• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Beware of corporate PR (2021 article about Bungie work culture)

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Tagging onto the recent Bungie Latinx thread where they are trying to push politics, just remember behind closed doors it can always be a different story.

Super long article, so I only pasted the preface paragraphs.


In September, Bungie made a huge announcement. After the developer spoke publicly about its desire to push back on toxic work culture, CEO Pete Parsons pulled back the curtain on a number of new initiatives in an effort to "recognize our shortcomings." Bungie would hire a Diversity & Inclusion director, update hiring practices, improve training and tools, allow anonymous HR reporting, and end forced arbitration. The announcement was lauded across the industry, appearing to be a set of proactive, forward-looking moves amid industry-wide working conditions scandals.

The response from within the company was different.

Many of its current and former employees felt that their experiences at the company — going as far back as 2011 and as recently as this year — dramatically clashed with Bungie’s virtuous self-portrait. While some praised the news, for many others, hiring a D&I director or ending mandatory arbitration in all employee contracts was far too little, far too late. For others still, it was only one step on a long journey to a potentially better future, but with roadblocks remaining along the way.

IGN has spoken to 26 current and former employees that have worked at Bungie within the last decade. Their accounts of the studio's work culture encompass a wide range of experiences. They span overt sexism, boys' club culture, crunch, and HR protection of abusers, as well as more complex stories of microaggressions, systemic inequalities, and difficulties in being heard. However, interviewees also include a number of more recent employees who, despite their own hurts, truly believe the studio is slowly but steadily improving, are candid about the immense challenge of trying to turn such a massive ship in a better direction, and whose accounts of change line up with statements made to IGN by Parsons in response to this piece.

Every source we interviewed joined Bungie because they wanted to be part of making video games they cared about. But all of them have been forced to grapple personally with a question: How does a massive, AAA gaming company of 800+ employees fully root out a toxic culture and become a truly safe, diverse, and healthy place to work?
 

ByWatterson

Member
bored jack nicholson GIF
 
I have been reading the same headers for years, and I frankly don't care anymore. If you do not like a company, just leave it...It is not worth your mental health.
 
Top Bottom