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It's important to take this article with a grain of salt. It appears that it was written based solely on her (obviously one-sided) testimony.

kevingadd 13y ago
It's one-sided because Valve refuses to comment on the (very visible) firing of (what appears to be) their entire hardware team. What else is there?
- talmand 13y ago
  It wasn't just the hardware team, there were quite a few surprises that day.
  - epsylon 13y ago
    Yep, Tom Forsyth (https://twitter.com/tom_forsyth https://twitter.com/tom_forsyth), who was working on VR support in TF2, got laid off in the same period of time. (Turns out he's now working for Oculus VR.)
  - heuan 13y ago
    Information on the other surprises?
    - talmand 13y ago
      Jason Holtman: one of the main guys responsible for Steam Tom Forsyth: already mentioned, VR for TF2 Moby Francke: art lead for TF2 Realm Lovejoy: one of the Narbacular Drop people which turned into Portal Plus a few others that have been there since the beginning, what you would call the core of the company. Without knowing details it's impossible to know if they were justified or not, but they are surprising because their resumes suggest these aren't slackers.
- sillysaurus 13y ago
  What could Valve possibly say? "We fired her because we felt it was a mistake to hire her, and then afterwards there wasn't anything for the rest of the hardware team to do." It sucks, but it happens. Incidentally, this is exactly why a large portion of the Valve handbook is devoted to hiring. Letting questionable people into your company will poison the place from the inside, and then from the outside. This is a perfect example of that. Valve wanted to get into the hardware field. Then the way she went about hiring people made it clear that it was a mistake to hire her in the first place. What else was there to do except layoff the entire hardware team, or let her ruin the company culture by acquiescing to her demands for "let these engineers work here, or this project can't work"? And maybe it couldn't. But preserving company culture is far more important than this particular project, especially at a place like Valve.
  - kevingadd 13y ago
    Strong words. How exactly do you justify your claims that she was somehow poisoning the place from the inside? Everyone who's departed Valve left because she was there? What's wrong with how she went about hiring people? I find it questionable whether you can just assume that Valve's company culture is worth preserving wholesale if it apparently can't tolerate the addition of a few hardware people.
    - sillysaurus 13y ago
      It's obvious from her words in the article. She wanted to bring people on board and the "old timers" didn't agree with her choices. Since the old timers are the epitome of a company's culture, then that means she was poisoning it. The options were to let her do it or let her go.
      - srdev 13y ago
        That's a poor conclusion. Saying that she was poisoning the culture is inherently making a judgement that the existing culture should be sacrosanct and that any changes are bad. This is poor reasoning. There is such a thing as bad culture. We don't have details on why there wasn't a "cultural fit," so its hard to say for certain, but if the culture was preventing successful execution of a project that the company was invested in, then I would say that the culture should be adjusted. And certainly, the way she described her interactions would indicate that the people of importance at Valve -- the hidden middle managers -- had a close-minded approach to working with people who's experiences did not match their own, if the story is taken at face value.
- bockris 13y ago
  It definitely wasn't their whole hardware team. I personally known one EE still at Valve and I think there are a couple more that I follow on various social networks.
to3m 13y ago
More evidence, as if more were needed, that in this sort of situation, you should probably have all parties agree to a "no comment" all round. And then, having agreed to it, all parties should stick to their agreement and bite their fucking tongues! Dear people, air your dirty linen in the privacy of your own home...

kevingadd 13y ago

It's one-sided because Valve refuses to comment on the (very visible) firing of (what appears to be) their entire hardware team. What else is there?

talmand 13y ago
It wasn't just the hardware team, there were quite a few surprises that day.
- epsylon 13y ago
  Yep, Tom Forsyth (https://twitter.com/tom_forsyth https://twitter.com/tom_forsyth), who was working on VR support in TF2, got laid off in the same period of time. (Turns out he's now working for Oculus VR.)
- heuan 13y ago
  Information on the other surprises?
  - talmand 13y ago
    Jason Holtman: one of the main guys responsible for Steam Tom Forsyth: already mentioned, VR for TF2 Moby Francke: art lead for TF2 Realm Lovejoy: one of the Narbacular Drop people which turned into Portal Plus a few others that have been there since the beginning, what you would call the core of the company. Without knowing details it's impossible to know if they were justified or not, but they are surprising because their resumes suggest these aren't slackers.
sillysaurus 13y ago
What could Valve possibly say? "We fired her because we felt it was a mistake to hire her, and then afterwards there wasn't anything for the rest of the hardware team to do." It sucks, but it happens. Incidentally, this is exactly why a large portion of the Valve handbook is devoted to hiring. Letting questionable people into your company will poison the place from the inside, and then from the outside. This is a perfect example of that. Valve wanted to get into the hardware field. Then the way she went about hiring people made it clear that it was a mistake to hire her in the first place. What else was there to do except layoff the entire hardware team, or let her ruin the company culture by acquiescing to her demands for "let these engineers work here, or this project can't work"? And maybe it couldn't. But preserving company culture is far more important than this particular project, especially at a place like Valve.
- kevingadd 13y ago
  Strong words. How exactly do you justify your claims that she was somehow poisoning the place from the inside? Everyone who's departed Valve left because she was there? What's wrong with how she went about hiring people? I find it questionable whether you can just assume that Valve's company culture is worth preserving wholesale if it apparently can't tolerate the addition of a few hardware people.
  - sillysaurus 13y ago
    It's obvious from her words in the article. She wanted to bring people on board and the "old timers" didn't agree with her choices. Since the old timers are the epitome of a company's culture, then that means she was poisoning it. The options were to let her do it or let her go.
    - srdev 13y ago
      That's a poor conclusion. Saying that she was poisoning the culture is inherently making a judgement that the existing culture should be sacrosanct and that any changes are bad. This is poor reasoning. There is such a thing as bad culture. We don't have details on why there wasn't a "cultural fit," so its hard to say for certain, but if the culture was preventing successful execution of a project that the company was invested in, then I would say that the culture should be adjusted. And certainly, the way she described her interactions would indicate that the people of importance at Valve -- the hidden middle managers -- had a close-minded approach to working with people who's experiences did not match their own, if the story is taken at face value.
bockris 13y ago
It definitely wasn't their whole hardware team. I personally known one EE still at Valve and I think there are a couple more that I follow on various social networks.

to3m 13y ago

More evidence, as if more were needed, that in this sort of situation, you should probably have all parties agree to a "no comment" all round. And then, having agreed to it, all parties should stick to their agreement and bite their fucking tongues! Dear people, air your dirty linen in the privacy of your own home...