3 ms·
The nature of a startup is long hours and a lot of work, chaos, unpredictability and some reward (a lot more of all these than in other places). A successful st
by newscracker 8y ago
The nature of a startup is long hours and a lot of work, chaos, unpredictability and some reward (a lot more of all these than in other places). A successful startup is not immune to these.
So one dark side is looking back years later and realizing that all those long hours and reward (money) were probably not worth as much as lost relationships and time outside of work.
I don’t like the term “work life balance”, but the lack of it can immensely cause long term issues...many irreversible because there’s no time machine.
Basically, if your work is taking your attention or keeping you away for more than 8 hours a day and also adding continuous stress for a long enough time, then some other things in life have to give...those things usually cannot be replaced effectively at a later time.
- rimliu 8y agoI increasingly see "long hours and a lot of work" as a cargo-cult of startups. Almost everyone talks how this should be this way if you want to be successful, but where is the data? Alas, the only counterexample I know is Basecamp built with DHH spending 10hr/week on it.
- growthexecutive 8y agoAgreed. Most startup founders I've seen "complain" about having to work 12 hour days, 6 days a week but in reality they are wasting a lot of time doing nothing and could get the same amount of work done in a 40 hour week. They then go on to complain about it but in reality they think it shows how tough they are for being able to do this.
- newscracker 8y agoYou're right. The larger question is how many productive hours people are putting in (which is not easy to measure) and what they're actively doing about reducing the number of hours by improving productivity, efficiency, automation, etc. Constant firefighting is not what any workplace should be about for a long period of time.