Interesting article

[ironphoenix]

Favorite quote: "Next time you are speaking to an automated phone system, try swearing; you’ll be immediately redirected to human operators because they are the ones handling rude clients."

The article also links to Valve's employee handbook, describing how they run a managerless company, which is well worth reading.

Comments

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I think more geekbro than dudebro. But, yep, lots and lots of bro.

I worry in the "stack ranking" that inherent biases will creep in to the ranking a LOT. Anyone not white-male-geeky will not get their skills and contributions appropriately valued. I also worry that extroverts will be greatly favoured over introverts... the ones that market what they've done, rather then the people who've actually done stuff.

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Yes, the origins of the manual are easy to see; it's unsurprising that the manual would be written by the people most self-confident about expressing themselves authoritatively in English.

I can easily see rankings degenerating into Lord of the Flies as a worst case; non-EWMGs (extrovert white male geeks) could easily be talked over, or even have their work appropriated. It would be very interesting to look at a list of present and past employee demographics, and their tenure at the company: problems in this area would be pretty apparent.

Enlightened self-interest, on the other hand, could see the group recognizing that diversity is something to invest in, and hiring not only diverse people, but people skilled in facilitating diversity, shaping culture and interactions for inclusiveness and equity.