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It has always seemed to me that if the work is good then it doesn't need sugar on top. What one wants is hard, interesting problems to solve and great people to
by gruseom 16y ago
It has always seemed to me that if the work is good then it doesn't need sugar on top. What one wants is hard, interesting problems to solve and great people to work with. Once you have that, work is more fun than "fun".
Edit: But I have to say something about that asinine first paragraph. First, judging history by recent television dramas? He's joking, right? Second, the corporate culture of the early 1960s was notoriously soul-destroying and its loss is nothing to moan about.
- maxawaytoolong 16y agoHaving done a 2 year stint at an ecommerce startup, I will have to say that there is not too much fun or goodness to be found in the work itself. In a solid but fundamentally boring business idea like this, there are two approaches I've seen work for employee retention: vastly overpay everyone (the "wall street" strategy) or create a weird corporate "FUN" atmosphere (the "zappos" strategy.) As much as the zappos strategy freaks me out it probably works better in he long run than overpaying because the shrewd but overpaid programmer will simply stick it out a few years, amass a bunch of cash, and then bail to go back to school or start a startup or trek across the world or whatever more interesting thing they had plans on doing with he money. The weirdos who really like the nerf ball fights will stick around forever on average wages. Also with big ecommerce operations there are a huge number of specialized non programming roles like "merch planner: womens' flats" who are stuck working for one of maybe 5 companies in the world so even a corny, but positive culture change is an HR win over a competitor.
- gruseom 16y agoGood points. It does make me wonder, though, what would happen if everyone simply began refusing to do meaningless work. Would the world grind to a halt? I doubt it. I bet we'd eventually figure out how to reorganize things.
- c1sc0 16y agoYou have a revolution brewing there, brother. I'll add to that: what if people would just stop sugarcoating everything & tell what they really think.
- gruseom 16y agoYou know, there's a wonderful line from the Gospel of Thomas (one of the Gnostic texts which were originally rejected by the church and then dug out of the desert 60 years ago) in which Jesus' disciples ask him, "What must we do to be saved?" and he answers "Do not tell lies and do not do what you hate."
- GFischer 16y agoYou try that. I did that last week and almost got fired (I'm currently experiencing a "fun" work environment, that's why I'm reading).