Corporate culture at Valve

Have you heard that in some companies, employees are allowed to work on their own projects 20% of the time? It turns out that there is a company where this principle was built into the absolute. Imagine that you can work on any projects you wish, 100% of your time. There are no managers at all, no departments or bosses. The structure of the company is flat, all employees are equal among themselves and voluntarily grouped by interests. Survive those projects that attract more employees.

Sounds like utopia? Get acquainted with the principles of management in the company Valve, which is engaged in the development of computer games (Half-Life, Portal, Steam).

At Valve, each employee decides for himself what project to work on. Developers start their projects and compete with each other, luring colleagues to their side.
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Each employee can think carefully about which project to join. He has plenty of time during walks from the cafeteria to the massage room, and from there to the game room to play darts or work out at the simulators. How to find out what is going on? Just ask your colleagues.



The company management completely trusts its employees in the selection of projects and does not interfere in the process. It is hard to believe that it is possible to organize work in the company on such principles of absolute freedom, without management and management in the traditional sense. But Valve succeeded. And who will say that the company is not successful? Valve now earns in terms of one employee more than Google, Amazon or Microsoft. At the same time, the income of each depends on the success of the company, and a significant part of the profit of Valve goes to payments to staff.



Valve's management principles are described in the 56-page Valve Employee Handbook for Employees (PDF). The book was compiled recently as a universal manual for those who claim to work in a company. The document was scanned and posted on the Flamehaus forum by one of the candidates.