Writer wants to make Portal 3, but Valve's 'flat structure' makes it a challenge

Re:Writer wants to make Portal 3, but Valve's 'flat structur... by nonbirithm on Wednesday April 12, 2023 @02:42AM (#35535848)

Only anecdotal, but there may be cultural problems stemming from the flat structure at Valve that make organizing around products difficult. This video came out 4 years ago so I don't know if anything's changed since then, but it's one ex-employee's experience of their work culture at the time.

Basically he claims that even though there's a flat corporate structure within Valve, in practice an implicit management structure arose in which those with the most political clout controlled others without it. Plus they used stack ranking at the time.

https://youtu.be/41XgkLKYuic

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Re:Writer wants to make Portal 3, but Valve's 'flat structur... by thecopy on Wednesday April 12, 2023 @03:06AM (#35535984)

This happened at a place i used to worked at as well, a supposedly "flat company" without hierarchies.

The implicit hidden hierarchies - based partly on charisma and friendship - increased the effort to do anything, and especially the mental stress of having to keep the double-think alive.

I think for less socially adept people these companies are a nightmare. The entire direction of the company was decided by a cliquie implicit power holders with no accountability, as these could always play on the "flat structure and we all share responsibility and accountability"

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