Update: Valve Fires Hardware Guru

[Karloff]

Update: Valve Fires Hardware Guru

Valve's Jeri Ellsworth is on the lookout for exiting new projects.

It's unsettling news from Valve's vaunted hardware shop: Jeri Ellsworth, one of its premier techies, is out the door. The pinball machines - part of Jeri's extensive collection - are in mourning; soon they'll be packed up and shipped out of Valve's corporate offices.

Only most visible hardware people [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119672-Valve-Gears-Up-For-Hardware-Beta].

In fact, she's pretty much the reason why Valve has the hardware lab that it does. When the New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/technology/valve-a-video-game-maker-with-few-rules.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&] did a piece on Valve last September, it was Ellsworth who took the Times on a tour of the lab Valve had built, when it hired her. "At one point, I said a hardware lab could be very expensive, it could be like a million dollars," Ellsworth recalled, to which Gabe Newell responded, "That's it?"

No word yet from Ellsworth, or Valve, as to what happened, or what this might mean for Valve's hardware shop.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/jeriellsworth/status/301521067816669184 align=right]

Source: Twitter [https://twitter.com/jeriellsworth]

Update: Valve's staff page. [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/02/13/valve-let-go-around-25-staff-it-seems/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rockpapershotgun%2Fsteam+%28Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%3A+Steam+RSS%29]


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[Rainforce]

well, based on valve's technical nonexistent hierarchy, this sounds like...quite a few people were in favor of her leaving. Wonder what happened there.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

You don't just 'get fired', especially at Valve.

She done goofed in one form or another.

 

[RicoGrey]

After looking at her Wikipedia page, her history is full of not getting along with people.

 

[OniaPL]

I sense drama.

This most likely. Though it does interest me why she would suddenly be fired when she had such a visible presence in the hardware sector and apparently did her share of the work there. I'd understand it if the project she was a part of got finished and after that they'd decide to let her go, but this just seems plain fishy.

Constant problems with coworkers making this the only solution? Maybe the non-hierarchy, low structure work environment didn't suit her and she didn't get anything done?

Who knows.

 

[Eruanno]

...People can get fired from Valve? I assumed that was a lifetime commitment. Something must have happened :O

 

[VanQ]

Wasn't she the person that was supposedly in charge of the VR projects they were working on? Please tell me that was someone else. I might just have to cry myself to sleep if it was her.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Very vague isn't it?

Although the fact that she started off with "Yup" seems like she knew she was going to get fired beforehand.

 

[tokae]

After looking at her Wikipedia page, her history is full of not getting along with people.

The only hint of that I could get out of her wiki-page was that she quit college after "about a year due to a "cultural mismatch"".. But yeah, I get a sense of there being some underlying drama behind this as well. Will be interesting to see what becomes of this.

Very vague isn't it?

Although the fact that she started off with "Yup" seems like she knew she was going to get fired beforehand.

She tweeted: "Wow. I suddenly have a lot of spare time." a couple of hours earlier. But again: Yes. That seems to be the case.

So what you're saying is: the design for the steam box is either finished or being developed out of house.

It's certainly an option, but I do think that Valve would have more than one person working on such a project.

 

[Yal]

maybe she got fired because they dont want to continue a project and her job is redundant?

That's a layoff. "Fired" implies she was let go for cause.

 

[Fasckira]

Artistic differences I guess, no doubt shes an exciting solo career ahead of her.

 

[Mromson]

Valve doesn't fire people just because a project is completed. They are however quite liberal with the whole firing business if someone doesn't work out (otherwise they'd end up with a shitton of useless people). (source is from the latest talk Gabe did at some university)

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Maybe a tad to eccentric for the job?

 

[Denamic]

Artistic differences I guess, no doubt shes an exciting solo career ahead of her.

She's not an artist though.
She's pretty opinionated and headstrong, so maybe she rubbed people the wrong way too much, or something.

 

[Ympulse]

(source is from the latest talk Gabe did at some university)

This. Gaben said himself that he had to be very "Aggressive" when it comes to firing people that weren't cut out for the business structure.

It just kind of happens when you don't meet the expected progress Da Boss has in mind when you're on a project.

 

[Covarr]

Ah, time to gear up for a thread full of rampant speculation. Although I suspect she was just difficult to work with and she got too many people angry with her. Pretty much the only ways to get fired at VALV[sup]E[/sup] are to be useless and lazy, to anger everyone around you, to not mesh with their unusual structure (although these people more often just quit), or to do something highly bad/stupid/dangerous/illegal/stupid (repeat for emphasis). Without formal job titles, she wouldn't have gotten taken out for redundancy or because they were canceling or finished with the Steam Box, simply asked to do another job.

P.S. Thanks