Valve内部运作机制编辑本段回目录
全世界的游戏开发者都非常好奇Steam的东家、《半条命》制作公司Valve的内部运作到底是怎么样的，尤其是看到公司手册上居然表示Valve没有经理之时。
Valve的常驻经济师Yanis Varoufakis最近EconTalk网站上谈论了该公司独特的管理结构、招聘（和解雇）方法，当然还有团队的薪水。
valve-office(from dualshockers.com)
决定招聘的过程
“过程很简单，我们会在走廊、会议室或者随便什么地方聊一会儿天。聊天的结果就是我们达成共识：我们需要再招一名软件工程师、动画师或者美工或者硬件人员等，或者都要。我们会发一封邮件给其他在Valve的同事，然后邀请他们加入我们，形成一个负责寻找人才的委员会，不需要经过高层的同意，因为我们根本就没有高层。”
“然后在那一天——通常只需要一天，大家都通过邮件表决是否要招某个人，直到达成一致意见，也就是没有人投反对票。”
如何决定薪资
“这个过程比较随意。很大程度上，我们的薪资机制是以奖金为基础的。工资合同上通常会标明最低报酬，这或多或少是按惯例决定的。这个合同有趣的地方是，薪资决定还要经过同事的评价过程，这个比较复杂，涉及各种互评。”
“在微软等公司，奖金通常是基本工资的8%、15%、20%。在Valve，我听说奖金是没有上限的，可能是基本薪水的5倍、6倍甚至是10倍。”
“Gabe Newell从一开始就是这么想的。他希望公司是一个大家庭，同事之间不存在老板或下属这样的关系。”
解雇
“确实会发生解雇的事。我见过了，这种事在所难免。当某人表现不佳，或与公司的其他人相处不好时，大家就会先讨论这个人该不该留在公司。”
“许多时候是员工自己不适应，不是因为他们效率不高或表现不好，而是因为他们在这种没有老板的环境之下无法发挥自己的作用。员工和这个要被解雇的人之间会有一系列协商，如果大家没有达成共识，那么这个人就留下，可能还会得到一些诱人的offer；如果这个人要走，通常会举办友好的告别式。”
没有老板，员工不会懈怠吗？
“应该明白的是，这种自发层级式的公司很大程度上要依靠员工个人自觉遵守规则。所以如果员工不擅长自己的工作，也不会被迫遮遮掩掩或者制造什么障眼法。”
“大部分员工，都是精挑细选过的，绝对擅长自己的工作。在他们进入Valve以前，很多已经是业内好手了。”
转移团队只要拔掉两个插头
“内部流动性是公司的一大优势，所有人都意识到这一点。每个人的办公桌都有轮子，从一个团队转到另一个团队，只要拔掉两个插头。”
“我到公司还不太久就注意到这一点了。但总是有人会不适应这种环境而离开公司。然而，绝大部分离职是为了提高整体效率和个人的工作幸福感。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，作者：Frank Cifaldi）
How Valve hires, how it fires, and how much it pays
By Frank Cifaldi
Game developers the world over have been curious about the inner-workings of Steam and Half-Life maker Valve, particularly following the public availability of a company handbook revealed that Valve has no managers.
Valve’s economist-in-residence Yanis Varoufakis recently spoke on the EconTalk Podcast about the specifics of this unique structure, how Valve hires (and fires) and, interestingly, how much it pays its team.
The hiring process
“The way it works is very simple. Let’s say you and I have a chat in the corridor, or in some conference room, or wherever. The result of this chat is that we converge to the view that we need an additional software engineer, or animator, or artist, or hardware person. Or several of them. What we can do is, we can send an email to the rest of our colleagues at Valve and invite them to join us in forming a search committee that actually looks for these people without seeking anyone’s permission in the hierarchy, simply because there is no hierarchy.
“And then we form spontaneously the search committee, and then we interview people, first by Skype, and then we bring them in, if they pass the test, to the company for a more face-to-face personalized interview. And anyone who wants to participate does participate.
“And then during that day — it’s usually a day-long event — emails are fired all over the place with views whether this person should be hired or not until some consensus is reached where there’s effectively no one is vetoing the hire of that particular person.”
How pay is determined
“This is a haphazard process. The payment mechanism is to a very large extent bonus-based. So the contracts usually have a minimum pay segment in it, which is more or less established by tradition. And then the interesting part in this contract is how much is left to the peer review process, which is very complicated. It involves various layers of mutual assessment.
“In companies like Microsoft or elsewhere, usually the bonus is something between 8, 15, 20 percent of the basic salary. In Valve, I’m told, there’s no upper limit to bonuses. Bonuses can end up being 5, 6, 10 times the level of the basic wage.”
“Gabe [Newell] had this view from the beginning. He wanted a community of partners, he didn’t want to be the boss of anyone or to be bossed around by anyone.”
Firing people
“It does happen. I’ve seen it happen. And it’s never pretty. It involves various communications at first when somebody’s underperforming, or somebody doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of the company.
“In many occasions people simply don’t fit in not because they’re not productive or good people, but because they just can’t function very well in a boss-less environment. And then there are series of discussions between co-workers and the person whose firing is being canvased or discussed, and at some point if it seems there is no way that a consensus can emerge that this person can stay, some attractive offer is made to the particular person, and usually there’s an amicable parting of ways.”
But don’t people slack off without a boss?
“It is important to understand that such spontaneous order-based enterprises rely to a large extent on individuals that believe in the social norms that govern their existence. So by the very nature of the beast, you don’t have people there who try to hide and who try to somehow create a smokescreen around the fact that they’re not very good at what they do.
“Most of the people there, all of them, have been hand-picked to be excellent at what they do. They’re usually on top of their game elsewhere before they join the corporation.”
A team change only two plugs away
“The mobility within the corporation is a great asset, and everybody recognizes it. Everyone’s desk is on wheels. There are only two plugs that need to be unplugged in order to shift from one team to another.
“There have been I’m sure, I wasn’t with the company long enough to notice, but there must have been situations where somebody didn’t fit in and eventually was edged out of the company. But the vast majority of such moves simply contribute to the overall efficiency, and to the private joy of working there.” (source:gamasutra)
