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My initial reaction was "these guys are crazy and have no compassion", but honestly if this is what needs to be done to make their start-up get to a necessary g

My initial reaction was "these guys are crazy and have no compassion", but honestly if this is what needs to be done to make their start-up get to a necessary goal then maybe I can come to terms with that. My biggest concern is this kind of "push hard" mindset and behavior becomes normal for them even after they are a well established business. Even worse is if this behavior is encouraged for all startups; one size does not fit all and that's something shouldn't be forgotten. I worked at Intel for a few years, "push hard" was the norm and it was ruthless - they couldn't care less about my physical or psychological well-being. That was the worst work environment I've ever worked in. I was virtually at war with my colleagues every step of the way and no matter how hard I worked or outperformed my peers, it was never enough. Terrible way to run a company.

vvanders 8y ago
Yup, and there's an actual business cost to that burnout. Turnover can be brutal and if you push your key people too hard they'll leave and/or start making more mistakes. You're also limiting your perspective to the subset of people who can swing that sort of work/life balance. There's a healthy balance to be found for sure but I much more subscribe to DHH's[1] point of view than what was presented in this article. [1] https://basecamp.com/books/calm https://basecamp.com/books/calm
- heyjudy 8y ago
  Yeap. There's only so much people can or will give without feeling used, resentful, bitter and/or bored of being overworked and told to work harder. It's also another example of why not to take on investors: their interest aren't ever aligned with the founders. Their goal is to make lots of money soon, and they don't care if they stress and burn-out 1000 people to get there. If you want sanity, move with some impatience but workaholism isn't healthy.
fatnoah 8y ago
My main complaint about the article and approach is that there was no discussion of goal setting. Ultimately, goals need to be set and teams need to figure out how to hit those goals. Goals should be aggressive and set with team input. I went through a similar experience as the article's authors. I headed our company's engineering org and my CEO wanted everyone to "work harder". I challenged her and worked with hear and the team to set some aggressive goals. I also gave them leeway to determine the best way to reach those goals. With only a few exceptions, the teams rose to the challenge.

vvanders 8y ago

Yup, and there's an actual business cost to that burnout. Turnover can be brutal and if you push your key people too hard they'll leave and/or start making more mistakes. You're also limiting your perspective to the subset of people who can swing that sort of work/life balance. There's a healthy balance to be found for sure but I much more subscribe to DHH's[1] point of view than what was presented in this article. [1] https://basecamp.com/books/calm https://basecamp.com/books/calm

heyjudy 8y ago
Yeap. There's only so much people can or will give without feeling used, resentful, bitter and/or bored of being overworked and told to work harder. It's also another example of why not to take on investors: their interest aren't ever aligned with the founders. Their goal is to make lots of money soon, and they don't care if they stress and burn-out 1000 people to get there. If you want sanity, move with some impatience but workaholism isn't healthy.

fatnoah 8y ago

My main complaint about the article and approach is that there was no discussion of goal setting. Ultimately, goals need to be set and teams need to figure out how to hit those goals. Goals should be aggressive and set with team input. I went through a similar experience as the article's authors. I headed our company's engineering org and my CEO wanted everyone to "work harder". I challenged her and worked with hear and the team to set some aggressive goals. I also gave them leeway to determine the best way to reach those goals. With only a few exceptions, the teams rose to the challenge.