A new report alleges Valve leadership blocked internal diversity efforts and halted the company from making a statement on Black Lives Matter. Interviews with current and former employees elaborate on Valve's famously unconventional structure and how that structure can prevent diverse hires and outright political stances.

YouTube channel People Make Games interviewed 16 current and former employees of Valve, trying to get to the bottom of the gaming giant's opaque worker culture and decision-making. The video then explores Valve's worker culture and its effect on the diversity of the company. On paper, Valve has a structureless system, without literal bosses or managers and one in which employees can make their own decisions. Valve also uses its own stack-ranking system, by which employees evaluate each other's performance and, in an undisclosed way, shape the year's salary and bonus for each employee.

Multiple interviewees claimed the company has a lack of diversity, even by the standards of the often homogeneous games industry. One former worker claimed that more contractors and lower-level employees were women and/or people of color. She said, "While I was there, there was never more than one female programmer at the company." More women work in HR and finance, but also are locked into more defined roles and so cannot experience the workplace freedom that Valve touts.