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Work life integration... Shudder. I like 6 hours a day of ruthless, compartmentalized efficiency (think mental sprinting) and after that, forget about it. On

Work life integration... Shudder. I like 6 hours a day of ruthless, compartmentalized efficiency (think mental sprinting) and after that, forget about it. Only if you give me significant equity in a rapidly growing company will i do work life integration. Interesting quote "When the deadline arrived on the last day of April, 14 percent of the company, 210 people, took the offer. Twenty of them were managers, I was told, out of a total of 246. It was a difficult day. Tear-stained faces replaced the typical smiles on the Zappos campus." People want to be managed!

freshfey 11y ago
No, I think people just hate change. We're always scared of the unknown, hence why historically humans have preferred dictatorships vs. anarchy.
marknutter 11y ago
I do not want to be managed.
VLM 11y ago
> People want to be managed! I would interpret that somewhat differently, I'd take the offer, for example. A long time ago as a high school student I stacked bags of sidewalk salt on pallets. The only thing keeping me out of toilet plunging, manual labor, and being yelled at by customers over the phone is my job title / position so eliminating them has very little appeal to me. If I was at the bottom of the hierarchy, sure, elimination of the hierarchy sounds great; but in the middle/top of a technical hierarchy... elimination doesn't sound so great. I also expect to live a couple more years, and I have children relying on me to put food on the table, pay for schooling and health care, etc. Plus lets face it, I have no great desire to live under a freeway overpass myself. How do I explain at my next job interview that two jobs ago I was more or less a software dev but my most recent job title was ninja, but I'm just as good as the other 9 out of 10 applicants you have who were software devs in their most recent job. Sure you were, sure you were (insert sound of resume hitting trash can) Another interesting interpretation is its like joining a cult. Self depreciation of myself and my career combined with permanently removing myself from the greater employable economy... So they're passing around the kool aide, smells kinda like almonds, eh, I think I'll pass, this is finally one step too far.
- pm24601 11y ago
  I am with you on this. While the idea of being manager-free sounds good, at Zappos it will look like my career has stagnated. "But look at all these cool badges I have!" We'll see.
- mattlutze 11y ago
  We don't do titles so much where I work. As far as my boss is concerned, we call ourselves what we like. I think whatever official HR system of record we have, I'm probably listed as Technical Analyst III or something, even though for the last 3 or so years I've been a Software Developer or Team Lead or Product Manager, depending on the client or email. Which is what I'll call myself on my resume the next time I have to go out job hunting. I'm not sure I see anything untoward in it, though someone correct me if I'm wrong. Official Titles are for payroll systems, your title should describe what you do or what you did. Which is a bunch of words to say were I a Zappos Ninja that was actually a software dev, I'd write Software Developer on my resume and tell a joke about how cool my TCL nunchaku skills are now.
gadders 11y ago
I'm not having meetings at 10pm at night either.

freshfey 11y ago

No, I think people just hate change. We're always scared of the unknown, hence why historically humans have preferred dictatorships vs. anarchy.

marknutter 11y ago

I do not want to be managed.

VLM 11y ago

> People want to be managed! I would interpret that somewhat differently, I'd take the offer, for example. A long time ago as a high school student I stacked bags of sidewalk salt on pallets. The only thing keeping me out of toilet plunging, manual labor, and being yelled at by customers over the phone is my job title / position so eliminating them has very little appeal to me. If I was at the bottom of the hierarchy, sure, elimination of the hierarchy sounds great; but in the middle/top of a technical hierarchy... elimination doesn't sound so great. I also expect to live a couple more years, and I have children relying on me to put food on the table, pay for schooling and health care, etc. Plus lets face it, I have no great desire to live under a freeway overpass myself. How do I explain at my next job interview that two jobs ago I was more or less a software dev but my most recent job title was ninja, but I'm just as good as the other 9 out of 10 applicants you have who were software devs in their most recent job. Sure you were, sure you were (insert sound of resume hitting trash can) Another interesting interpretation is its like joining a cult. Self depreciation of myself and my career combined with permanently removing myself from the greater employable economy... So they're passing around the kool aide, smells kinda like almonds, eh, I think I'll pass, this is finally one step too far.

pm24601 11y ago
I am with you on this. While the idea of being manager-free sounds good, at Zappos it will look like my career has stagnated. "But look at all these cool badges I have!" We'll see.
mattlutze 11y ago
We don't do titles so much where I work. As far as my boss is concerned, we call ourselves what we like. I think whatever official HR system of record we have, I'm probably listed as Technical Analyst III or something, even though for the last 3 or so years I've been a Software Developer or Team Lead or Product Manager, depending on the client or email. Which is what I'll call myself on my resume the next time I have to go out job hunting. I'm not sure I see anything untoward in it, though someone correct me if I'm wrong. Official Titles are for payroll systems, your title should describe what you do or what you did. Which is a bunch of words to say were I a Zappos Ninja that was actually a software dev, I'd write Software Developer on my resume and tell a joke about how cool my TCL nunchaku skills are now.

gadders 11y ago

I'm not having meetings at 10pm at night either.