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http://www.inc.com/magazine/20080301/how-hard-c...
Lots of startups (and non startups as well) seem to demand long hours nose to the grindstone work of employees while the guys at the top are drawing large salaries, buying fancy cars, travelling first class, living on expenses and generally having a good time at the organization's expense.
If you want others to eat dog food you better be slopping from the same bowl.
Jason is a slave driver, breaking OHSA and common sense rules, treating employees as prisoners, whilst adopting Marxist economic outlooks, filing that under hard work is going seriously mental. He's a lawsuit in the making.
There's people that work very hard, and there's slave labor, having a family is not the definition of slackerdom (in fact those with families tend to be the MOST loyal, as the singles are out to court companies and move up at whims). But as a general rule slackers don't join start-ups. And Jason would have fired most of Google and Microsoft, as they work and play very hard, indeed playtime is half the culture.
And furthermorehence, some people are more efficient with their time, slackers can grant the appearance of hard work, but it's the product output that matters. Indeed slackers oft need more time. 5 hours with 90 widgets or 10 hours with 50, which wins?
And if you bring in millions to the company, you can come in at noon and leave at 2.
And you know what? Luck actually has more to do with success than hard work, right time, right place, right product, meeting the right demand. To think that only hard work produces results is the Marxist Labor Theory of Value, where the price of a good is determined by the labor that went into it. Nope, the price of a good is decided by what people will PAY for it.
And parting with Godwin's Law, "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work Makes Free) is what the Nazi's hung over concentration camps.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120485185824018...
Employees are demonstrating what they think with their feet.
Really you have no center ideological compass, you just flag up the most sensational slant possible at any given moment to get dupes like me a commenting. ;)
Some of Jason's "ideas" fall under the headline - common sense - or things to avoid before the next bubble bursts; however, his Machiavellian approach and attitude is the antithesis of what makes great startups become great companies.
With regards to sharing a room - let's hope the other guy doesn't snore too loudly or the money you saved will be counteracted by the loss due to a not so good performance the next day.
It's all about balance - do you think JCal would work HIS ass off for $35k.
How so? Should people be fired if they have a bladder problem and need to go to the restroom every 2 hours to relieve themselves? Does what they do the rest of the time matter? Perhaps they arrive early and stay late, and chances are they might be as team players as everyone else. Hey, smoking is bad for you and for your insurance company, but it has nothing to do with your ability to work as a team.
Look, I'm not going to make a pro-smokers point here, but I have one employee who smokes. Yes he takes his 3-5 minutes break every 2-3 hours. And for some reason, I actually find that a good thing. When he gets back from his 3min "break" he sits down and not only works as hard as everyone else, he's been rewarded with some "fresh air" (not the one from the smoke, of course) that makes him even more productive than those who stay put at their chair for 6 hours straight. Ever talked to a truck driver? Breaks are mandatory, and for a good reason. Why should it be different when you spend your time in an office? 5 minutes breaks every 2-3 hours are a very good thing - spend it at the water cooler, having a smoke or talking a walk. Just please, do get off that chair every once in a while. It's a GOOD THING.
Of course, taking those "breaks" has absolutely nothing to do with being a team player or not.
I've also done a bootstrapped very successful startup while both having a life/taking vacations and often looking to the outside world like a slacker. It's fine (and actually good) to get away from work as long as you're there to do what needs to be done when the demand arises (even if that's at night or on a weekend).
And I REALLY do not get why you slummed it while working at MS. Sure it's admirable not ripping off your employer with execssive charges, but a hostle? Why didn't you just take a park bench? That was simply dumb - not admirable (unless it was in the late 1970's)
I'm amazed more and more about the whoring Robert will do to get the attention he feels he deserves.
I would rather work for a boss that believed in spending time with families then a hard driving workaholic.... Also how do we define these "slackers?" Do they finish their assigned tasks early and are waiting on others? Are the others not working effiecntly and posting on sites and slashdot and appearing productive vs. being productive.
I write this as I take a break from (willingly) working at my non-startup job on Saturday afternoon, so I would probably be good Calacanis hire, but that's my own fault.
Now I have a real job in a real company. And a real life.
And I ain't going back, slacker or not.
Time is the one thing that can never be regained and lost time with the family and friends is more important than the message that corporate America attempts to convince us we should all do.
Love the startup life!
It's so obviously a ludicrous claim and runs counter to many views Scoble has espoused on his blog in the past, that I'm surprised anyone takes it for anything but the joke it was intended to be.
For a start, I'm sure Robert has read 'Peopleware', and so knows the mountain of evidence that shows that working long hours is not sustainable and certainly not productive for more than a couple of months at the most. After that, you're just working long hours - you're not getting more done than the 40 hour week 'slacker'. In fact, you're likely to be less productive as you are more error-prone, etc. As I always like to say about the Peopleware authors, they did the math so we don't have to.
I'm just worried that I don't get whatever Robert's joke actually was. But he can't possibly be serious in this case, because that would be so amazingly dumb.
In the US, stay at a Mircotel or Motel-6 (where you can often get two rooms cheaper than one room elsewhere).
Work from home as many days as possible.
Check e-mail only thrice per day: noon, 4:00pm, and first thing in the AM.
File your expense reports as soon as possible, every time. Don't forget to include every driving mile and every hotel tip. There's nothing worse than lending your employer money, interest free.
The real key to personal success is spending considerably less than you earn and saving/investing the difference in common-sense things (e.g. not penny stocks or start-ups)...
Practice common sense, have a team with passion, and lead them toward a goal. It ain't too tricky.
Sure, people can work like crazy. But here's a thought. reward the top performers like crazy, as you reward others at the top.
sent from: fav.or.it [FID39983]
As for smokers, just don't hire them in the first place! They clearly have a death wish, they do take more breaks and it looks really bad when customers turn up and you see nicotine junkies loitering outside the office doors.
Penny pinching for startups is common sense. No prob. If you don't do it, you're dumb.
But the rank-and-file also won't get the (potential, mind you) big rewards at the end of it all. Expecting the same commitment and obsessiveness out of the "little guy" (i.e. working until 3 a.m.) for naught but $30 - $35K is just evil...crushes morale, and dooms your company to high-turnover and sky-high recruiting costs, because eventually the word will get out "Don't work at *comany name here* they're evil!"
Family and slacker are not synonymous. Yes, family does take up time that once would have been spent at work. As we get older, we, I hope, learn to focus more, to make the most of every minute no matter where it is spent. I'd certainly rather work with someone who busts their hump at work ten solid hours a day and then goes home to be renewed with family than someone who is present but not deeply engaged for 15 hours.
How do you find them? advice needed.
However, Googling for every mention and blog-post about a company before you accept a job offer can really prevent you from making that sort of mistake.
For example, 37Signals just made a very favorable impression on all prospective employees when they openly opposed underpaying & overworking their people.
I, for one, would accept a job with them before working for a company run by a soul-crusher any day. Even if the soul-crusher paid more...
And since happy, passionate, and productive employees can make (or break, if there is a lack of them) a company, the soul-crushers will start to catch on...eventually.
Right on.
"What are the companies which do not have A holes?
How do you find them? advice needed."
I'm currently at a web start-up, BizUnite. We have a "no a holes policy" and so far, it's worked! It can be done!
Actually, that shows very poor management skills. The right thing would have been to pull the employees aside & discuss the matter with them. In addition, the whole point of a lunch is to take a break & shouldn't count against the employees.
I may smoke but there's not a person in my company that would question my productivity because of it. I've seen people do a lot worse, start-up or not, such as chatting on the phone with friends, sending countless personal emails, wasting time on social networks, checking their eBay auctions, etc. I think there were probably other factors at play with the employees as well.
Comments like that are one of reasons I largely stopped reading tech blogs...
Jason has some excellent points in his article to maximize cost efficiency when cash flow is tight, but I have to say that there's a fine line between setting a productive organizational mindset, and being an autocratic boss. I admit that there's a lot of signal behind the noise, yet, personal PR plays a very important part in how the public perceived Jason's comments.
Dev Basu