What's It Really like Working at Valve?

Chris Bratt investigates Valve's flat organizational structure, exploring how its lack of managers and stack-ranking system function in practice.

What's it actually like working for Valve Corporation? Over the last few months, People Make Games has interviewed 16 current and former Valve employees about the inner workings of one of gaming's most mysterious companies. A place with no bosses (not even Gabe Newell, claims Valve), no job titles and you're free to pick the work that matters most to you. But how true is any of that, in reality? Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/PeopleMakeGames Created by Chris Bratt: twitter.com/chrisbratt And Anni Sayers: twitter.com/anni_sayers 0:00 - 4:02 How much do you know about Valve Corporation? 4:03 - 5:17 Introducing Valve's somewhat fanatic Employee Handbook 5:18 - 7:31 Welcome to Flatland 7:32 - 8:46 Not everybody's the "right fit" for Valve 8:47 - 10:40 How Valve functions without managers 10:41 - 18:00 Stack ranking 18:01 - 24:54 Valve has a diversity crisis 24:55 - 28:18 How do people get fired? 28:19 - 30:08 Steam makes this a very different company 30:09 - 35:40 Disagreement over Black Lives Matter 35:41 - 41:13 Does Steam have a greater responsibility to society? 41:14 - 42:03 Is this truly a "structureless" company? 42:04 - 45:56 Valve isn't returning our emails 45:57 - 47:42 Support People Make Games (please)