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I used to work at Pivotal and have many friends still there. The 9:06 and reasons here are correct. The line "Then the firm's programmers hit their computers,

I used to work at Pivotal and have many friends still there. The 9:06 and reasons here are correct. The line "Then the firm's programmers hit their computers, with no other meetings or distractions for the rest of the day," is absolute rubbish. Most teams have at least an Iteration Planning Meeting and a Retrospective each week, as well as generally a team-specific standup the majority of (if not all) days. As well, there are of course manager 1 on 1s, the rare company meeting, and ad-hoc meetings as a project sees fit. Sorry, I just had to comment because the quoted line is absurd. Edit: and the line about leaving work 6pm sharp is just as ridiculous. In the consulting side it tends to be true that your workday is over at 6 PM, but you're not going to get shoved into an elevator before you finish your commit message at 6:01. The limit is there so you don't overwork and so that the client companies know they can't push their consultants arbitrarily late.

jacques_chester 10y ago
I would've made this comment, maybe with a different tone. IPM and Retro last strictly one hour. Team standup might be 10 minutes. 1-on-1s might be every 3-4 weeks, length varying 30 minutes to an hour. Ad hoc meetings are rare. Usually introduced reluctantly and dropped as soon as possible. Missing from your list are the additional meetings an anchor takes on -- pre-IPM (if that's thought to be necessary), CL/LL checkin (length and frequency vary), Labs Project Status meeting (30 mins on Friday). Cloud R&D Pivots also attend a weekly joint standup. Sometimes global, sometimes local, length varies 10-20 minutes. And, of course, if you're a manager, you will be having 1-on-1s with some Pivots every week. But for the most part, it is possible for engineering pairs to be heads-down and working for hours on end. Edit: should mention I work for Pivotal. I'm actually off to get ready for work. Anyone who wants to ask me questions is free to hit me up, email is in my profile.
donw 10y ago
Also worked at Pivotal, and this is definitely true. The number of meetings is must lower than in other firms (in my experience), but meetings are still a part of life. Breakfast, though, is such an amazing operational hack that I'm surprised the article didn't go into more detail. Humans are very rhythmic creatures, and our circadian rhythms are moderated a number of environmental factors -- the big two being sunlight, and food. By having both breakfast and lunch happen at the same time each day, your body adjusts to getting at least two meals on a regular schedule, which helps with maintaining a constant energy level throughout the day. On top of that, it makes it physiologically more difficult to be late to work. Your body knows that a meal is coming up and you will tend to wake up on time. And while, yeah, you don't leave at 6:01, it's pretty rare to see people at the office after about 6:30. So, it's pretty easy to get to sleep at a consistent time as well. This is important enough that it's part of one of my conference talks: that a regular cadence throughout the day, including set meal times, is a great way to boost happiness, improve health, and more importantly, get more "quality hours" out of the day.

jacques_chester 10y ago

I would've made this comment, maybe with a different tone. IPM and Retro last strictly one hour. Team standup might be 10 minutes. 1-on-1s might be every 3-4 weeks, length varying 30 minutes to an hour. Ad hoc meetings are rare. Usually introduced reluctantly and dropped as soon as possible. Missing from your list are the additional meetings an anchor takes on -- pre-IPM (if that's thought to be necessary), CL/LL checkin (length and frequency vary), Labs Project Status meeting (30 mins on Friday). Cloud R&D Pivots also attend a weekly joint standup. Sometimes global, sometimes local, length varies 10-20 minutes. And, of course, if you're a manager, you will be having 1-on-1s with some Pivots every week. But for the most part, it is possible for engineering pairs to be heads-down and working for hours on end. Edit: should mention I work for Pivotal. I'm actually off to get ready for work. Anyone who wants to ask me questions is free to hit me up, email is in my profile.

donw 10y ago

Also worked at Pivotal, and this is definitely true. The number of meetings is must lower than in other firms (in my experience), but meetings are still a part of life. Breakfast, though, is such an amazing operational hack that I'm surprised the article didn't go into more detail. Humans are very rhythmic creatures, and our circadian rhythms are moderated a number of environmental factors -- the big two being sunlight, and food. By having both breakfast and lunch happen at the same time each day, your body adjusts to getting at least two meals on a regular schedule, which helps with maintaining a constant energy level throughout the day. On top of that, it makes it physiologically more difficult to be late to work. Your body knows that a meal is coming up and you will tend to wake up on time. And while, yeah, you don't leave at 6:01, it's pretty rare to see people at the office after about 6:30. So, it's pretty easy to get to sleep at a consistent time as well. This is important enough that it's part of one of my conference talks: that a regular cadence throughout the day, including set meal times, is a great way to boost happiness, improve health, and more importantly, get more "quality hours" out of the day.