’ve made mistakes, and if we want to become the company I know we can be, we have to face them and grow together,” she concluded. It is not known whether d’Hondt will leave the company altogether, or whether she will take another position.
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