The Obligatory WePay "Company Culture" Blog Post
blog.wepay.com
blog.wepay.com
You're already starting to define responsibilities and divide the work accordingly. That's good. However, you need to make sure that there's still a lot of communication between the groups, and not just between the group leaders either. Otherwise what happens is that people get isolated in their own group and begin to think of other groups in the company as the "other". Things only go downhill from there, as these divisions slowly drive the groups into working at cross purposes.
The real job of company culture is to remind employees that they're all in business together; that its not their group against the other groups at the company. If your culture manages that, then it almost doesn't matter what sort of culture it is.
A cultish hive-mind where everyone is a clone of the founder is no good either.
It's not an easy balance to strike.
I wonder how much of these 12 hour days are truly productive.
More seriously, that's the kind of thing which does creep in to companies. They have a culture already. It's a long hours culture. You may or may not think that's a bad thing, but it's there. It's quite hard to lose as well. People come in, they can't work less than the people already there, so they jump in to it. Soon people that only work 11 hour days are regarded as slackers. Nip it in the bud. It can't work forever, and it'll get harder to change.
what rich meant was that unlike other companies, where social & work bleed together (people hang at the office 7 days a week, 15 hours a day but aren't always working) - we come in, we jam all day, we go home. and we take weekends off.
Past a certain amount of time, you're spinning your wheels, doing bad work you'll have to clean up later, and pushing yourself towards an early burn-out.
It's unhealthy, non-sustainable, a bad cultural precedent.
If there's no other choice, then do it -- we all have. But don't be too proud of it; it's not something you want engrained in your culture.
It's nowhere near the hours worked by a first year analyst at an ibank, or by a first year associate at a law firm.
Bill is not saying we are particularly proud of how much we work, just that we aren't apologizing for it. Especially when we are talking about the first 5 employees in the company.
Trust me, I don't want to be working 12 hour days a year from now, but it's what the company requires right now. I enjoy coming to work every day and working on something I love. I'd much rather do that for 12 hours a day, than watch the clock for 8.
As far as I can tell the hours are completely tangential to the main topic of the post. If that one line was removed, suddenly the main thrust of the comments here would have been totally different. Let's not turn into a community that focuses on soundbites, please. We can be better than that.
The way threads work, if you feel like discussing some other aspect of the article then you can go right ahead and start another top-level thread about it.
For me, the revelation that they routinely work twelve-and-a-half-hour days, every day, is the most important part of this "company culture" post. It's the one that, if I were considering applying for a job at this company, decide that there is absolutely no fricking way I wanted to work at this company.
The equation doesn't add up when your primary compensation is salary (later hires).
Now, some of us still work those hours, and some don't. We don't "monitor" hours or tell people they can't take time off or leave early - and a lot of people take full liberty to do so (and they should).
Some of our employees have kids and leave earlier, put the kids to bed, and hop on IRC to help out if/when they can.
I am TOTALLY aware that as we hire more, the avg hours worked by the avg employee will decrease over time. I think that's normal. I imagine that the early employees will always tend to work a little longer - or at least they should.
"separated work from personal life."
Sorry, but this whole defense is just making me angry. The issue for me is less that the long hours are worked (everyone there is there voluntarily, etc), the issue is that posts defending it in such a way that glorifies it. When you are throwing out statements that imply if you love what you do you will work 12 hours and if you work 8 hours you are watch the clock.. That indicates you a building a company culture of heroics that looks down on lesser people who choose to work with a reasonable life/work balance.
You have to understand that people would not be so critical about this point if they didn't feel an emotional stake in it. Since they are (presumably) not employed and directly affected, my belief is this: the mentality is dangerous and it spreads. Your employees will one day spread out and take that culture with them.
I escaped from the digital games industry for this very reason. What might have started as a cultural thing for a few early core companies is now an INDUSTRY WIDE practice of overwork, mismanagement, and exploitation. The culture continues to be persisted through hero stories. I have many friends still in the industry who seem bipolar in their stance towards it: One day they are complaining how on the nicest weekend of the summer they were working towards TRC requirements due to an overly ambitious schedule, the next they are bragging about working that weekend as proof of how hardcore they are and how much they love their job.
It's psychotic.
This is the most succinct and (IMO) valid criticism of the long-hours apologias. It's not just a question of no additional productivity, but one of actual damage.
My own role[1] doubly exposes me to these risks. As I might actually handle hardware, the increased risk of "industrial" injury one exposure, and, of course, being on call is the other.
Even with the knowledge and acceptance of such studies, there's the difficult task of self-discipline. The temptation to stay just a little longer, to get one last thing working, is strong on its own, but, combined with peer pressure, is nearly irresistible. This is why it's so important that founders, managers, or anyone with a voice of authority, make[3] this an explicit part of the culture.
[1] System administration, which, for a startup at an early enough stage means anything from facilities/rack'n'stack/cabling[2] to fixing bugs.
[2] Protip: never, ever crimp your own ethernet patch cables. If they're under 20 feet, they're under $3 online (my preferred vendor is pchcables.com, due to their broad color selection). Between the cable, modular connectors (you know there are different ones for solid and stranded, right?), anti-snag boots, and amortized cost of a crimper, you might not even be saving money if labor were free. Over 20 feet, terminate both ends with a female punch-down connector (patch panel or keystone jack in a box). Never having to troubleshoot intermitted network issues: priceless.
[3] subjunctive
This is going to sound ridiculous, but I would read "accidental billionaires" (the book that "the social network" is based on). I think it shows how another type of culture can develop on it's own.