Better than many game studios, but that's not saying much
Pros
Despite many shortcomings, overall Bungie is one of the better game studios I've worked at in many ways (though that isn't saying all that much, since it's a pretty low bar with a lot of game companies). Bungie has a great work/life balance. There are no requirements for overtime, and only a few teams have ever done a real crunch in the years I"ve been here. This can be a little detrimental at times, since deadlines have been missed in the past due to unwillingness to stay late, but it's so much better than the extended 80-hour-week death marches I've been on at other studios. Full time employees get some really nice benefits. There are things like (good) holiday gifts, carpool/public transit reimbursement, paid phone plans, and others. 401k matching is up to 6%, and the medical/dental/vision benefits are very good, along with a company-paid HSA that's refilled monthly. QA is treated magnitudes better than at other studios in my experience (though it's still not great). Testers are generally treated like people, and now that certain old guard managers are gone they're actually treated like adults. It's even improved in the years I've been here, as test is no longer relegated to the dungeon, and testers are no longer left as contract employees for extended periods of time. The art, engineering, and IT departments are run pretty well, and seem to have the most satisfied employees here. Engineers have to deal with the coding nazis, but are fairly compensated and generally treated very well. Most people here are smart and highly skilled and there are very few idiots, which makes working with people overall much more enjoyable than at other companies. There's a lot of employee involvement in things outside of work. People go on camping trips, visit other cities, go to concerts together, etc. It's much more of a community among employees.
Cons
Bungie has grown so much in the last couple of years, it's almost completely lost it's fun culture. Everything has been toned-down and people get sent warnings from HR for relatively tame statements. It's becoming very much like a Microsoft Lite with management practices and corporate culture. People take things much too seriously. Overall, it's the least fun studio I've been at; there is almost none of the joking around or general levity that I've experienced at other studios. Office politics. There are so many little cliques and intrigues; Bungie has the most political work environment than almost any other studio I've been at. There's a whole culture of secrecy around things which shouldn't need to be behind closed doors. Pretty much any job role at Bungie would be a step or three higher at other companies. Testers would likely be technical testers, technical testers would be SDETS, associate producers would be full producers, production engineers would be artists, designers, engineers, or SDETs, test leads would be test managers or test directors, etc. Many people are delicate snowflakes who can't take any criticism and take everything much too seriously. Meetings. Meetings all the time. People are much less productive than they could be due to the number and length of meetings. Senior engineers spend more time in meetings than they do programming, and there are a few who have completely stopped coding due to spending all their time in meetings. This is supposed to get better now that Bungie is adopting an agile methodology, but it seems like there are even more meetings than there were before. HR is terrible. They're hard to get a hold of and leave at 4pm, and it takes forever to get any kind of HR-related thing done. Contracts are routinely renewed just weeks before they're up, and people routinely find out their end dates won't be extended mere weeks or even days before the date. HR acts like it's no big deal, and fail to realize they're being so lax with people's livelihoods. It's frowned upon to criticize the game or Bungie's shortcomings as a studio or employer. Every team meeting consists of a circlejerk of praising the amazing 10/10 product and patting each other on the back for the wonderful job everyone's done. Management is absolutely terrible at planning and execution, particularly at the upper levels. Every single release, things end up getting remade at the last minute because of poor planning, or things which COULD have been achieved end up never getting done because leaders decided there wasn't enough time or resources to accomplish them, until it's far too late and they realize their mistake. However, No one ever seems to learn from the mistakes of prior releases. Management keeps saying "we know we need to do better and we will" but it doesn't seem like they're able to deliver. The company has hired a lot of Halo/Destiny fanboys, and so many of them are just oh-so-happy to be working at their dream company they are willing to take lower pay or roles, and don't accept any criticism of the game or studio; it also causes problems for everyone because if someone is just happy to BE at the company, they're not going to ask for things like market-standard pay or better benefits, since they're so grateful, and this spreads into management. Management views things like promotions and conversions to full time as special gifts to bestow upon their favorites, and if someone is offered one that person should be just SO grateful they shouldn't bother doing anything like negotiating for a proper salary, or asking for a proper job title. Speaking of titles, employees will often hear that "titles don't matter at Bungie!" -- rather than give accurate titles to people, in the past management has told people to lie on their resumes and "just put down whatever you feel describes your role best," rather than just give proper titles to people. Career growth is often available only for a very small number of people in the company; a lot of times upward movement only happens for people in the right place at the right time, or for whoever is management's current golden child. Management discourages people from working on side projects that would help the company, or taking on new things. Specifically within test, I've seen several testers punished for attempting to leave the department, or prevented from growing their skills TOO much because management wants to keep them in their current positions. People are told not to work on side projects outside of their departments, even if it's something that would help the entire studio. Many, many people are undervalued and underpaid. Due to the benefits and the fact that Bungie routinely hires people wiling to accept lower salaries just to BE at the company, salaries are rarely competitive. People who attempt to negotiate salary or ask for raises are viewed as greedy and ungrateful, and those who speak up for themselves are viewed as brash. Management dislikes any dissent or disagreement, and their strategy often is to give employees JUST enough to make them not quit, but often won't bother to try and make them happy, and have even admitted as much to employees. Financial budgeting seems terrible. Profit sharing gets postponed repeatedly, but then the company does things like give thousands of dollars to employee clubs like the mushroom club and coffee club. Bungie seems to love spending money, except for on things that might be helpful. While they have no problem wasting thousands on frivolous things like weekly barista carts, management declines to purchase books and training courses when employees ask for educational materials to grow their skills. All the while, the majority of employees are underpaid for their skills and positions. It's super dark inside the studio. They keep attempting to make the studio not feel like a cave, but due to the complaints of artists nothing ever changes.
