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Comment by chris_7 | Hacker News Reader

> Do Offsites: Take your best people outside the normal workspace for a weekend where everyone has time to just talk and think through the bigger picture.

That sounds horrid. My weekends are mine, they're not to be used to improve the company's performance. If you're doing this, do it during the work week.

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I'm disappointed to see this downvoted. This stuck out at me as feeling off too.

I get it, and in the context of just the best people going away for the weekend I can see it working too. Having said that, I have a family, including kids. If the company mandates that I go away for the weekend, it's my wife and kids that pay for it.

Why can't it be done during the week? Does the company fall apart when the top people are out of the office? If so, maybe it's worth looking at why that is / how to fix it.

We're talking about one or two weekends a year, not every weekend.

I feel like this position is almost hyperbolic.

Even if you have a family, I'm sure you can manage to get away once or twice a year. After all, there are people with families who even travel for work. The horror!

Folks with families who travel for work tend to ask to travel during the weekdays. Also, if we're talking about one or two weekends a year, the balance tips in favour of scheduling the "strategic retreat" during the work week.

What is so special and sacred about weekends?

If I'm an employee: that they're mine. My employer has no claim on all of my time.

If I'm a consultant: not much, which is why I often work them instead of weekdays. Not both, but instead of.

This is such an aggressive attitude.

Yes, in general, my weekends are mine. I would not work for a company which consistently asked me to work every weekend.

But I'm happy to share one or two weekends a year with my employer.

Moreover, I also consider my evenings "mine." That doesn't mean I'm going to throw a hissy fit when the company has its holiday party.

There's a big difference between working a weekend and partying for an evening. The latter is typically optional (and if its not, that's a problem).

There is no "sharing" with an employer. The employer exists to get as much out of the employee as possible for as low a rate as possible. And drawing bright, do-not-cross lines is the only way to get on with them.

That's great. You should never take a senior position at a startup. Or, for that matter, probably a senior position at most any company. Which is fine. Different strokes for different folks. But some people prioritize career advancement over free time on the weekends.

Typically offsites (for me, as a senior level engineer) happen during the work week, not during a weekend. I feel that people are more productive and creative at offsites during regular work hours because they're not thinking about what they could be doing instead (like going on a camping trip with friends, for example).

I agree that my weekends are mine, and there needs to be a work/life balance no matter what position you are in.

Yes, all of my offsites have happened during the work week, as they should. The idea that senior engineers should ever be expected to work 12 days straight (5+2+5) is absurd. Yes, it's still a work day if it's an "offsite".

I upvoted you by accident.

This seems like a pretty snarky comment. I've worked with some incredible senior people who had nothing to do with the company out of hours.

I think equating hours spent with career advancement is a mistake. In my more junior days (in which I include senior roles) I gave far more hours to my job than I should have. In the scheme of things that was a mistake and I could have advanced my career much more by approaching it differently.

Your comment feels like something that might have made sense decades ago, but is not necessarily great advice these days.

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