Report: Bungie's longtime head of HR is stepping down

Bungie head of human resources Gayle d'Hondt has told employees that she is stepping down from her role at the company.

According to IGN (which also reported on Bungie's struggles to create an equitable, safe work environment that bred its own issues of alleged toxicity), d'Hondt is stepping down from her role, but isn't leaving the company just yet. She notes that she will work with chief people officer Holly Barbacovi to determine "what the appropriate next steps are."

d'Hondt's message to employees included an anecdote about her own experience dealing with harassment at Bungie. She noted that she was forced to report "a man, an executive, and someone I thought was my friend at Bungie — which resulted in Bungie firing him."

She also seemed to directly acknowledge the flaws in Bungie's handling of instances of alleged abuse, writing that "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." 

To what extent d'Hondt is personally responsible for the decade of issues that IGN originally reported on is unclear, though it obviously seems the reporting had a direct impact on her decision to leave. Bad behavior at Bungie (or any company, really) is a practice that involves multiple enablers across a team, though human resources departments are obviously supposed to be the ones responsible for enforcing company policy.