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Comment by HeyLaughingBoy | Hacker News Reader

It's a nice perk, but "distracted" by dry cleaning or grocery shopping? What's next, distracted by sleeping or having a life outside work?

I'd take this kind of thing a lot more seriously if it was at least not pitched as a way to spend more time in the office.

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Lots of our customers are using Exec as a way to provide their team members with more leisure time. The way I normally pitch it is that if you want to go grocery shopping to get ingredients for a special meal you are going to cook and you will enjoy, then by all means, go for it. If grocery shopping is a chore that you don't look forward to, then outsource it. You should outsource the things you don't want to do to leave more time for the things you want to do.

Personally, I dislike having errands that require me to physically leave the office disrupt my work day, especially on days where I need solid chunks of time programming. Our goal with Exec for Companies is to help teams spend more time doing what they want to do.

Justin, I love the idea of Exec.

What have been biggest challenge to get it working so far?

Just making sure that every single customer has an amazing experience. It is the core of what we do and there is nothing more important.

So, "quality control?"

yes

any immediate plans for service outside of san francisco area?

Yes, soon. We want to know for a fact that we understand how to consistently provide excellent service before expanding anywhere.

"Lots of our customers are using Exec as a way to provide their team members with more leisure time."

This. I hate waking up early, work very long hours, and find the majority of the time I have for running errands falls outside of traditional "business hours". That means these errands either stack up until I have to take an entire day or two away from the office every few months, or I have to leave my desk and do them midday.

What about using EXEC for data entry, small graphic projects, duplicating documents/updating content in documents?

Is this a viable area for such a service?

My take on it is that less time doing fiddly errands = more relaxation time away from work, which results in happier workers who are more productive when they are at work. If I knew that every second of my free time was open to possibility, and that I didn't have to set aside two or three hours a week to do the "grown up" stuff, I would absolutely be a happier and more productive person overall.

That's why I started out by saying it's a nice perk.

What I objected to was that it sounded more like "instead of grocery shopping after work, now you can stay at work longer" whereas "we will do the tiresome parts of life for you so you have more free time outside the office" is what I want.

The very few errands I can't do outside of working hours can't be outsourced: going to the dentist, etc.

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