5 ms·
It's not a meetup
- nanijoe 14y agoSo, let me play Devil's Advocate here. If meeting up with your co-workers in person is so enjoyable, would it not make sense to just do it every work day? ie make remote work the exception rather than the rule?
- CoachRufus87 14y agoThough I don't work for 37Signals, I don't think remote work is the rule there (hence why they have a rather nice office in Chicago).
- tptacek 14y agoThe first photo in the article suggests otherwise.
- umjames 14y agoNo. What makes it so enjoyable is that it doesn't happen every day. That makes it a special occasion. It means that when you meet your co-workers in person, the quality of the interaction is most likely higher than if you saw them 5 times a week. Take any single enjoyable thing and do it 5 times a week, every week. You'd have a law of diminishing returns situation. You'd get to a point where you no longer derive enjoyment from it and you may start to resent it.
- jmduke 14y agoTake any single enjoyable thing and do it 5 times a week, every week. You'd have a law of diminishing returns situation. You'd get to a point where you no longer derive enjoyment from it and you may start to resent it. Not to be glib, but does that apply to working from home?
- icebraining 14y agoMaybe, but remote work is not the same as working from home.
- ryguytilidie 14y agoWhy would it apply to working from home? Ones options are: -Wake up, fire up computer, start working, do whatever throughout the day, when day ends you are at home, no need for commute. OR -Wake up, get dressed, take shower, drive to train station, take train, get to work, work from desk all day, take train home, drive home, wonder what you will do for dinner since you got home so late. Which one do you think one might derive more enjoyment from and which do you think one might be more likely to resent?
- ahi 14y agoQuirky Bob becomes Annoying Bob when he's down the hall and you have to deal with him every day.
- joshmlewis 14y agoWow, do they pay for all their employees air fare + hotel to come in for a week?
- tptacek 14y agoWhy would that be surprising? It's a pretty normal thing for companies to do.
- ryguytilidie 14y agoWhile I don't think its surprising, its quite a stretch to say this is "a pretty normal thing for companies to do".
- tptacek 14y agoWe do it at my company, which is comparably sized. The location rotates between our offices. The company I was at before this one flew everyone out to a ski resort. Every year. Not even to a central office! The company before that was based in Calgary and hired most of its team from the US, all of whom spent multiple weeks in Canada every year on the company's dime. No, I think this is normal. I think a lot of things sound expensive, but the reality of operating a tech company is that nothing is as expensive as salaries, even occasional ski trips.
- obviouslygreen 14y agoHaving been your experience does not make it "normal." Clearly there are companies that do it, but there are certainly far more that can't, won't, or otherwise don't.
- tptacek 14y agoIf you think company retreats, offsites, or all-hands meetings are abnormal for tech companies, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest you're not a tech company operator.
- ph0rque 14y agoThere's 36 signals now... one hire away from living up to the company name :)