Valve Employee Handbook (2012)

[quadz]

If this is legit, apparently Valve is s truly unusual place to work:

http://newcdn.flamehaus.com/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf

[reaper]

I doubt it's true.  I think google's 10 percent do something you want to do is nice, maybe even not enough.  For one, who's gonna do shit stuff no one wants to do?

[quadz]

I doubt it's true.

Valve has since reportedly claimed it's legit, and it appears on their own site now:

http://www.valvesoftware.com/company/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf

I think google's 10 percent do something you want to do is nice, maybe even not enough.

Well... maybe... http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-12-19

For one, who's gonna do shit stuff no one wants to do?

Yes, it'd be interesting to observe the dynamics of that sort of thing at Valve.

On the other hand, I've been working for a company for quite awhile now that only employs two developers. Both of us live 1000+ miles from the company office, are allowed to set our own hours, and have a fair amount of latitude as to what we work on. Not quite like Valve's alleged "come up with something cool and work on it" sort of latitude, but still. We both know that if we don't take on the unpleasant tasks alongside the fun ones, we don't have a product to ship. So that sort of thing hasn't been an issue. Maybe it's similar at Valve?

[QwazyWabbit]

Sounds like management by consensus. The project that gets the resources is the one that engages the majority of or the most skilled team members. The members engage the difficulties along with the successes or the easy stuff for the greater good of the project. I wonder what happens in project phase II.

For the unenlightened:

The Six Phases of a Project

I. Wild Enthusiasm

II. Disillusionment

III. Panic

IV. Quest for the Guilty

V.  Punishment of the Innocent

VI. Praise and Awards for the Non-participants