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> In the very early days of LinkedIn, our team included a bunch of people who had families. Thus, we decided to have a “have dinner with your kids” culture. Tea

> In the very early days of LinkedIn, our team included a bunch of people who had families. Thus, we decided to have a “have dinner with your kids” culture. Team members were expected to go home and have dinner with their family so they could see their kids every day. Then, after dinner, everyone was expected to get back online and work together for the rest of the evening. That did not go where I was thinking it would go...

curiousllama 6y ago
Some industries are just like that. I now Consulting companies that advertise things like this as a recruiting differentiator
- bob33212 6y ago
  Some people don't want to spend that much time with their families and choose to go into fields with others who feel the same way. Not saying these are bad people for wanting that lifestyle but it doesn't have to be that way ( see DHH and Jason Fried)
  - paulryanrogers 6y ago
    Why have families if ones goal is to minimize time with them? I suppose during the challenging seasons work may feel like an escape. But that doesn't seem like a solution so much as a work around to the root problems.
    - ceilingcorner 6y ago
      We live in a world where more = better, no matter the situation. This seems like a lack of nuance. Quantity does not always lead to quality. Personally, some of the best relationships I have with people are time-limited ones. Especially in our constantly-distracted age, where “time spent together with your family” is really “time spent watching screens together.” Better to have an hour of focused time with no distractions.
      - paulryanrogers 6y ago
        Certainly but the implication was they preferred living most of their lives away from their families. And for certain ages of children quantity may be even more important than curated, moment-to-moment quality.
        ceilingcorner 6y ago
        Maybe, but I question the idea that ambitious people shouldn’t have children if they don’t want to spend large amounts of time with them. It’s bad for society if the top performers don’t have families. It’s also not remotely the case historically, where men would be gone working for weeks or months in order to provide for their families. Instead, I’d suggest that this obsession with maximizing time is of the same cultural source as ‘helicopter parenting’ and the ‘more = better, always’ mentality of modernity.
        paulryanrogers 6y ago
        For most of history families lived and worked in the same place as farmers. Top performers aren't necessarily the ones working crazy hours.
- askafriend 6y ago
  > recruiting differentiator Words like that suck all the humanity out of business.
  - curiousllama 6y ago
    idk its easier than saying "thing that firms brag about during recruiting conversations in order to set themselves apart from other, similar companies" What's a more human way?
agumonkey 6y ago
And we called it 'conjugal visits'
pram 6y ago
We offer employees enough time to conduct one daily standup meeting their their family
draw_down 6y ago
Welcome to Silicon Valley, friend!
rsweeney21 6y ago
Please don't do this if you have kids. No amount of money is worth giving up these irreplaceable years with your children. You cannot get these moments back. You can't "make it up to them later" when you are filthy rich. If you miss teaching your kid how to ride a bike, it's gone forever. No amount of money can fill that hole. I'm speaking from experience. I did it. I worked the 80-90 hours a week getting my startup off the ground. Raised millions in VC. And I regret it terribly.
- barry-cotter 6y ago
  > I’m speaking from experience. I did it. I worked the 80-90 hours a week getting my startup off the ground. Raised millions in VC. And I regret it terribly. Plenty of people don’t. I wouldn’t do what you did but no one gets to the top of any field working 40 hours a week. The number of people managing even 100 people who work 40 hour weeks is small.
  - tuatoru 6y ago
    If getting to the top of a field is what you want to do, don't have a relationship. And especially, don't have children. Me? I'm happy to live in what Felix Salmon called a "post-work society".
    - barry-cotter 6y ago
      > If getting to the top of a field is what you want to do, don't have a relationship. And especially, don't have children. Plenty of people are quite happy to have relationships with those at the tops of their fields. I don’t feel it’s my place to tell them how to live their lives. Many people are the children of parents who worked a lot all their working lives. Most of them have good relationships with one or both of their parents and are reasonably happy with their lives in general. I don’t feel it’s my place to say they shouldn’t have been born.
      - romanoderoma 6y ago
        "A comprehensive review of studies on parents' work schedules and child development spanning the last three decades shows that parents' work schedules in evenings, nights and weekends, so called "nonstandard work schedules" or "unsociable work hours", may have negative consequences for children. When parents work such hours, children tended to have more behavioral problems, poorer cognitive ability (e.g., language, reading and mathematics), and were more likely to be overweight or obese than children in families where parents mostly worked during the daytime hours and week day. This review based on research in developed countries was conducted by a team of researchers from the US and Australia, led by Jianghong Li, a senior researcher from WZB Berlin Social Science Center. "

curiousllama 6y ago

Some industries are just like that. I now Consulting companies that advertise things like this as a recruiting differentiator

bob33212 6y ago
Some people don't want to spend that much time with their families and choose to go into fields with others who feel the same way. Not saying these are bad people for wanting that lifestyle but it doesn't have to be that way ( see DHH and Jason Fried)
- paulryanrogers 6y ago
  Why have families if ones goal is to minimize time with them? I suppose during the challenging seasons work may feel like an escape. But that doesn't seem like a solution so much as a work around to the root problems.
  - ceilingcorner 6y ago
    We live in a world where more = better, no matter the situation. This seems like a lack of nuance. Quantity does not always lead to quality. Personally, some of the best relationships I have with people are time-limited ones. Especially in our constantly-distracted age, where “time spent together with your family” is really “time spent watching screens together.” Better to have an hour of focused time with no distractions.
    - paulryanrogers 6y ago
      Certainly but the implication was they preferred living most of their lives away from their families. And for certain ages of children quantity may be even more important than curated, moment-to-moment quality.
      - ceilingcorner 6y ago
        Maybe, but I question the idea that ambitious people shouldn’t have children if they don’t want to spend large amounts of time with them. It’s bad for society if the top performers don’t have families. It’s also not remotely the case historically, where men would be gone working for weeks or months in order to provide for their families. Instead, I’d suggest that this obsession with maximizing time is of the same cultural source as ‘helicopter parenting’ and the ‘more = better, always’ mentality of modernity.
        paulryanrogers 6y ago
        For most of history families lived and worked in the same place as farmers. Top performers aren't necessarily the ones working crazy hours.
askafriend 6y ago
> recruiting differentiator Words like that suck all the humanity out of business.
- curiousllama 6y ago
  idk its easier than saying "thing that firms brag about during recruiting conversations in order to set themselves apart from other, similar companies" What's a more human way?

agumonkey 6y ago

And we called it 'conjugal visits'

pram 6y ago

We offer employees enough time to conduct one daily standup meeting their their family

draw_down 6y ago

Welcome to Silicon Valley, friend!

rsweeney21 6y ago

Please don't do this if you have kids. No amount of money is worth giving up these irreplaceable years with your children. You cannot get these moments back. You can't "make it up to them later" when you are filthy rich. If you miss teaching your kid how to ride a bike, it's gone forever. No amount of money can fill that hole. I'm speaking from experience. I did it. I worked the 80-90 hours a week getting my startup off the ground. Raised millions in VC. And I regret it terribly.

barry-cotter 6y ago
> I’m speaking from experience. I did it. I worked the 80-90 hours a week getting my startup off the ground. Raised millions in VC. And I regret it terribly. Plenty of people don’t. I wouldn’t do what you did but no one gets to the top of any field working 40 hours a week. The number of people managing even 100 people who work 40 hour weeks is small.
- tuatoru 6y ago
  If getting to the top of a field is what you want to do, don't have a relationship. And especially, don't have children. Me? I'm happy to live in what Felix Salmon called a "post-work society".
  - barry-cotter 6y ago
    > If getting to the top of a field is what you want to do, don't have a relationship. And especially, don't have children. Plenty of people are quite happy to have relationships with those at the tops of their fields. I don’t feel it’s my place to tell them how to live their lives. Many people are the children of parents who worked a lot all their working lives. Most of them have good relationships with one or both of their parents and are reasonably happy with their lives in general. I don’t feel it’s my place to say they shouldn’t have been born.
    - romanoderoma 6y ago
      "A comprehensive review of studies on parents' work schedules and child development spanning the last three decades shows that parents' work schedules in evenings, nights and weekends, so called "nonstandard work schedules" or "unsociable work hours", may have negative consequences for children. When parents work such hours, children tended to have more behavioral problems, poorer cognitive ability (e.g., language, reading and mathematics), and were more likely to be overweight or obese than children in families where parents mostly worked during the daytime hours and week day. This review based on research in developed countries was conducted by a team of researchers from the US and Australia, led by Jianghong Li, a senior researcher from WZB Berlin Social Science Center. "