This is a slightly lesser known variation of "Meanwhile in/at X" which stems from the fact that Valve Corporation is pushing out games and procrastinating the much awaited release for the next installment in the Half-Life series. The meme often depicts pictures/videos of Valve employees screwing off, and doing nothing productive whatsoever. It began showing up on YouTube around 2009-2010, and is spreading more and more around the internet by the week. The meme doesn't have any particular "starter", but users all over the web are creating "Meanwhile at Valve" pictures and videos, that of which can be found on popular sites like YouTube, YTMND and even 4chan. Many YouTube users have created popular variations of this meme. SwankyBadgerFilms version of "Meanwhile at Valve" as of early 2012 has over 400,000 views. Even searching the word "meanwhile" into YouTube, one may note that the first auto-searched hit is "Meanwhile at valve".

Valve has always been known for their delayed releases, especially in the Half-Life universe where many fans are still awaiting the next installment after Episode Two's release with the Orangebox in 2007. This problem can be stemmed back to as early as 2005, where an urbandictionary definition "Valve Month" was created as a spin-off off of New-York minute. A Valve month has been defined as any time between 2 – 6 months.

There are many videos of this meme being uploaded to YouTube daily. One very recent one which is gaining popularity rather quickly is below: