{"id":56109,"date":"2013-07-09T10:54:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-09T08:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=56109"},"modified":"2013-07-09T10:56:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-09T08:56:16","slug":"former-valve-employee-exposes-hidden-layer-of-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/56109-former-valve-employee-exposes-hidden-layer-of-power","title":{"rendered":"Former Valve employee exposes \u201chidden layer\u201d of power"},"content":{"rendered":"

Valve is often looked upon with a sense of gamer-reverence; one of the few game industry mega-companies with a squeaky-clean reputation. However, a former employee has opened up about some of the underlying structures of the development studio.<\/p>\n

Jeri Ellsworth, who was laid-off in February 2013 and was one of the company\u2019s well-known hardware developers, has explained that there was no “pseudo-flat structure\u201d and the comforting Valve Handbook for New Employees<\/a> doesn\u2019t exactly tell the whole story.<\/p>\n

“When I first started at Valve,” said Ellsworth, “I was very sceptical\u2026 but they started pumping me up, and telling me how I’d have all this control of the hardware group and be able to form the group as I’d like, so I started to drink the Kool-Aid.”<\/p>\n

“Many of you have probably seen the Valve handbook, which is a very idealised view of what Valve is like. A lot of those things are true in there, like it is kind of a pseudo-flat structure where, at least in small groups, you’re all peers and you make decisions together.”<\/p>\n

“The one thing that I found out the hard way is that there is actually a hidden layer of powerful management structure in the company. And it feels–felt–a lot like high school.”<\/p>\n

\"Jerri<\/a>

Jeri Ellsworth<\/p><\/div>\n

Ellsworth went on to explain that a lot of \u201cpopular kids\u201d had acquired the power in the company, and Ellsworth\u2019s job was made harder after the \u201cold-timers in Valve\u201d found her recruits to not fit the culture of the company.<\/p>\n

Ellsworth went on about the flat structure, saying that it \u201cworks on a small scale\u201d, but \u201cbreaks down terribly when you start looking at a company of, like, 300 people.”<\/p>\n

Ellsworth also recounted that she learnt she was fired from a co-worker and that ultimately, she doesn’t think Valve\u2019s management structure works.<\/p>\n

“I’m sounding bitter, and I am. I am really, really bitter because they promised me the world, and then backstabbed me,” she added.<\/p>\n

“You give people complete latitude with no checks and balances, it’s just human nature they’re going to try to minimise the work they have to do and maximise the control they have.”<\/p>\n

Ellsworth is currently working on the CastAR project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: Grey Area Podcast<\/a> via Eurogamer<\/a><\/h6>\n

More gaming news:<\/h3>\n

This is the man who won John Carmack\u2019s Ferrari<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Teen jailed after League of Legends outburst<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Game dev arrested on child porn charges<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Earthworm Jim sequel in development?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Xbox One reputation system pools rage-quitters together<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Valve hardware chief describes working at Valve like \u201chigh school\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":50168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[981,21,8862,697,8863],"class_list":["post-56109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-gabe-newell","tag-headline","tag-jeri-ellsworth","tag-valve","tag-valve-corporation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56111,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56109\/revisions\/56111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}