Flat Companies
A quick review of Valve Culture
The so-called, “Bossless” companies have been around for some time, even when there’s only a selected group of them that have managed to turn on profit. Valve, being one of them is like the dreamland for many people who believe that ‘boss free’ structures are like a paradise, so let’s see if that’s true.
Welcome to Flatland
The handbook for new employees from Valve is like the manifesto for many supporters of the no-boss movement.
This company is yours to steer — toward opportunities and away from risks. You have the power to green-light projects. You have the power to ship products
No specific job descriptions, no managers, and total freedom. Is it that good?
Some interviews from former employees have thrown some light on it.
“It Felt a Lot Like High School”
In the original post from Wired, Jeri Ellsworth talks about a hidden layer of powerful management structure, where there are popular kids that have acquired power in the company, there are the trouble makers and everyone in between. The comments about the hiring process are also curious, following a democratic approach where consensus is reached about hiring someone through the votes from the majority of employees.
If we keep digging there’s also a post on PCGAMER from some tweets of Rich Geldreich, with comments as:
Once you modify a project you’re on the hook for anything until it ships. The team will hold your bonus hostage and claim your work broke something. It’s basically company-legalized extortion
The Tyranny of the Majority
Each person has a de facto role in any group, depending on many factors like personality, education, age, etcetera, which could lead to a natural formation of hierarchies.
Is difficult for a big group of persons, like in a business, to become fully cooperative and work with complete honesty leaving aside any kind of fixation on roles or importance.
The prisoner’s dilemma will always be present, and stuff like responsibilities and duties might lead to some kind of anarchy or tyranny unless the culture and the people themselves do something about it.
Is not impossible to function as a bossless workplace, but there haven’t been many successful examples to follow, and recent investigations haven’t found that the advantages of flat structures outmatch traditional management.
The Future of Workplace?
W.L Gore is a role model to follow in case of venturing into flat organizations because Valve and GitHub which are two of the other famous “bossless companies” haven’t proved to be reliable at all. Even when many people dream of these workplaces, a functional “no-boss” company is an exception rather than the norm, and once you think about it, there might be one or two nice things about having a hierarchy and not wondering about how you should justify your paycheck for next month.
