4 ms·

So basically you want all the upside of a startup without putting in any of the hard work/long hours required to make it a success? As harsh as this may sound,

by n9com 14y ago

So basically you want all the upside of a startup without putting in any of the hard work/long hours required to make it a success? As harsh as this may sound, working at a startup is often chaotic, if you can't deal with high pressure, it is probably best if you go back to being a cog at a BigCo.

thrwwy20120508 14y ago
I'm not saying that I can't handle pressure, but I firmly believe that just calling yourself a startup does not give you latitude to overwork your employees. It is now 6:45 pm and there are only 12 people in our office. We have 65 people that work here in Seattle. This is totally unacceptable. This company has far too much very important work to do to have virtually empty offices at 6:45 pm. If anyone thinks that everything we need to do as a company can be accomplished within an 8 hour day, then I think they fail to understand the scope and complexity of our venture. Anyone harboring such illusions should seriously consider a career change. I am sure that I could point to tasks for every single person in this company that would merit working past 7 pm every single night. ... This is not a bank; this is not Boeing. This is a start-up and we are all expecting to be rewarded for taking the risk of a start-up. But, there will be no rewards without exceptional effort. Given the severity of the situation, I am putting strict office hours into effect immediately. Until further notice, all employees are required to be at their desk from 8am until 7pm, with 30 minutes for lunch. There are no exceptions. -- excerpted from email from MyLackey (http://web.archive.org/web/20070318005206/http://www.fuckedcompany.com/extras/mylackey_letter.cfm http://web.archive.org/web/20070318005206/http://www.fuckedc...) Sadly, I fear that situations like this are not an exceptional case in startup-land.
- n9com 14y ago
  Perhaps that's the case at some startups, but my own and several others I know of are very flexible. Work the hours you want, from where you want. It's more about what you get done rather than how many hours you work. Someone smart can probably get twice as much done in the same time. However, sometimes critical situations arise whereby you may need to work a few more hours or on a saturday. If you flat out refuse to do this, then it would come across that you don't care about the startup's success. These critical situations are rare and often members of a startup will be more than happy to pitch in to solve something quickly when it goes wrong. When you have a consumer facing product used by hundreds of thousands of people, you can't really wait till Monday when things break on a Friday night. Every hour counts. My friends at investment banks often work 18 hour days and have a terrible lifestyle/hate their job compared to people I know working at startups. I'm sure there are great BigCos and startups to work for, like everything in life, there is a good and a bad side.

by n9com 14y ago

thrwwy20120508 14y ago

I'm not saying that I can't handle pressure, but I firmly believe that just calling yourself a startup does not give you latitude to overwork your employees. It is now 6:45 pm and there are only 12 people in our office. We have 65 people that work here in Seattle. This is totally unacceptable. This company has far too much very important work to do to have virtually empty offices at 6:45 pm. If anyone thinks that everything we need to do as a company can be accomplished within an 8 hour day, then I think they fail to understand the scope and complexity of our venture. Anyone harboring such illusions should seriously consider a career change. I am sure that I could point to tasks for every single person in this company that would merit working past 7 pm every single night. ... This is not a bank; this is not Boeing. This is a start-up and we are all expecting to be rewarded for taking the risk of a start-up. But, there will be no rewards without exceptional effort. Given the severity of the situation, I am putting strict office hours into effect immediately. Until further notice, all employees are required to be at their desk from 8am until 7pm, with 30 minutes for lunch. There are no exceptions. -- excerpted from email from MyLackey (http://web.archive.org/web/20070318005206/http://www.fuckedcompany.com/extras/mylackey_letter.cfm http://web.archive.org/web/20070318005206/http://www.fuckedc...) Sadly, I fear that situations like this are not an exceptional case in startup-land.

n9com 14y ago
Perhaps that's the case at some startups, but my own and several others I know of are very flexible. Work the hours you want, from where you want. It's more about what you get done rather than how many hours you work. Someone smart can probably get twice as much done in the same time. However, sometimes critical situations arise whereby you may need to work a few more hours or on a saturday. If you flat out refuse to do this, then it would come across that you don't care about the startup's success. These critical situations are rare and often members of a startup will be more than happy to pitch in to solve something quickly when it goes wrong. When you have a consumer facing product used by hundreds of thousands of people, you can't really wait till Monday when things break on a Friday night. Every hour counts. My friends at investment banks often work 18 hour days and have a terrible lifestyle/hate their job compared to people I know working at startups. I'm sure there are great BigCos and startups to work for, like everything in life, there is a good and a bad side.